Posted on 01/01/2013 8:43:07 PM PST by KittenClaws
Every New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, a treat. Is offered to those who subscribe to the ScyFy channel - a Twilight Zone marathon.
Being of a certain age, I tune in.
I've always loved the show, Rod Serling was a man ahead of his time, IMO.
But I'd like to talk about a particular episode, one not only ahead of its time (as many TZ episodes), but timelyaswell.
Obsolete would be a good term for the speaker. But, how we see it is irrelevant to the state.
We are the little people.
But they fear us none the less.
We should use that power.
What impressed me so much about the obsolete man, was, how the state reacted when faced with the same choices they gave the common man.
It was fear.
I always liked the episode. But when I saw it in the 70s/80s, I admit I tended to view it as a bit far-flung, in respect to America and reality. I really didn’t think I could envision the country going that route (owing to its love of freedom, its moral base, and its aversion to statist/communist thought), but still treated the episode as offering a valid message.
But here in 2013 and Obama’s America... it’s no longer remotely far-flung. It’s a closer representation of reality than I ever would have imagined. The country has indeed degenerated, to mind-boggling degrees, making this tale all the more foreboding.
At my age, just 56, I have watched plenty of fantasy turn to reality.
Freaks me out sometimes.
But, obsolete man chilled me to the bone tonight. I’ve seen this episode plenty of times, probably from the first time it aired, but the truth of it, even metaphorically, is chilling.
I’ve said for years that Congress should never legally be able to exempt themselves from anything imposed by them upon the citizenry as a whole. Chuck their bloated @sses into Obamacare and Social Security with no other option, strip them of their pensions. See how much more seriously they take such matters going forward.
The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.
Where neighbors turned on each other?
Yes. Aliens had landed on Earth, but it turned out that WE were the monsters.
I remember Billy Mummy as Little Anthony in ‘It’s a Good Life’.
The one where the little boy ‘wished’ people who bothered him ‘away’ into the cornfield (never to return).
All of the Twilight Zone Episodes were ‘lessons’. It is unfortunate that children aren’t exposed to this type of intellectual education any more.
I think my generation is the last to understand freedom.
And I have so little of it to fight for anymore.
And the youth today? They can’t claim as much as I do, nor, I suspect, would they fight for it.
One of my all time favorites. Also the howling man.
My favorite part is where Burgess Meredith asks the Chancellor from "The State" why he is afraid of him, and also where he (Burgess) takes out his Bible and starts calmly reading it aloud while the time ticks by, til the bomb goes off.
Powerful stuff.
I luv the old Twilight Zone episodes. They are timeless treasures loaded with philosophical truths. They used to have the TZ marathon every 4th of July. Never missed it.
(There's just so much mindless crap on TV today- OMG! A Kardashian bought a purse/ having a baby-Breaking News... ughhhhh!)
It would be nice if we had some TV shows with substance.
They haven't made anything close to TZ good since The X-Files back in the 90's.
This is one of my favorite episodes I’ve seen quite a few times. I only now caught the first name of the obsolete man,”ROMNEY Wordsworth”.
Just finished watching it on the SCFY about an hour ago. Powerful!!! That episode has never left my mind since I first saw it as a child. I never would have thought I would be alive to see that my country is heading in the same direction. Remember the guy was betrayed by his own state whom he served. Very strong warning to all politicians. If you are capable to betray this country against Americans, Government high up won’t trust them either and must implement a final solution and replace them with a new generation that has been brainwashed.
Yes Rod Serling was way before his time, and watching this marathon, how some of his episode refer to God alot without getting religious. His shows teaches us consequences without morals.
I had the same reaction you did- back in the day.
I also used to ask: How could the people during WWII not see it coming? How could the people of Germany let the holocaust happen? How could any person/people let that happen?
Unfortunately, now I have a pretty good understanding of how those things happened. It's human nature to pretend everything is normal- even when it's all falling apart right before our eyes.
Hopefully we will wake up before it's too late.
We can at least try to turn it around. We have to start talking to people-everyone we know- about what the Constitution is/means, and the dangers of giving government too much power over ourselves i.e. It's always a bad idea- no matter how much "free stuff" they promise us.
"Free Stuff" isn't free. Talk to people about what life is really like in places that have lots of "free stuff" - like Cuba.
We have to keep trying to educate and wake people up-no matter how hopeless a cause it may seem to be.
Our country is worth it.
The Founding Fathers managed to get the idea of freedom across to people- and they did it without all the modern tools we have today.
We also have to start demanding that our stumbling/bumbling politicians have a thorough understanding of our Constitution- or out of office they go at the next election or recall them. Period.
Far too many have sacrificed their lives for this nation. We can't just let it fall to Marxist BS without even trying to wake people up to what's going on.
Watched quite a few of the episodes over the last 24 hours. Grew up watching the originals and lived about 45 miles from Rod Serling’s home outside Rochester, NY.
Oh, there's a moral to modern entertainment all right, but it's PC now:
-guns are bad, unless they are used by the police
-minorities are oppressed by whites
-homosexuals are superior to straights
-humans are destroying the planet
-all your problems can be solved by socialism
-people can be more secure by surrendering liberty
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