SCIENCE FICTION LESSONS I LEARNED AS A KID
Twilight Zone: "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street"

From Wikipedia:

As the aliens state, the central theme is how irrationally people act under stress and, in particular, it serves as an allegory for the Red Scare, particularly the House Committee on Un-American Activities which began as a congressional inquiry into the political inluences of the Soviet Union but rapidly degenerated into a witch-hunt. This is especially prevalent near the end, when shifting the suspicion to someone—anyone other than oneself, innocent or guilty—becomes a way of survival; ultimately, everyone is suspected of being an alien in one form or another, and the town descends into total chaos.

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I don't think I saw this one in early childhood, although it's possible because I did see quite a few with my Mom, who loves the show. Instead, I had to wait until sixth or seventh grade for my first memory of "Maple Street," when we read the teleplay in my language arts class as part of a science fiction unit. The episode's lesson, that human beings freak out and turn on each other when they're extraordinarily frightened, is simple enough to digest, and most Americans probably understand such a concept in the abstract. Unfortunately, the freak out part tends to make people completely forget what they know about human nature. That is, even though Americans know that extreme fear makes people irrational, once they become extremely afraid, they behave irrationally, and such knowledge becomes irrelevant. Case in point: 9/11. American fear of terrorism, stoked by the endless airing on televison of burning World Trade Center footage, has made us imprison Muslims without cause and invade Iraq needlessly. It made us reelect the worst President in US history. It's turned us into torturers.

Like those who were alive when JFK was assassinated, I clearly remember where I was and what I was doing when I first learned what had happened. I was at the school where I taught high school theater that day, and as students and faculty alike ran around ranting and raving about the terrorist threat, my only thought was something to the effect of "I'm much more afraid of the reaction of the American people than I am of any Islamic terrorist." Time has proven me right--just look at the mess we're in now, created by us, rather than terrorists. Actually, I knew I was right that very moment.

Probably because I had watched The Twilight Zone when I was young.

Anyway, Throw away your TV's got the full episode available for viewing. Go check it out. It's great.



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