Fogerty v Fantasy Lawsuit

When John Fogerty left the Credence Clearwater Revival, he unwisely sold the rights to several of his songs to Saul Zaeantz and started his own career. Fogerty then released a song called "The Old Man Down the Road". Zaeantz apparently thought the song was too similar to Fogerty's earlier song "Run thru the Jungle", which Zaeantz owned the rights to. Zaeantz then literally sued Fogerty for plagiarizing himself. Fogerty won the lawsuit, but the legal troubles with Zaeantz were just getting started. Fogerty then released a hate song towards Zaeantz called "Zanz Kant Danz", which Zaeantz sued Fogerty AGAIN. This time for deformation charges, and Fogerty was forced to change the name of the song "Vanz Kant Danz".

Comparisons of Warriors and Real-World Violence among Tribal Socities

Erin Hunter's Warriors has some comparisons to real world tribal societies. For example, the source of much conflict among the Clans in the Warriors series is caused by border disputes/or trespasses of territory between rival clans. Several tribal societies like various aboriginal bands in Australia, have conflicts over border disputes. In Warriors most incidents are one cat intrudes the territory of another clan, the warriors from the other clan will often escort the intruder out of their territory. The Australian Aborigines will often just kill the intruder [Otterbein 1996], with in retaliation the intruder's family will have a counter raid on the victim's murder's tribe (more on that latter). However, one key difference between the Warriors clans and the real world Tribal Cultures is the lack of feuding among the Warrior Clans. Fueding in real life is almost an epidemic in many extremely diverse cultures such as the Jivaro, various Papua New Guinea tribes [Keeley 1997], the Montenegrins [Boehm 1985], the Pashutans [Boot 2013], Tawianese Aborigines [Heath 1998] and among many other tribes. One Pashutan mentioned that "I killed 9 Taijks [they were of the same family] because they insulted my wife. I only lost my brother to them" as the man continued to boast. This attitude reflects the blood feuds in those tribes. To give a more clear example of those feuds, lets just say a tribesman#1 from village A kills tribesman#2, another man from village B just because he insulted him. Tribesman#3, the victim's brother, seeking vengeance kills tribesman#2's killer. Tribesman#1's son, tribesman#4 also seeking vengeance kills tribesman#3. This leads to murder and counter murder that leads to the destruction of many tribal groups, they as in the words of Edegerton's work "Sick Societies", maladaptive societies doomed to self destruction. Another unique think thing about the Warriors societies, is that male and female cats virtually have the same role in their culture. Both male and female cats share combat roles and leadership roles. Most real-world tribal cultures like that of the Yanomami are quite misogynist, and often have feuds based of abduction of women. In the Yanomami tribe, wives are often beaten and abused by their husbands. Another misogynist tribe is the Tasmanian Aborigines. The Tasmanians often force their wives into dangerous tasks like hunting and gathering, trade them for dogs with the Europeans, force them to abduct over women, beat them etc. [Edegerton 1992]. Genocidal attacks on rival clan in the warriors series is extremely rare (it only happened once in the series when Shadowclan under Brookenstar's regime attacked Windclan and displaced them), when in several Papua New Guinea and Polynesian chiefdoms have been known to have genocidal massacres of rival tribes, indiscriminately killing men, women and children [Keeley 1997, Clunie 2003, Diamond 1997, Davie 2012]. So all in all, Warriors is much sugarcoated version of real-world non-state societies. 

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was a war waged by the young Westernized Japan against Tsarist Russia. Japan won one-sided naval battles like the Battle of Tsushima against the Russians (the Russians lost almost their whole fleet while the Japanese lost a mere 3 torpedo boats). The war was fought with bayonet charges, artillery, machine-guns, trenches, almost a foreshadow of WW1, which happened just 10 years latter. Another foreshadow is Japan's quick rise to conquer several parts of Asia during WW2. The Russo Japanese War ended in Japanese victory with the Treaty of Portsmouth. Russia was forced to abandon its expansionist polices, but Japanese citizens were outraged by the Japanese government's willingness to negotiate with the West. This caused major riots in Japan. The defeat of an European by an Asian power was one to shock the Western World.

Green Armies

The Green Armies are peasant armies that warred against the White factions and the Bolsheviks simultaneously. They had very poor disorganization and they were of a localized nature. This made it easier for the Bolsheviks to war against them. Despite Bolshevik propaganda of the Greens being White collaborators, the Green Armies fought the Whites as much as the fought the Bolsheviks. The Green Armies often tortured Bolshevik officials and their families. I have found no pictures of any of such armies, but it might be because they warred in isolate area that were out of bounds to journalists.

The Beast of Gevaudan

The Beast of Gevaudan was an unidentified creature that is believed to have killed c.100+ people in a 3 year span in France. The descriptions of the Beast(s) are incredibly contradictory, with accounts of the beast walking on 2 legs, resembling hyenas, resembling wolfs, and even resembling boars. Most scholars think that their are at least 2 animals involved in the killings. Several of the victims have decapitated (wolves are incapable of decapitation due to their biting power, while Hyenas are most capable of doing that). The beast(s) have an unusual preference for human flesh, with accounts stating that the beast(s) even attack the Sheppard and totally ignore the sheep in the field. The king sent his hunters and even his army to hunt the beast. One hunter shot an unusually large wolf-dog hybrid and the killings stopped....for a few months. The killing soon resumed when another creature stared another reign of terror. The 2nd creature was shot by some peasant. The body of the creature was soon sent to the king, but the king was disgusted by the smell of the corpse. The corpse was then buried in an unknown location. Several explanations have been offered from a human serial killer, werewolf, hyena, and the man that shot the second beast somehow trained the monster into killing. In my personal opinion, the beasts are actually 2 creatures that are separate species with purely coincidental killing sprees. The 1st beast was to my opinion a wolf-dog hybrid while the 2nd one was an escaped hyena.

Hussite War Hymn

This is one of the Hussite War hymns "Ye Who Are Warriors of God" often sang on the battlefield by the Hussite. The Hussites sang it with such ferocity that it installed fear into the crusaders. This is the translated lyrics (translated from Czech into English) to the song (it is copied and pasted from Wikipedia).

Ye who are God's warriors and of his law,

Pray to God for help and have faith in Him;

That always with Him you will be victorious.

Christ is worth all your sacrifices, He will pay you back an hundredfold.

If you give up your life for Him you will receive eternal life.

Happy is he who believes this truth.

The Lord commandeth you not to fear bodily harm,

And commandeth you to even put your life down for the love of your brothers.

Therefore, archers, crossbowmen, halberdiers of knightly rank,

Scythemen and macebearers from all walks of life,

Remember always the Lord benevolent.

Do not fear your enemies, nor gaze upon their number,

Keep the Lord in your hearts; for Him fight on,

And before enemies you need not flee.

Since ages past Czechs have said and had proverbs which state,

That if the leader is good, so too is the journey

 

 Remember all of you the password which was given out.

Obey your captains and guard one another.

Stay sharp and everyone keep formation.

You beggars and wrongdoers, remember your soul!

For greed and theft don't lose your life.

And pay no heed to the spoils of war.

And with this happily cry out - saying, "At thee! Have at thee!"

Savour the weapon in your hands and shout, "God is our Lord!"

Lame Motivations for Murder

On Crimelibrary website on cases of ridiculous reasons for suicide and murder
1. One 19 year old guy light himself on fire because of some fight with his sister over cereal.
2. Some drug dealer gunned down one of his customers over $5.
3. A 39 year old man murdered his mother over concert tickets.
4. A 19 year old man pushed his girlfriend over 12 stories to her death over chopsticks.
5. A 13 year old boy shot his older 17 year old sister in the face over the remote control.
6. A software engineer got in an argument with his colleague when he bumped into him and made him drop his Chicken Tikka. His colleague shot him dead.
7. One man got in a fight over a parking spot with a police officer, and he killed the cop with a chunk of concentrate.
8. A 33 year old man shot 3 brothers because they stole his xbox.
9. A 70 year old man shot a 23 year old for allowing his dog to pee on his grass.
10. A 14 year old boy stabbed his twin brother over chewing gum.
So in your ranking, what is the most ridiculous of all incidents?

Hussite Wars

The Hussite Wars occurred when popular but controversial priest Jan Hus was executed. His followers were outraged enough to defenestrate (throw out the window) 7 members of the city council. Then the followers organized themselves into armies called Hussites. The Hussite armies used unique tactics agonist the Catholic Crusaders in the form of War Wagons (which this link to a diagram of such formations to visualize them). However, the Hussites dissolved into infighting among moderate and radical factions. Eventually, the radical factions of the Hussites were defeated.

Japanese Invasion of Korea (1592-1598)

The Japanese Invasion of Korea was sparked when Korea refused Japan's entrance into Korea. Japan intended to invade China thru Korea if the Korean government cooperated. In retaliation, Japan invaded Korea. At 1st, the Japanese had great success overwhelming the local Korean Armies. However, the Koreans resorted to guerrilla warfare and for obvious reasons the Ming Chinese got involved. The Japanese lost almost all engagements at sea, and after using too much manpower and materials, the Japanese gave up their repeated invasions.

Juggalos

The Juggalos originated from fans of some Horror Rap band called the Insane Clown Posse. Fans of that band stated to get involved in various violent and criminal activities such as assault, murder, drug trafficking, extortion (etc.). Several of them starting to even form gang like organizations, often clashing with gangs like the infamous MS-13. To the shock of the band, their fans were labeled as gangs due to their gang like activity. The band sued the FBI for the labellings of their fans as gangs. The Insane Clown Posse lost the suit against the FBI. At 1st the Insane Clown Posse welcomed the brand hoping for a tougher image, but association with gangs lead to their non-violent fans being hassled by the police, kicked out of businesses, and targeted by rival gangs of their violent counterparts. The Juggalo gangs prefer bladed melee weapons like axes and knifes to commit gruesome murders.

Landsknecht

The Landsknechts were notorious mercenaries in the age of Renaissance. They were known to be as violent as their clothing is flamboyant. They switch sides on a nonpaying employer if the employer is lucky. If the unfaithful employer is unlucky, the Landsknechts have been known to sack their unfaithful employer's city until their pays them as much as they want as in the case of the Sack of Rome of 1527. The Sacking of Rome of 1527 killed 50,000 civilians. The Landsknechts also were prone to have drunken and more often then not, fatal fights amongst themselves Regeardless of the flaws, they were much sought after by many European armies of the day due to their legendary fighting skills. They contributed in crushing peasant revolts and winning key battles like the Battle of Pavia in the Italian Wars for the Emperor Charles V.

Existence of the Free Syrian Army

According to this thought provoking article, the Free Syrian Army that is so popular among the media does not even exist. It is just a brand-name for a bunch of Syrian Rebel groups. The Syrian opposition is just like the term "Christianity". Like Christianity, which has thousands of sects, the Syrian Rebel groups have thousands of factions. Also like Christianity which has hundreds of churches that call themselves Protestants (like Western Protestant Church and Jesus' True Protestant Church), even thorough all those Protestant have nothing to do with each-over except that they share the same name. Syrian Rebel Groups are the same way, with dozens of factions that call themselves "Free Syrian Army" even-though they have no connections (and some of the "Free Syrian Army" factions might be fighting other "Free Syrian Army" factions) with each-over. Also, "Moderate Syrian Rebels" is an oxymoron, since most of the rebels are actually part of diehard jihadist factions such as al-Nursa and most famously the Islamic State. Currently, most of the "moderate" factions all but defected to hardcore radical groups like the ones mentioned above. In fact I have read few articles that said that  "moderate" rebels actually sold Steven Stoloff to the Islamic State. So maybe arming the "Free Syrian Army" like Obama wants is not a good idea after all....

Iceman Universe

This is my own fictional history that I did in my freshman year of high school.

 Nopesti Ihmest (5,000-2,900 BC)

ethnic/general appearance; This group of agricultural tribes is of Germanic origin, but some historians suggest some Mycenaean mix in there. Most accounts suggest they tended to be white skinned and fairly large for people at that time. Based on genetic studies, males have a tendency to have blond hair with greenish-brownish eyes and almost all breaded, while woman brown hair and bluish-amber eyes. Men are 5’4-6’, while women are  4’11-5’3. Boys are tattooed after the Mies Test.

religious beliefs; Strange for this period of time, they have a monotheistic religion similar to modern Abrahamic religions today. The god Luojon, is believed to have created man after he created himself, his mortal wife, and his immortal brother. He then created earth within 14 days with his dried up tears of blood for the slaying of his mortal wife Jumalatar by his evil brother Demoni, which has mysterious resemblance with the Abrahamic devil. After his creation of earth, Luojon put Demoni in the vankila, or a prison beyond existence. But unfortunately, the prison is only temporary. In order to imprison Demoni for good, the tribe shaman has to make sacrifices (animal, human, etc.) to Luojon, and all the tribes have to be righteous and good. If Demoni starts to escape, wars happen on the tribes, increase rise of animal attacks, crops and animals die, disease happen (etc.). War is commonly used to please Luojon. Bodies are buried because they can go to hyva taives (heaven), instead of vankila.

population estimate; 100,000-500,000 people at peak

language; they have an Indo-European language similar to modern Finnish

warfare; warfare is often used in religious use to get women for the chieftain’s harem, animals to sacrifice, and crops to grow, and in more justifiable cases to modern eyes, self defense. In the summertime, the warriors would fight shirtless or even naked like the celts several thousand years later, but during the wintertime, they fight with animal skins on them, resembling some modern stereotypes of cavemen. Single combat is common among other Nopesti tribes, but would fight all out battles against other tribes. Nopesti Tribes would form alliances among other Nopesti tribes or other local to protect themselves from invading rival tribes like the Lyson Gason (called the Musta Henkilo by the Nopesti) and the Singa Pira (called Leijona Miehit by the Nopesti). Boys as young as 14 in warfare are very common. Common weapons are axes, clubs, spears, proto swords, and bows and arrows. 45-70% of all deaths are war related.

culture; herding animals like sheep is most common source of food, but agriculture and hunting is also a common source of food. Men and boys often double as shepherds or farmers with being a warrior. In a test for manhood (Mies Testi), 13 year old boys must march 20 miles and back to the northern mountains and back. They must kill 26 birds, 19 chipmunks, and 5 deer, with arrows on the way or they get banished from the tribe. 1 in every 5 boys make it alive.They get a wife if they kill a wolf or any dangerous animals. Girls are celebrated when they enter puberty, and marry older men or boys approx same age. Cowardness is a crime punishable by banishment or death. Nighttime or the darkness is a place for evil, so they don’t do anything during night time and out at all cost stay out of caves. naming system is based off of the local names of animal, ie Lyon Manji (wolfman), Chen Touye (lion hunt) (etc.).

homes; Nopetis often live in permanent villages. Some evidence shows that living in caves was somewhat common despite the fact that caves are considered taboo. Historians and anthropologist suggest that it could just a case of refugees from a war or boys that failed the Mies Testi.

cause for disappearance; unknown. Some theories suggest competition and interbreeding with the mycenaeans and other tribes caused their disappearance.

2. Lyson Gason (6,000-1,000 BC)

ethnic/personal appearance; a group of  hunter-gatherer tribes from East Africa. DNA tests show that they came from the congolese area, but it baffles scientists on how they got to Italy. Men wear their brown hair with dreadlocks for the honor of the god Kreyate Bondye, while women wear theirs very short. Men are often most 6’ tall and some fragmentary remains are estimated to be 8’ tall, while women are about 5’-5.4’ tall. Women often have brownish-yellowish eyes, while with men greenish-blueish eyes. Some evidence of interbreeding with the surrounding tribes is the men sometimes have breads like Nopesti (they call them Blon Nonm), and some woman have hazel-gray eyes of the Singas (they call then Jon Imen). Both sexes are tattooed.

religious beliefs; they have a polytheistic religion with thousands of animistic gods called Betts and a single dominant god. The dominant and immortal creator god Kreyate Bondye created the world and then the thousands of animistic gods to help him rule it.

Betts can and repeatedly have, died. Frequent godly conflicts are started by the Bet of wolves and war Lage Low, which kills several gods and causes famines, war, disease (etc.) among men. In order to to stop this, the tribes sacrifices a maiden, often a kidnapped Nopesti to the war god as a wife.  This practice causes frequent warfare among those two groups. The heaven Dla for a righteous person, if not the person is reincarnated to try again. Betts when they die, they die for good.

population estimates; 90,000-600,000 people at peak

language; language strongly resembles Haitian Creole, but is unrelated. This again baffles scientists so much that they even don’t have a theory.

warfare;  war is a very huge part of Lyson society in the form of frequent raids against rival Lysons, Singas, and Nopesti tribes. Most common motives are food, women, self defense, to get rid of competition (etc.). Calls to one-on-one-combat is mostly used in intertribal relations against rival fellow tribesmen. Tribes have been known to form large armies (some fanciful accounts suggest numbers as high as 200,000) against a common threat along with or against Singas and Nopestis, mostly against the citystate of Linnriik. Common weapons included throwing spears, clubs, stabbing spears, shields traded from the Singas for the more sophisticated Lyson tribes, and knifes. Boys receive combat training at age 5, but fortunately  is soft at first, but gradually gets harder as the child gets older. At age 14, the boy goes on his first raid. If he kills an enemy, he gets a wife. 50-95% of all deaths are war related.

culture; they hunt for animal prey and pick among the fruit for a living. They wander the warmer parts of italian mountains searching for a good food source, which very often  gets them into conflict with the local tribes or city states. The first test boyhood from manhood is to live alone in the wilderness to fend for themselves form a month, the second test is to go on an actual raid. If he kills an enemy warrior, he becomes a Gergye (warrior). Considered Taboo to kill an animal and not eat it. Children are often named after the father’s favorite bet. Some example include Jhn (deer god), dife (fire god) (etc.).

homes; they have no permanent houses or even tents, so they camp outside during the summertime, and sleep in caves during the winter time. Often wear no clothes during summer, but wear animal skins in winter time. Move camp location day by day during summer, and move to cave by cave in winter time.

cause for disappearance;  the cause for Lyson disappearance is much debated, but common theories include climate change, lack of food, genocide, maybe interbreeding with local tribes.

3. Singa Pira (4,900-2,500 BC)

ethnic/personal appearance; This group of steppe nomadic tribes are related to the much later Huns. Men have ritualistic scarring on right cheek for a test of warriorhood and women don’t have any scarring at all. Men have short breads, some of them have western breads which is a sigh of interbreeding with Westerners. Men are about 4’6-4’11, while women are about 4’4-4’5 feet tall. Women have hazel grey eyes, while men have grey-brown eyes.

religious beliefs; their religion is a monotheistic religion. The wolf Pencipta creates the world out of the Samudra, ocean of nothingness, and then the people spirits. His brother Serigala gets jealous about all the attention his brother gets. So he then gets some of his brothers spirits and gets them to rebel against his brother, causing the first war. The battle sends the spirits killed in the battle to the earth, causing the first births on earth. The battle still continues, and it will forever. People that die go and join the spirit battle. Those who die in the spirit battle go to earth as a new person, and the cycle continues...

language; somehow this steppe tribe has a Indonesian style language. Historians, linguistic, anthropologists (etc.) are very baffled by this. No theory can explain this fully, but it is possible that they had contact with the pre-Indonesian people before their arrival at Europe at about 4,900 BC.

population estimate; 120,000-900,000 at peak

warfare; Like all tribes in this area, warfare is a very large part of society. Of all these 3 tribes mentioned, this tribe has the most organized military. They often would pay tribesmen of the other tribes (with promises of horses, land, women etc.), often the Nopesti (they called them the Rumput Orang) or the Lyson (they called them the Hitam Suku) to fight alongside them. Most common cause of war is for land for sheep and horses, conquer other tribes, and to get more people (the latter is the most common against other Pria tribes). Favorite military tactic is the feigned retreat, pretending to retreat to hills, the rain arrows in pursuing enemies. Common weapons are the bow and arrow, rope, club, proto swords, and shields. At age 14 is when the average warrior goes on his first raid. 40-80% of all deaths are war related.

culture; As you would expect, the horse is very important to this culture. In fact, they sleep on the horse, eat on the horse, work on the horse, according to some rather bizarre accounts, they even do their natural instincts and give birth on the horse. In a test for manhood, Boys at age 13 would go on their horse and go hunting on their own for a bear or lion. Then they go and have savage, but not fatal charging and wrestling contests, at last but not least, the boy must go 5 miles to dodge 20 local tribesmen. If they pass these tests, they become Prajurit or warrior. As stated above, at age 14 is when the average warrior goes on his first raid or battle.

homes; they don’t sleep in any permanent homes or anything else, but as mentioned above, they just sleep on their horses. They move place to place, looking for grass for sheep and horses. During the winter time, they migrate to  the more warmer parts of the mountain, which like the Lyson, they often get into fights with the local tribes.

cause for disappearance; unknown, but most possible cause is that competition with rival tribes plus climate change which helped cause the disappearance of the Singas.

Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was one of the most infamous colonies in the history of European colonization. It was a private colonial venture by King Leopold in order to exploit Rubber in the region. The Congo Free State was effectively a slave society that warred against other slave societies like the Congo Arabs. In the Congo Free State, "workers" (slaves) could be flogged to death or have their arms amputated if they did not meet criteria. The Native troops (Askari) used their power of their authority to take sexual advantage of women. One account states "The Askari would put a bullet on a women's door as a way to ask for an invitation. If the women did not accept the invitation, the bullet one her door would be used to kill her". Also, the white officers ordered a served hand for every bullet fired by the Askaris. So the Askaris often raided villages to amputate hands just to lie to their officers that they didn't waste a bullet. The estimated death toll of the Congo Free State is 10 million.

Shining Path

The Shining Path was a communist (Maoist more specifically) rebel group in Peru. They were a highly predatory non-state group that preyed upon the civilian population. This link of a preview of a graphic novel is a great but graphic demonstration of the group. Making matters worse for the civilian population, the government forces that the Shining Path opposes also uses terror to crush its dissidents. So this turns the Peru Civil War into a tit for tat atrocity conflict between the government and the Shining Path. Shining Path is responsible for 45% of the atrocities, the government responsible for 50%, and the remaining 5% perpetuated by smaller rebel groups like the MRTA or the perpetrators are unknown. Like FARC of Colombia, the Shining Path has increasingly turned to the drug trade for revenue. Also like FARC, the Shining Path still exists, but it is too weak currently to be of any real threat to the government of Peru.

Nuer White Army

This fighter has a lot of Western clothing like jeans, shoes, and glasses. This hints that the Nuer tribe has strong Western influences in their current culture.

This individual's weapon, the spear reflects the tribal nature of the Nuer White Army. However, this individual is wearing western clothing.

Again this guy is wearing a combination of western clothing with traditional influences.

Like all the other fighters in this post, he is wearing western clothing with a tribalized manner. His weapon appears to be a Kalashnikov with its magazine tapped "jungle style"

This particular individual might me a commander. His officer gear might have been stolen from the SPLA.

Again, red headbands, western clothing with traditional influences, and some military fatigues.

One of the more well equipped fighters in the militia. Notice the prevalence of red headbands among this fighters. Must be some tribal indication or something.

Again, this individual might be wearing uniforms captured from the SPLA. However, the Sudanese government might be supplying these fighters with uniforms to a small extent. But evidence to the contrary is that if that were the case, uniformity most likely be more prevalent in this fighters and such uniformity doesn't exist.

Red headbands on this fighters hat. It is very interesting about the prevalence of red headbands on several of these fighters in these depictions of White Neur Army fighters. This individual is wearing a bandolier.

This guy might have captured military fatigues from the corpses of SPLA government troops. The red headband on his head. Interesting. One must wonder on the significance of the prevalence of red headbands on Nuer White Army fighters.

These depictions are interesting because they show the contradictory influences of traditional and western cultures on these fighters.

Major Conflicts that Started on Protests

Several conflicts in the 2000s like Libya, Ukraine, and Syria have started on major protests.
I will focus on these conflicts in this post individually.

1. Libya; The Libyan Civil War was one of the conflicts sparked by the Arab Spring of 2011. Several protests influenced by the Arab Spring occurred in Libya against the Gaddafi regime. The Gaddafi regime started a major and violent crackdown on the protests, thus sparking the Libyan Civil War. The protesters organized themselves into rebel militias, and warred against the Gaddafi regime. Gaddafi was doomed when several of his military deserted to the various rebel factions, doubled with NATO's bombings, the Gaddafi regime soon fell. Gaddafi himself was violently assassinated by the rebels. However, the various rebel militias were highly factional, leading to inter-factional fighting among the various rebel groups continued even after the fall of Gaddafi. In 2014, the infighting soon escalated into another civil war in Libya.
2. Ukraine; A movement in Ukraine called Euromaiden demanded that Ukraine joined the European Union and the impeachment of Yankukovych government. Euromaiden sparked several violent riots in Ukraine. Soon this lead to Russia's takeover of Crimea, and another more dangerous movement in Ukraine arose to counter the Euromaiden. The movement was labeled "the Pro Russian protests" by the Media. The "Pro-Russian protesters" were heavily armed with military fatigues and assault rifles. The "protesters" soon evolved into actual insurgent groups that created their own breakaway states called the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic. The Pro-Russian movement turned into a civil war within East Ukraine.
3. Syria; The Syrian Civil War was another one of the Arab Spring conflicts. Bahar al-Assad's regime suffered several protest movements against him.  Assad responded with an iron fist, and like in Libya, the protesters soon took to arms and armed non-state groups evolved. However, infighting, lack of organization and coordination among the opposition movements, and involvement of diehard Jihadists factions like al-Nursa and the Islamic State soon blurred the opposition movement's agenda and the "Syrian Revolution" thing was discarded. In 2013, the Islamic State invaded Syria from Iraq and started attacking Syrian Government forces and the native insurgent groups alike. Islamic State's involvement caused the already bad infighting among the rebel groups to escalate more.

Caucasian Wars

The Russian Conquest of the Caucasian Mountains was a slow process due to the militant Islamic tribes that inhabited the Caucasian Mountains. Their were several wars against the militant tribes, the most notable leader of the tribes that resisted the Russians was a chief named Imam Shamli. One source even described that he whipped his own mother for suggesting surrender to the Russians. Shamli had outstanding success in the early phases of his campaigns, Wikipedia described his success as "capturing every single Russian post except one in Avia". He was eventually captured and exiled by the Russians. The Russians then deported hundreds of thousands of the Indigenous Caucasian tribesmen, causing thousands of their deaths.

Aceh War

The Aceh War started in a dispute the Aceh Sultanate and the Dutch government. What resulted was a bloody guerrilla war when the Acehnese Muslims declared Jihad against the Dutch Colonial government. Aceh remained independent for 30 years until 1914. This was one of Dutch's most bloodiest colonial wars with heavy casualties among the Dutch and the Aceh alike.

War of the 2 Brothers or the Incan Civil War

The Incan Civil War or the War of the 2 Brothers started when 2 rival half brothers (hence the name of the war) Hauscar and Atahualpa had a power-strugle over the control of the empire. The resulting power-strugle ended in the splintering of the Incan Empire into 2 factions, each lead by one of the brothers. One tribe the Canari supported Hauscar's faction, thus in retaliation, Atahualpa's faction had genocidal purges against the Canaris. The Incan Civil War lead to the Incan Empire weakened to Spanish Conquistador conquest. Eventually, Atahualpa had Hauscar killed in order for the Spanish to chose him.

Non State Organization Based on Appearance of Fighters Part 2 ISIS

The appearance of these Islamic State (ISIS) fighters contrast with stereotypes of Muslim fundamentalists. ISIS seems to be a well organized militia, since its fighters seem to be well uniformed according to these pictorial sources. ISIS is even equipped with tanks (something unexpected in non-state groups) captured from the Iraqi army. ISIS seems to have the resources to equip its fighters with uniforms.

ISIS militants seem to be well funded and organized enough to capture substantiate territory in both Iraq and Syria, while with most non-state groups have hardly the capabilities to even hold small amounts of territory.

ISIS contrasts strongly against ULIMO-J's loosely uniformed and organized "army". The Islamic State is so well organized that it is virtually a proto-country.

Non-State Organization Based on Appearances of Fighters Part 1 ULIMO-J

Loosely organized non-state militias often can't afford to equip their fighters with any sort of uniform, they often resort to using captured uniforms, light civilian clothing such as tank tops or t-shirts, or in extreme cases as seen in some of the photos in this post, no clothing at all.

As seen in these photos, ULIMO-J is a very factionlised militia with consent powerstrugles, with its fighters frequently disobeying orders from the main group and just do their own thing like loot. Plus the power-struggles within the militia prevents the militia from focusing on equipping its fighters.

This fighters most likely belong to Joshua Boyhli's "Butt Naked" Brigade. They are also poorly armed with just small arms and machetes. ULIMO-J lacks the organization necessary for equipping its fighters with weapons. The berets worn by these fighters might have been captured from ECOMOG.

Disciplined organizational structures are necessary for eliminating power-struggles within the faction. So that is why infighting is so common throughout all non-state militias around the world from RCD of the DRC to the LTTE of Sri Lanka. That is why State Armies like the American USMC is so well equipped is that its magnificent and disciplined organization prevents infighting and splintering among its soldiers.

We will contrast ULIMO-J with the infamous Islamic State in the next post.

Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War was an Ancient Greek Civil War between the rival city states of Athens and Sparta and their allies. The war shattered the city states, and the golden age of Greece was at an end. Entire populations of some cities were wiped out and atrocities were customary in the war. One case is that a bunch of Thrican Mercenaries stormed a boys school and killed every student in the school. Athens even had votes on if the populations of certain rebelling cities should be wiped out and enslaved or not. Eventually, Sparta and its allies soon triumphed over Athens and its allies. Sparta created a pro-Spartan regime in Athens and done away with Athen's famous Democracy. The pro Spartan "30 Tyrants" regimes was very unpopular and repressive. Within several decades, the "30 Tyrants" were in several decades overthrown by the Atheinans.

Chinese Civil War (After the Defeat of the major Warlords)

After the defeat of the Major Warlord Cliques (as we left off in my previous post about the Chinese Civil War), Chaing Kai Sheik turned on the Communist wing in the Kuomintang government and attempted to purge them out of China in the Shanghai Massacres. The Communists in retaliation start several uprisings, thus starting the Communist-Nationalist phase of the Chinese Civil War. After several early defeats, Mao Zedong and his Communists fled into the mountains in a famous 2,000 mile march that the Communists lost 90% of their forces. One of the few reasons why Mao and his Communists survived the Long March is because Chaing mostly relied on the Warlords (the defeated warlords were allowed to keep their armies under the conduction that they served the Kuomintang government) the that he was only loosely allied with to. The Warlords feared that once the Communists were defeated, Chaing would have turned on them. So they went kind-off easy on the Communists. Fortunately for the Communists, the Japanese invaded China, forcing the Nationalist and the Communists into an alliance. After the Japanese were driven out of China, attempts at a collation government between the Communists and the Nationalists failed and the Nationalists were driven out of China. The Nationalists then start a regime in Twain.

Harry Potter Culture/Warfare

The Culture of the Wizards in Harry Potter (as with several popular young adult novels such as Percy Jackson, Warriors, Wings of Fire etc.) seem to be much less genderized in then the so called "Mughals" (non magical humans). Men and women virtually have the same roles in government and warfare. Another interesting aspect of the Wizarding culture is that how Wizards shun Mughals like real world racism. Sources of conflict and warfare in the Wizarding world is conflicts between Moderate Wizards in the Ministry of Magic government and the Extremists (known as the Death Eaters) lead by Lord Voldemort over the issue of Mughals and "pure blooded Wizards". The resulting violence is mostly assassination of supporters of the rival faction and some minor skirmishes, reslutling in the deaths of maybe 50 people in the 1st Wizarding War and c.100 deaths in the 2nd, which is considered by the Wizards a "horrific and bloody war". This shows that the Wizards will probably lose a war with the Mughals, because they are not used to a full scale war and they lack the logistics and manpower for a large scale war.

Article about a Teenage Warlord

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1360629/Warlord-of-15-who-is-married-and-leads-300-men.html
A teenage warlord in Afghanistan

The Palmyrene Empire

The Palmyrene empire was a splinter state of the Roman Empire located in the Middle East in the Roman Civil Wars of the 3rd Century AD. Queen Zenobia took control of the Empire after her husband's assassination in place of her young son. She quickly conquered Egypt and almost all of the Middle East. Despite her numerous victories, she was eventually defeated and her empire crumbled.

Fijian Warfare

Fijian Warfare was complex (what is your best friend one day, will be the bane of your existence the next day), gruesome (I will not go into much as detail as I wish, because I don't want to deter my readers), and well strategized. It was merciless, men and women, and people of all ages (including babies) were all victimized. Horrific to the West, cannibalism played its role in the warfare of the Fijians. Prisoners were tortured and mutilated, and eventually eaten in the most horrific ways. Its tactics involed the typical ambushes and raids. Booby traps boulders rolled down the hill against enemies, and pitspikes in pits in maim warriors of rival chefidoms. In times of war, it was said to be unwise to be walk around Fiji unarmed. European Mercenaries known as Beachcombers had an increasingly impotent role in Fijian warfare. Eventually an Europeanized government took control of Fiji, leading to constant uprisings by conservative cheifdoms. Eventually,  the government slowly subdued the chefidoms until they were finally subdued just before the 19th century was over.

Ivanov Experiments

Ilya Ivanov was a brilliant scientist known for being the father of artificial fertilization and also his studies of hybridization. His works lead to more efficient breeding in Horses and other livestock. However his most disturbing works are his attempt to breed Humans and Chimpanzees together, which will be the subject matter of this post. Allegedly on the orders of Josef Stalin, Ivanov allegedly attempted to create an army of hybrid super-soldiers for the Red Army. During the 20s, Ivanov tried to experiment by artificially impregnating Chimpanzees and Orangutangs with human sperms. As you might have expected, non of the apes got pregnant. Then Ivanov tried to experiment with Human women with male Ape sperms, but this was too far for the Authorities. He never had any success creating even a pregnancy throughout his life. However, further investigations into the motivations of Ivanov's works was actually an attempts to disprove Christianity by proving that Human's truly evolved from Apes, not creating super-solderers (although it is likely that Stalin would have experiment with that if Ivanov was successful in creating one such hybrid).

Winter War

The Winter War occurred when the Soviet Union invaded Finland. The Soviets tried to hide their invasion to the western world, even to the lubricious claim that the their bombing raids were "humanitarian efforts". This lead the Finnish giving the nickname of Soviet Bombs "Molotov Breadbasket", and the Finns giving the nickname of the now famous "Molotov Cocktails in order to complete the meal". The Russian Army was totally unprepared for the war (most of the leaders were purged out by Stalin), leading to extremely heavy causalities among the Soviet Red Army. In fact, the Soviet troops were extremely easy prey for the Finnish Ski Snipers. Some Finnish Snipers claimed a middle bungling number of victims like with the extreme case of the sniper Simo Hayha who killed 750 men (500 with his sniper rifle, and the rest with his sub-machine gun).

Chinese Civil War, Warlord Era

The Warlord era in China was a chaotic and complex times in its history. Most areas in China were controlled by Warlord Clique, much to the disgust of Chiang Kai-Shek. Chaing campaigned endlessly against the various Warlord Cliques in order to control China under his control. Chaing eventually along with his allies in the Communist party eventually defeated the Warlord Cliques in the Northern Expedition. Soon after the defeat of the warlords, Chaing attempted to purge the Communists out of his government in the Shanghai Massacre, thus started the Chinese Civil War (another topic in a future post). The warlord armies of China were incredibly enormous (up to a million men in some armies) well equipped with armored war-trains armed with battleship cannons. 

The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush

The Kafirs were a pagan and headhunting tribe in the Hindu Kush. The fictitious popular novel "the Man Who Would Be King" is one of the rare western works depicted the Kafrs. "The Man Who Would Be King" The only western non-fiction source of the Kafirs written by some western traveler that visited the Kafirs just before the forced Islamicization by some Khan. The Kafirs were in a consent state of wars and blood feuds against the Pashtan tribes. They also were consistently feuding amongst themselves.

War of the Roses

The War of the Roses started when rival branches of the royal family, the Yorkists and the Lancasters fought for the control of the thrown of England. The War of the Roses was not a single war, but a series of off/on wars for the control of England with initial Yorkist rule, until the Lancasters overthrew them at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The war got its name from its alleged symbol of roses, with red roses for the Lancasters and white roses for the Yorkists. It all started with the death of Henry V, the King of England and his replacement being his mentally impotent son Henry VI, so Henry VI's wife had to rule for him. The Yorkist faction challenged him and overthrw him. The results are then decades of extremely complex dynastic issues with the eventual victory of Henry VII and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty.

British Operations in the North-West Frontier

The North-West frontier of India was infamous for its huge amount of Military activity and its aggressive and warlike tribes known as the Pashtuns. The Pashtuns today make up several warring factions in the Modern "Afghanistan" (Afghanistan doesn't exist, it is just a loose Western name for a large set of land created by the British in the Great Game for a buffer state against the Russians. It has no true central government, it is in reality controlled by militant cheifdoms/warlords) Civil Wars. The British had several clashes with the various Pashtun tribes like the Muhmmads, Bazai, Orakzis, Mahsud, Swatis and countless other tribes. The various Pashtun tribes were legendary for their cruel treatment of prisoners and wounded soldiers. Accounts state that Pashtun women castrated and drowned prisoners with their urine, while Pashtun warriors have been recorded to have cut up wounded soldiers with their swords. The most infamous incident of the Operations in the North-West Frontier is that 12,000 British Raj troops and camp followers were retreating from an "Afghan" khanate were contently harassed by hostile tribesmen. A combination of the harsh winter, sniping from hostile tribesmen, and starvation caused what according to legend that only one European survived (but quite a few other survivors were taken prisoners by the tribesmen).

British Operations in the North-East Frontier

The North-East theater of India is one of the most obscure topics of the colonial era in history. The North-East Frontier sits next to Burma, and it is inhibited by aggressive headhunting hill tribes like the Nagas, Chin-Lushai, Abors, Garos, Daflas, Shingphos, Akas and many other countless tribes. In order to rule these unruly tribes, the British had to resort to frequent punitive operations against them. Such a task was almost impossible since headhunting was a way of life for these tribes that a huge part of their culture was to raid other tribes for slaves and heads. The North-East frontier required as much military operations as its more famous counterpart, the North-West frontier (which I will cover in a future post), but the operations were on a much smaller scale. Most punitive forces, due to inhospitable jungle terrain, were just several dozen to a few hundred in numbers. The most famous incident in the North-East frontier is some Chin-Lushai tribesmen kidnapped Mary Winchester, some tea factory owner's 6 year old daughter after the Chin-Lushai warriors killed the factory owner himself.  Mary was soon rescued in a punitive operation. These tribes have been known to have practiced headhunting as late as the 1940's, and some isolated tribes are still believed to have continued to have practice it to this day.

Timur the Lame

Timur the Lame is a very little known figure in history to laymen (but he is much studied among scholars), dispute the fact that his wars killed 5% of the population of the time (he was in the 1400s). Timur the Lame started as a simple sheep raider (he got his nickname "the lame" when he got hit in the leg with an arrow during one of his raids). He then faked his ancestry and claimed to be the descendent of Genghis Khan. He then took major military operations in Persia and Transoxia, which gave him fame and he eventually became the ruler of the new Mongol Empire after defeating his rivals. After several years, he had become the Amir of a new horde known as the Timurid Empire. He warred or waged war in and against the Ottomans, Golden Horde, Indian City-states, the Knights Templar (the only Western army that he fought), Baghdad, Georgia, Russia, all of Central Asia, and attempted on Ming China (Ming China was saved only by his death). Timur has legendary for his cruelty, wiping out entire cities which one work described "inflicting damage like that of a nuclear bomb". He had his enemies' heads piled in pyramids, often with hundreds of thousands of heads. One incident, he had his soldiers bring him each two heads or they would be executed. The soldiers were so terrified that they bought heads from their comrades or behead prisoners that they took. Timur just raided and pillaged, he rarely bothered to replace the political systems that he destroyed. After his death, the Timurid dynasty dissolved into infighting and civil war and was soon was conquered.

War of the Triple Alliance

The War of the Triple Alliance occurred when Francisco Lopez, the president of Paraguay with questionable mental health, unwisely attacked his neighbors Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. The outcome become of the deadliest wars percentage wise in history (60% of Paraguay's population died from the result of the war). After a few phases into the war the Paraguayan army was destroyed, Paraguay was fighting a guerrilla war for survival against the coalition. The war eventually ended with Lopez's death in 1870. The war as such devastation on the Paraguayan population (the war directly or indirectly killed 60% of Paraguay's population as mentioned earlier) that in some areas, women outnumbered the men 20:1.

Jim Jones

Jim Jones was an intelligent but disturbed child. The young Jones once stabbed a cat to death. He had an intense interest in religion and death, and he studied several historical figures like Stalin, Marx, Gandhi, and Hitler looking for their strengths and weaknesses. He would preach to his childhood friends, and the most disturbing incident was he threatened one of his friends with a gun that tried to leave in during one of his many "preachings". In later life he married, started a "rainbow" family (Jones adopted children from several ethnic groups) and a church called the "People's Temple" (the title of the church alone hints of its true Marxist). He had trouble with his birth son due to his extremely hypocritical behavior such as his consent affairs and his drug addiction. During his services at his church, Jones performed several "miracles", including one where he made this woman that was allegedly wheel chair bound walk again. Investigations show that the "wheel-chair bound" women never had any disabilities at all. After several years of controversy and bad publicity for him and his "church" (it was more of a Marxist organization then a religious church), Jones moved him and his so called "church" to the obscure country of Guyana. After several reports of abusive behavior towards the settlers in Jamestown and their families pressuring the American Government to investigate the reports of abusive behavior, along with reports of dissidents with in the church. The American government sends congressmen Leo Ryan to investigate. Ryan's investigations quickly go to hell when several guards from the church ambush the congressman and kill him. This starts a chain of reactions that caused the forced mass suicides of 900 people in the congregation by forcing its members to drink poisoned flavor aid. Jones' corpse has found with a single gunshot wound in the head.

Some bizarre elements of Jones' Peoples temple and Jones himself was reviled. Jones has openly banned homosexuality, but evidence suggests the Jones has engaged in LGBT sex. Once incident, Jones was caught sexually soliciting another man by the FBI. Jones also banned sex among his congregation, but he relentlessly had sexual intercourse with several of his female members of his church. Jones also claimed to be god, but he privately claimed to be an atheist. In fact, he threatened to commit suicide if his wife continued to pray to god. All in all, Jones is a big enigma that continues to shock and amaze those study him.

Burundian Civil War

Like the more famous and commentary Rwandan Civil War, the Burundi Civil War was in simplified terms a war between Hutus (main Hutu faction is the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy or CNDD) and Tutsis. Despite the nature of a seemingly "race" war between the Hutus and Tutsis, the war was not just a war between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutus rebels are very prone to infighting, and clashes between the CNDD and other Hutu militias like the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People-Forces for the National Liberation or FNL (infighting between the main FNL and the Lovers of Peace faction of the FNL also have taken place) have commonly taken place in the war. The war was sparked when the Hutu president was assassinated by Tutsis extremists. His successor was also assassinated with his plane being shot-down by unknown attackers. Soon the war evolved into a cycle of killing and counter killing by both the Hutu rebels and the Tutsi government. Finally in 2006, the war at least theoretically ended. Also like the Rwandan Civil War, the Burundian Civil War spilled over into the Democratic Republic of the Congo Civil War, and the wars became intermingled to each over. In fact one Rwandan Rebel group, the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALiR) got involved in the Burundian Civil War. The Rebel group is a Hutu faction with made of the exiled perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide.

Campaigns of Vlad Tepes aganist the Ottomans

When the man known to history as Vlad the Impaler was a child, he and his younger brother were taken as hostages by the Ottoman empire for tribute from his father. Vlad's younger brother was very submissive to the Ottomans, and became absorbed in their culture. Vlad however was a violent child, and he often assaulted his teachers, causing his teachers to abuse him. This is believed by scholars to have caused Vlad hated for the Ottomans. When he was monarch over Wallachia, he got dethroned by his rivals, but he quickly retook power. He declared war against the Ottomans, at he had success at 1st, including impaling 20,000 Ottomans. This sight even caused the Ottoman Sultan who was NOT noted for being humane, was so revolted by the sight of impaled corpses that he retreated. However, Vlad was soon dethroned again and was imprisoned in Hungry. He was soon released and he retook the throne of Wallachia again. He continued his war against the Ottomans. Vlad was soon assassinated with very different accounts on the circumstances. One accounts starts that he manged to kill 3 of his assailants before dying. A 2nd account states that he was accidentally killed by his own men. Another more bizarre account states that he was killed while having sex with the Turks surrounding by the corpses of his bodyguards. We will never know exactly how he died, but he left an astounding impact on Western popular culture in the eponymous novel Dracula.

Cossack Conquest of Siberia

  The Russian Conquest of Siberia is a highly complex "event", which covers conflicts between the Russians and thousands of local Tribes on one of the most largest and remote regions on Earth. I will cover some of the earliest events. So when the Russian Cossacks under the "conquistador" Yermek were went to territory controlled by a Mongol Empire Remanent kingdom called the Khanate of Sibir to search for furs. The Sibir Khanate was controlled by the Tartars, but as you can see in the painting above, the Khanate was made up of dozens of tribal groups unrelated to the Tartars like the Mansi, Khanty, Nenets, and other tribes. The event is often compared to the more famous Conqusidor conquest of the Americas. As similar to the famous Conquistador conquest of the Aztecs, were a very small army of explorers (the Cossacks had only 800 men) manged to defeat a much larger kingdom. Like the Conquistadors, the Cossacks manged to defeat the much larger Sibir army. Unfortunately for the Cossacks, like the Conquistadors (the Conquistadors lost half of their army to the Aztecs in the "Sad Night"), the Cossacks suffered defeats with extremely heavy losses including the loss of their leader Yermak (this where the Cossacks and the Conquistadors differ is the Conquistador's leader survives the disastrous defeat, while with the Cossacks leader doesn't).

Battle of the Tetuoburg Forest

Arminus, a Germanic auxiliary commander in the Roman army, formed an alliance with the local Germanic tribes in order to destroy the Roman army. He manipulated the Roman general Publicus Varus into the Tetuoburg Forest. The Tetuoburg Forest was a dark, huge, and difficult to navigate in...the perfect place for ambushes. The forest could have been something out of a horror movie. Once the Germanic tribes ambushed the Roman army, Arminus and his auxiliaries turned on the Romans and the Roman army was virtually destroyed. The annihilation of the Roman armies defeated all Romanic dreams of controlling the region now known as "Germany". However, Arminus was later killed in an inter-tribal war.

Nestor Makhno and his Faction

Nestor Makhno was born a poor peasant virtually at the mercy of the wealthy Kulaks, which caused his hatred for the upperclass thought his lifetime. He was arrested several times for anarchist terrorism (which in order to save space on this post, I will very briefly mention). During the Russian Civil War, he started his own anarchist faction, the Revolutionary Insurrection Army of Ukraine (also known as the Black Army) which warred against both the Bolsheviks and the White Army factions. He formed several very loose and off/on alliances with the Bolsheviks against the White Factions. When fighting against the Whites, he gave them no quarter and often personally killed them with his sword. He was slightly more mercifully towards the Bolsheviks, often executing Bolshevik officers and offering their men the chance to defect to his faction. After the final defeat of the Whites, the Bolsheviks doubled-crossed him. Makhno also lost the support of the Ukrainian peasants. So the lost of peasant support and Bolshevik betrayal lead to Makhno's downfall. He spent the rest of his life in exile.

My Studies of the Hunger Games Culture

 Fashion Studies; The fashion of the Hunger Games as sighted in my previous paper on sociology (fashion and sociology mix together in my mind because fashion reflects the culture’s values, this is way this paper has almost identical notes as the sociology paper), is very much based on Euro-American culture. This huge Western influence in Panem is understandable since the Hunger Games took place just a few centuries after the fall of the American government, so Panem culture most likely heavily took ideas, customs, fashions, and technology from its predecessor. Despite the extremely similar roles that Men and Women have in Panem culture, they still have different clothing for the sexes, like women still wear dresses and men still wear suits and ties. However, as explored in the film, the fashion and clothing styles in the Panem Capitol (the main government) and its Districts (especially District 12 were the main protagonists live) that it controls are radically different, reflecting the enormous difference in economic class between the Capitol and its Districts. The clothing style of the Capitol citizens has the emergence of European Renaissance with modern twists. They have powdered wigs, extremely colorful clothing, and even surgically modified their bodies with animal parts such as Cat whiskers. In contrast, the people living in most of the Districts live in poverty conditions, and their clothes are ragged and are that of the 20th century Great Depression.

Sociologist Studies; The culture depicted in the Hunger Games has strong Euro-American influences in its values and its dress. The culture appears to be very feminist since men and women have virtually the same roles in the government, armed forces, the Hunger Games itself (etc.). Men and women in the Capitol are very focused on fashion, something more or less untouchable and “too girly” for men in 20th century Western culture. The clothing is very Euro-American (such as the presence of tank-tops, suits and ties, dresses etc.), but much more exaggerated (at least in those of the Capitol, most of the clothing worn by the other Districts or much more impoverished and improvised then the clothes in the Capitol) than those of 20th century Euro-Americans. The Capitol fixation of romance and drama (especially on Peeta and Katniss’s relationship) is very similar to that of Western audiences obsession of 20th century Celebrity gossip. The people of the Capitol’s extreme obsession with appearances (to the point of swallowing pills to vomit their food and taking plastic surgery to look younger than they actually are) is virtually parallel to those of insecure Western teenage girls that mutilate their bodies to make themselves more sexually attractive. Panem culture has very little if any racism, evident by the fact that several Black people are presented in the background in the Capitol scenes. The Capitol’s foreign policy is virtually unknown to the viewers or readers, since other nations or tribes in the Hunger Games are never mentioned, so this does not reveal the stand of Panem culture on foreign wars or its interactions with other foreign cultures. Religion is never mentioned, so this hints that religion plays little role in the lives of Panem. 

Connection with History; The Hunger Games are similar (but somewhat sugarcoated) futuristic version of the Roman Gladiator “Games”. However most of the combat in the real Gladiator Games were on a much larger scale (c.3,000,000 deaths in the real Gladiator Games, compared to c.2,000 total death toll of the Hunger Games). Both the Gladiator Games and the Hunger Games have extensive use of animals in their games, in fact in the real Gladiator games, several species of Lions, Panthers, and other dangerous animals were driven to extinction by the Gladiator Games, along with the death of thousands of unfortunate animal fighters that were sent to fight them (some unfortunate hunters were sent with no weapons or even clothes at all against powerfully built Lions). Some of the most disturbing use of animals in the Roman Gladiator Games was training Goats or Giraffes to rape unfortunate victims. Another horrific use of animals was to have naked victims (usually women, but it was not unusual for the victims to be males) tied to poles to be eaten alive by predators (usually Lions, but other animals were used as well). In the Hunger Games, the Capitol (the ruling government in the series) has specifically created animals called “mutts” to fight the contestants. One major difference was the presence of female combatants in the Hunger Games. Although the real Gladiator Games had female combatants, they were extremely unpopular and they had only a limited presence in the Gladiator Games, while in the Hunger Games, they are much more accepted and they have an identical role to the male combatants. Recruitment methods for combatants in the Hunger Games was the use of a lottery to select one girl and one boy from ages 12-18 (24 contestants total) from districts under Capital control for use in the Hunger Games, while the recruitment methods are much more diverse and far less formalized in the Roman Gladiator games. Most Gladiators recruits were criminals, POWs, escaped slaves, and the occasional “volunteer”.  

Interesting Scenes that Show the Nature of the Panem Government; The scenes in District 12 shows the real oppression of millions of unfortunate people by oppressors (such as totalitarian dictators, drug cartels, rebel/terrorist groups, warlords etc.) that theoretically control them in world history. One interesting incident in the Hunger Games film is that the District 12’s perimeter has a deadly electric fence that will kill anyone that tries to escape the district that in theory, but in reality the fence is almost never on and is broken done. Katniss (the main character) even bangs against the fence with her stick. This shows that most groups that practice one sided violence and attempted totalitarian control on its people are like what some people would call “punks”. Like “punk” bullies, violent armed groups are often extremely weak, and their hold on the people that they control is tenuous at best. So like a weak “punk” bully, violent armed groups and corrupt dictatorships resort to horrific violence on even weaker prey. Another interesting thing to take note in the scenes in District 12 is most of the people that live in district 12 live in extremely poor conditions (although toned down for the sensibilities of the films audiences). The local people of District 12 in the film resemble that of old photos in the Great Depression of the 1920s (the filmmakers might have actually based their conception design of District 12 on people in the Great Depression). Most of the people in District 12 live in fear of the ruling regime’s government troops (euphemistically known as “Peacekeepers”) that will kill them for the most trivial reasons. The corrupt “Peacekeepers” exploit the local population of the District mercilessly (explained in the novel that the Peacekeepers extort the locals for food, money, and sex).