Hunger Games, Blood Sport, and Technology

My, my, I have been a poor correspondent.
Well, to *be* a correspondent, one must have someone with whom to correspond, eh?

Anyhow, I have been giving a lot of thought of late to the trilogy of books that begins with The Hunger Games, and how that post-apocalyptic world is really quite frightening. The Games are computer-designed and managed by people who crave blood sport, but who are too removed both emotionally and physically to be really affected by the outcome. This, to me, is the ultimate end of technology, if it remains unchecked and untempered by humane behavior. We see too often young people who are psychologically and physiologically affected by too much computer gaming, who are callous in their disregard for each other by texting, online "chat," and other forms of social media, and the result is a desensitized generation(s) of disconnected individuals who have little real interaction with other people, and who have learned disembodied violence from a very young age, and consider it "relaxing" and fun.

The Romans had the Colosseum, and today's world has...cyberspace. I don't think that the "odds will ever be in [our] favor."