The Good Lady Anne Looks Just Like You

Perhaps I return to this thread as a result of my ongoing fascination with the Twilight Zone as a form of reassurance that the rate of change we see today was not merely a plot gone awry and real from these old black and white vignettes. Maybe, just maybe I will find that the events since January 2020 were all part of one of Serling’s forgotten scripts and that we will, collectively, awake to find that it is the first morning of the 2020 and that two years we dreamt were merely a side effect of that clear and vile liquid called Svedka.

Ha.

Doggedly, we must accept what “is” and strive for a better “what will be.”

In the meantime, my lack of posting has forced a creative backlog – yet three episodes stand out not only for their messages at the time, but their relations to today and the undetermined future…

The opening narration of “It’s a Good Life” (S03E08; 3Nov1961) immediately brought to mind the algorithms of today’s social media:

A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines – because they displeased him – and he moved an entire community back into the dark ages – just by using his mind.

[…]

And you’ll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio, have to smile. They have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield or change them into a grotesque, walking horror. This particular monster can read minds, you see. He knows every thought; he can feel every emotion. 

Social media: a technological child (in relative age/maturity) capable of reading minds and vanishing people who dare even think negative thoughts – a petulant form of control based upon immature whims of pleasure and displeasure. Disagree and disappear. Everyone on eggshells; no one relaxed. No singing. No joy.

This might be an overly negative and unfair perspective of social media; I can at least admit that, along with the perceived hypocrisy of using the same tools I lament. However, it is merely my own opinions and observations that this very same tool – but one product of many which are the result of the Information Revolution that seems to be churning us all into a froth, globally – seems to cause more harm than good… more often than not.

Which leads me to the perspective of the inevitability of the changing world – this time “Passage on the Lady Anne” (S4E17; 9May1963)

Toby: It’s a pity what’s going to happen.

Burgess: It isn’t a pity. It’s a crime! A crime perpetrated by stupid men in bow ties.

Toby: Now, now, easy, Burgess. Nothing to get overheated about.

Burgess: Nothing? Are you so-so feeble minded that you can’t see the truth? Don’t you realize why they’re going to scrap the Lady Anne?

Toby: Outlived her usefulness, I suppose.

Burgess: Oh, nonsense. She’s the finest ship afloat. You deny it?

Toby: Certainly not.

Burgess: Oh. She may be a little slow, perhaps, but 13 or 14 days ought to be quite fast enough for anyone in their right minds.

That’s just it. People aren’t in their right minds anymore.

They sacrifice leisure for speed. And speed’s the only thing that matters. Come, quick, hurry, hurry, hurry. Fast, faster, faster. Get it over with. Why? Why the rush?

Toby: Don’t get so querulous, old man. It’s bad for you.

Burgess: I am not querulous. I am merely trying to point out the true reason for this disgraceful decision.

Toby: Which Is?

Burgess: A plot. Obviously of communistic origin. They’re going to condemn the Lady Anne because she represents a way of life. The old way. She has grace, manners, tradition. And now they’re going to scrap her.

Passenger: Oh, I say! Somebody turn him off.

Burgess: Nothing is sacred anymore. The beasts are at the gates, but we’re too old to fight them, so we have to stand around like a lot of pathetic statues with our medals tarnished and our swords broken, while the vandals turn our castles into sideshows and stick up nasty little advertisements for soap all along the roadside. And now they’re going to scrap the Lady Anne. But I warn you, how are we going to stop them from scrapping the whole world?

Much of the digital world makes some of us feel like “people aren’t in their right minds anymore,” and that the instant gratification/dopamine hit we get from virtual approval or “vindication” that is never as good as the previous one experienced.

Want proof? Today, the President had a minor bicycle incident… how much commentary has that generated since it first occurred? How many arguments in comment sections has resulted from such a trivial event? On the flip side, how much genuine discussion can be found on analysis pieces on oil and wheat production forecasts for the autumn/winter cycles?

“Autumn…” Hm… the substitution may or may not have been intentional…extrapolate freely.

[Dons foil tricone] Perhaps it is a “plot… obviously of communistic origin.”

Of course, I jest… The rant about “nothing is sacred anymore” probably has been uttered at the twilight of every generation, starting back when the first multi-cell organism was belittled as an “aberration of what has been tried and true” by some geriatric and crotchety single-cell fogey.

What resonated with me in this rant was the realization that, by the time some folks “get it,” they are well past the window of opportunity to actually do much anything about it. The Lady Anne could be today’s dollar… Constitutional right… foreign/domestic policy… trade… whatever is at risk for being changed for reasons deemed “proper” but in all actuality is merely “political.”

[Picks up pieces of his sword and hastily buffs the one or two medals worth a damn…]

Finally, I had been meaning on writing about “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” (S5E17;24Jan1964) for a long time… but, in the case of this blog, social media, and the internal/external forces of change, it seemed fitting to revisit some interesting dialogue:

Marilyn: But is that good? Being like everybody… I mean, isn’t that the same as being nobody?

Is conformity truly a good thing?

In some instances, yes. Social or physical homogeny affords some level of protection from potential threats and reinforces the collective identity. However, and this is an observation I started having when piercings really took off back in the ‘90s: sometimes, it is merely a matter of “being different just like everyone else” and that is when I start to cringe at the emphasis on the idea of being unique versus the essence of being unlike anything else in common circulation.

Even blogging… Of course I would love for this to become more visible, but that would come at a price and following the format of content creation that has led to others’ success would also put this blog as being yet another medium for frustrated rantings rather than the “semi-philosophical” frustrated rantings of yet another blogger. Big distinction, there.

Doctor Rex: You mustn’t worry, Lana. Marilyn is like the rest of them nowadays.

Marilyn: I am?

Doctor Rex: And it’s our fault really. We haven’t given her any definite reason why she must wait until the age of 19. You see, she looks at you, Lana, and the other women around her and then at herself in the mirror.

Marilyn: Doctor…

Doctor Rex: From pure perfection of body, face, limb, pigmentation, stance, carriage, she looks at herself and she’s horrified. Isn’t that so? [without awaiting Marilyn’s response] Of course. You see, the poor child says to herself why should I be so hideous? So awkward, oversized, unbalanced, so full of revolting skin eruptions, eh? In short, Lana, our Marilyn is tired of being a monster.

Have I mentioned how much I despise identity politics? It is too easy for the emphasis to be on aspects which can readily be adapted to “vulnerabilities,” based upon the whims of the collective. As long as the yard is manicured, the HOA doesn’t care that the house is structurally compromised… just as long as the perceived value for everyone else isn’t affected.

Doctor Rex: Your general intelligence rating is quite high. Your social adaptability is good. Your powers of reasoning, quite normal.

Marilyn: Then why can’t I make up my own mind?

Lana: Marilyn, please.

Marilyn: Why can’t I? Why are you gonna force me to do something I don’t want to do? You can’t make me do it, can you? Nobody can make me do it.

Doctor Rex: Now, now, my dear child. No one has ever been forced to take transformation if he didn’t want it. You see, the problem is simply to discover why you don’t want it and then to make the necessary correction.

Ah yes, why can’t the individual decide what is best for them? Why should choice ever be made for and not by someone?

What is most unsettling about this fictional dialogue is the implication in the last sentence: there is a choice, but we need to determine how best to help one best arrive at the decision we want them to make.

Of course, this brings me back to Causality once again:

Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.

Marilyn: Why does everyone want to force me to do something I don’t want to do?

Doctor Friend: But for your own good. Why else? Why else would the state go to such trouble and expense? Many years ago, wiser men than I decided to try and eliminate the reasons for inequality and injustice in this world of ours. They saw in physical unattractiveness one of the factors which made men hate. So, they charged the finest scientific minds with the task of eliminating ugliness in mankind.

When I arrived at my first duty station, pretty much all enlisted were receiving additional money for food as there was no Army-operated dining facility on Wheeler AAF. About a year later, one was opened, but the numbers weren’t there to justify operations. See, most of the enlisted on the airfield didn’t maintain hours conducive to the DoD schedule for dining facility hours of operation (funny that no one seemed to ask that question before sinking money into getting one set up and opened… but… yeah…) So, rather than change the hours or re-evaluate the justifications for continued monetary compensation on a case-by-case basis, the additional money was no longer part of the enlisted folks’ paychecks – in one of the most expensive states in the U.S…

I share that story because the spirit of some decisions may seem to be “for one’s own good,” but the assistance can actually become a hinderance or a dangerous liability, depending on the context and the disregard for the second- and third-order effects of a “good idea.”  

Doctor Friend: I am afraid that for the time being you must let us decide what is best for you.

Nurse: We’re not going to hurt you; we’re only going to help you.

Cringeworthy.

Marilyn [retelling what her father had told her before he committed suicide]: “When everyone is beautiful, no one will be… because without ugliness there can be no beauty.”

This last bit has been incorporated into the quote for which I cannot source at the moment: “When everyone thinks alike, no one is thinking.”

Opposing thoughts, perspectives, and viewpoints are imperative to the growth of a group, organization, and/or society; history would be quite different if everyone just agreed upon an idea… and now that I think of it, there are documented examples of what happens when everyone does think alike and no one challenges the status quo or bestows the crown of “Absolute Truth” upon an individual or dataset.