Dr. Shibley Telhami on the Arab Spring and my relation of it the Hunger Games

               One particularly interesting point of Dr. Shibley Telhami's lecture on the Arab Spring was the topic of a dictator's relationship to his people. In most Western or free world thinking, people assume that a dictator operates in a vacuum. He does not need to worry himself with public opinion, because he is a dictator, he does whatever he wants. Dr Telhami's example was President Sadat of Eqypt. He was a dictator, but in his negotations with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin he made it clear he could not give in to certain demands because his people would revolt. Prime Minister Begin thought as most do and questioned why he could not just ignore public opinion. The fact that he could not do that is blatantly clear as his unpopular treaty with Israel resulted in Sadat's assassination. The truth of that situation parallels in the Hunger Games. Even though President Snow is a dictator, he still must keep control of the Districts. He cannot do anything that would incite all of them at once, because the Capitol relies upon their goods, and if the Districts band together they are more powerful than the Capitol alone. Therefore he must maintain a balance, and cannot act as if his decisions have not consequences.

               Another topic in his lecture was that one of the causes of the Arab Spring was the loss of the governmental monopoly on information. Most people in the Arab world now receive their news from outside sources instead of state run news agencies. This switch caused people to become dissatisfied now that they knew what others had, and thus revolutions began. This is much the same in Hunger Games. Once the Rebels started hijacking broadcasts, the Districts started banding together and fighting the Capitol. The loss of information monopoly caused the real rebellion.