The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy; and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone. – Rod Serling
In the classic Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, the residents of an ordinary suburban neighborhood – people who have lived alongside one another for years – quickly turn paranoid and hostile when weird phenomena convince them that they are witnessing the beginning of an invasion from outer space. Every nonconformity, every idiosyncrasy, every unexplained incident, every behavior or characteristic even slightly outside the local norm, serves as the basis for accusations that certain individuals are either alien collaborators or even aliens in disguise; naturally, witch-hunting and violence soon ensue. And though the pace of the hysteria’s development is obviously exaggerated so the drama can fit into a 26-minute television episode, the basic psychology is correct: in a moral panic, humans will inevitably try to cast some of their own as members of the “enemy” (witches, communists, Satanists or whatever) and to lynch those so selected, with or without the formality of a kangaroo court to declare the victims members of the (largely or wholly) imaginary bogeyman hordes.
We are unfortunate enough to be living in a real-life version of “The Monsters Are Due”, but instead of aliens, the panicmongers claim we’re being invaded by “sex traffickers”; instead of the action unfolding over one night in a small neighborhood, it has unfolded over ten years on a rather provincial little planet. And while there really are aliens about in the Twilight Zone, the villains on our real-life Maple Street are the self-proclaimed leaders and invasion “experts”. One thing is the same in both stories, however: once the panic reaches a high enough pitch, the hysterics start pointing fingers at each other for the flimsiest of reasons. Submitted for your approval one Troy Martinez, who inhabits a twilight zone called Las Vegas:
A Las Vegas pastor’s idea to report to police suspicious businesses who decline to display a human trafficking hotline poster is being met with skepticism by business and civil liberties leaders. The new human trafficking awareness effort is being suggested by Pastor Troy Martinez, of the East Vegas Christian Center as part of his involvement with…Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s Faith Initiative…on…human trafficking. Martinez presented a hypothetical scenario of his plan, which is in its infancy, at a meeting Thursday. Picture this: A few…volunteers go to a…bar and ask the owner to put up a poster with the national human trafficking hotline. The owner agrees and a volunteer notes it on a form before moving to another business, a nail salon, perhaps. The salon owner doesn’t want to hang the poster, and someone makes note of it on a form. Maybe volunteers observe a lot of single men hanging around the establishment and decide that is suspicious, so someone writes that down, too. Then, those notes might get passed on to law enforcement.
The scenario drew suggestions from those attending…[a] working group meeting that the bar seemed forthright, but the nail salon was a different story. “Well they’ve got something to hide. They don’t want the poster. They don’t want to cooperate,” one member said. The idea of citizens informing on local businesses who rejected displaying a poster bewildered Tod Story, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada…[who] said it sounded like the [US government’s] “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign on steroids…Martinez’s idea is modeled after a Los Angeles law that requires establishments — including adult or sexually oriented businesses, massage or bodywork services, emergency rooms and bars — to post the national human trafficking hotline…volunteers filled out a questionnaire noting if the owner was in compliance, aware of the law and if the owner agreed to hang the poster. According to Martinez, the community began to identify which businesses were legitimate and which businesses were being used as fronts for human trafficking or sex trafficking…Martinez [claimed] that…“a lot of people…were rescued because of the reporting system”…Martinez’s conclusions, however, don’t match what actually has happened in Los Angeles, according to a leader of the grassroots campaign…who…said while the potential is there for volunteers to stumble on a human trafficking front and report it, that has yet to happen. Also, no one has been rescued as a result of the poster outreach survey…
Case in point one moral panic, a phenomenon in which people voluntarily relinquish their reason, their knowledge, and their consciences in pursuit of ghosts and shadows, and in doing so plunge themselves, their neighbors and those they believe they have cause to fear into a nightmarish, yet very real Twilight Zone.
Just found your blog – you are prolific and amazing….. I am in awe.
Thank you! 🙂
It reminds me of nothing so much as the former communist states, where deviating from the party line or not promoting the appropriate propaganda was seen as indicative of “counter-revolutionary tendencies” and was justification for investigation, arrest, trial and gulag.
Reporting to the police when somebody refuses to participate in a voluntary thing? Incredible. What is next? Incarceration for people that do not pray regularly? (Oh, wait, they have that in some parts of the world…)
Essentially, this is the authoritarian “those not for us are against us” mind-set.
The original Twilight Zone episode was actually based on the “Red Scare” phenomenon of the 1950s, when people like Sen. Joe McCarthy frightened everyone into seeing “Red” spies or collaborators all around them.
The original version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” came from the same panic-ridden mental space. “How can we tell Commies from real Americans?? Yikes!!!!”
Created by Americans, not by “the former communist states.”
I remember watching this particular episode in middle school and having a class discussion. I haven’t seen it in a number of years but looking back now I wonder if the ‘aliens are responsible’ ending was a sop to network Standards & Practices in order to get the episode made in the first place. Of course it had to be aliens, no group of Americans would think to act the way those on Maple Street did of their own volition. It HAD to be because of outside manipulation. Although, I also think that for supposedly ‘superior’ beings like the aliens, they chose a rather slow and inefficient way of eradicating humanity.
What if they’re like humans, in that they have hypocritical moral scruples? “Not OK for us to murder humans, but OK for us to fool them into committing societal suicide.”
Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry both did Sci-Fi because it was a way around the censors. If they commented on society issues, they got shot down. But if they made it an allegory, it passed. Loved both these guys growing up; I always wanted to hear what they had to say and they convinced me when it comes to movies and television writing comes first.
Somebody should report the Pastor on the suspicion that he’s “recruiting”.
Sadly, this type of ‘reporting’ is standard; there are a vast number of police complaints filed daily concerning neighbors or random strangers who are ‘doing something suspicious’. This sort of thing increases the frequency, and likelihood of reaching a less-than-sane officer who might actually act upon such ‘information’. (Sane officers nod, mumble approvingly, swear to ‘look into the matter’… and promptly forget what the crazy just said. Mean officers take the time to explain just why the caller is crazy, and why nothing is going to be done, and just how stupid they’re being…)
If I *was* running a trafficking ring, wouldn’t I take the poster to hide in broad daylight? What, the girl is going to call once the poster is up? Wasn’t able to dial 911 but hey there’s a poster, guess I should call someone now. Reminds me of a report about the FBI telling librarians to be on the lookout for people with Slavic or Russian Accents trying to get military or government information, like they’re not able to prepare with an American accent first.
That’s a good point.
Back during the Cold War the Soviets had what was known to us as “AGI’s”.
These were like fishing trawlers … ARMED TO THE TEETH WITH ANTENNAS!
They would drive these things up near the American coast – or right into naval exercises – to monitor us.
But hey … they’d also try to have a bit of fun and wreak havoc.
I remember one day my sub was on the surface preparing for the next training exercise – and a guy with a LOOOOONG Southern drawl came on the bridge to bridge radio saying …
“Submarine 696 … would you please alter corpen to 190.”
And the OOD, figuring it was the aircraft carrier ahead of us says … “Roger 190”.
CO heard the OOD make the course change and says … “Wut?!”
It was the AGI … with a guy who spoke perfect REDNECK that had directed the course change.
Just more evidence that accents can be eliminated. This chick is (born and raised) Swedish … and yeah – this is just her singing … but I have checked YouTube for interviews with her in English. She has a pretty perfect American accent even when she talks.
She also happens to be the new love of my life. She doesn’t know it yet though! 😛
Call signs? Authentication? Wuzzat?? *snort*
Given that hull number, he was probably a nuke, right? Just shows to go …
— Another former nuke bubblehead officer 😀
“… only in the minds of men…” talk about an offensive, sexist statement.”
I’m going to assume you are joking, that you know that Rod Serling was male, that you understand that line was written in 1959 and that you realize “men” in this context means “human beings”, AKA “mankind”. Because if I didn’t make those assumptions, I would’ve deleted the comment instead of letting it post.
In a very real sense, we *are* in the midst of an alien invasion — but the aliens are those police (and their toadies) who are no longer willing to respect your and my basic rights.
I would like to see more people adopt the attitude that the state these people control isn’t “America” at all any more, that they are usurpers to be resisted, and that we should cooperate against them in various ways, whether or not that makes us some kind of illegal organization. Even if we can’t fight, we can send them off frequently to chase shadows, the way “undergrounds” do in other occupied countries.
GOOD ONE!!!! WOW. Well done.
Greetings from Hamburg conference on sex worker representations in art and the media. Called “Fantasies that Matter” all about dispelling the myths the media creates. Its been intense. Glad you are on the case. We need to think hard and fast on this all.
Annie