And speaking as someone who literally read the first book this last weekend (it went down easy enough in a few hours. It’s entertaining, with some satisfyingly disturbing moments, would have loved it a decade ago), I also reveled in the good old fashioned railing against the state. But I also wondered if the books/movie were any more overtly libertarian than any other dystopian tale. Plenty of left and right folks are quite keen on throwing off shackles and putting on different chains in just their size. Critiquing one government is, to most people, probably not critiquing all governments or the nature of government period.

But then we have to ask, so what if it’s not libertarian on purpose? I delight in seeing any strongly anti-government characters or acts portrayed in fiction, from Firefly to Parks and Recreation to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. But the most famous skewering of oppressive government, the book that gave us “Orwellian,” “doublespeak,” “Big Brother” and other words now about as overused as Hitler comparisons, was written by old George “democratic socialist” Orwell. Maybe it doesn’t matter the creator’s intention if disturbing truths about the nature of the state can be sussed out and inferred from the art. And if it’s as popular as The Hunger Games, so much the better.