The Obsolete Man

In season 2, episode 29 of The Twilight Zone there is a major treatise of the value of man and how the state can be his worst enemy.  The episode titled "The Obsolete Man" very directly addresses totalitarianism, but in a way that transcends the two freshest examples of the day; Hitler and Stalin.  I see in this episode lessons that can be applied today.  From here in the U.S. to China and most everywhere in between, the nasty lessons and warnings of this episode can be applied.

For those who aren't familiar with this episode, I'll summarize as briefly as possible.  The state, headed by a chancellor, has put on trial a librarian for being obsolete.  Obsolescence is determined by a lack of practical function to the state.  In this state, books have been destroyed, therefore there is no need for a librarian, just as the state has proven God to not exist, so ministers are obsolete.  The punishment for being obsolete is death.  This librarian, however, tricks the chancellor into a near death experience, exposing his cowardice on live television while the librarian bravely faces his death.  The chancellor is then determined to be obsolete in the end.

This episode speaks beyond the literal warnings against totalitarianism.  I believe Rod Serling realized society and technology would advance far beyond what they could imagine, and so kept his admonitions general.  His opening monologue says that this is "not a future that will be, but one that might be...It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history."  In his closing statement, he says "any state...any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete."

Looking at the obvious, we see parallels with the current states of China, Iran, Venezuela and other similar regimes that have sought to outlaw truth.  I'm not even talking propaganda, but the elimination of media and material that runs contrary to what the state wants.  In today's world, it isn't just print media.  Television and the internet are severely censored in these countries.  But why?  Simply put, if the people are allowed to explore ideas alternate to what the state dictates, they are a threat.  There can be no differing opinions.  Anyone who thinks against the state, goes against the state, and that is treason.  Hitler and Stalin put these people to death, or ran them out of the country.  In one note of irony, Stalin was about to purge many physicians at the end of his life, which no doubt contributed to his death from stroke.

I believe there is a real distinction, however, in the purpose for persecuting different groups.  Here, the librarian represents the thinker, the intellectual, religious, humanitarian.  These people are threats to the state because they don't help the state, they help individuals or ideas.  Just words, just an imaginary man in the sky.  The other persecuted or oppressed, such as the sick, differing race, sexual orientation, disabled, are not threats, but are outsiders or deviants and so are a burden on the state.

This brings me to another point.  Today, in most countries, we have abortion on demand.  So much so, if a mother receives a prenatal diagnosis of certain disabilities, she is at the least offered the chance, at worst encouraged to abort that child on that basis alone.  The medical field has determined, with the help of the state, that a fetus is not a person unless the mother says so.  Humanity has been redefined.  But this episode screams to the contrary.

"The state has proven there is no God!"  "You can not erase God with an edict!"  Truth, you see, is truth, regardless of what we think of it.  We can ignore it.  We can say the opposite.  No matter what we do, the truth is still there.  We can not bestow humanity on an unborn child any more than we can wish God away or say the sky is green and water is dry.

Faith, intellectualism (seeking truth for the sake of truth) and humanitarianism fulfills our humanity.  We are more than our function, and so can not be dismissed once we stop being useful.  Books, thoughts, ideas, kindness, faith are what separate us from the animals.  When we take those things away, we begin to act like animals.

On a final note, in the penultimate scene, the librarian bravely faces his fate, juxtaposed in the same frame the cowering chancellor scrambling to save his life.  This illustrates what makes us truly noble humans.  Totalitarianism, to whatever degree, strips us of that.