how to serve man

If you sit with a bunch of adults and play the game what was your favorite Twilight Zone, most likely everyone will offer a suggestion and as they salivate over just how scary or strange it was, they will smile and recollect just how wonderful it was watching the television show. From the spooky theme song to spooky Rod Serling standing staring at you the Twilight Zone kept the viewer frozen in his/her seats and we loved every single twist and turn.

Recently, on one of the cable channel's Chiller stations, I was able to catch a few Twilight Zone episodes I had either forgotten about or never ever had seen. There was one that caught my attention and one that seemed to resonate too well with me.

It was a clever episode titled to "To Serve People." It was simple in premise. Alien creatures landed on Earth and at first the people of Earth were a bit weary, after all what did these creatures want with earthlings? But the captain of the spaceship met with the people of Earth and quickly demonstrated to the earthlings, all the wondrous, marvelous, and special things he and his fellow aliens could provide all the people of the Earth. The captain made promises, pledges, and speeches explaining that he was one of us, but he could provide all of us with the things we thought we desired because he had the power to do so. His simple message to the earthlings was trust me, trust me and I can make all your dreams come true.

People became delirious with delight and trust the captain, they did. He told his new flock of followers that life on Earth was great due to all he could provide, but just for the hell of it the earthlings could also ride the alien spaceship, visit his planet and really be treated like kings and queens. And so all those who liked the lies, liked the promises, liked the subject without ever looking into the detail bought passage for the trip into space.

The alien captain had a book a kind of resource book, he carried with him every time he spoke to a crowd and by mistake being in a hurry to attend the next rally he left the book behind. Because not all earthlings were gullible and guilty of living off of promises and prose, a woman researcher decided to take the book and see if she could translate the alien language and find out if all the promise and prose was real.

The alien captain had told the earthlings that the book was called To Serve Man and he and his fellow aliens were doing just that by demonstrating how if all earthlings just followed his lead, the way forward would be perfect. Trust must be blind he surmised.

The earthlings were blinded by promise and lined up in the hundreds to board the spacecraft and visit the alien planet. Suddenly the female researcher deciphered the special book and much to her horror the real title of the book To Serve Man, translated into How To Serve Man. It seemed that all the promise and prose, the push toward blind allegiance resulted in nothing more than the gullible, those who wanted easy answers, meant no more than being recipe items for someone to eat and destroy. The earthlings were like cattle led to slaughter.

And as we watch the new Twilight Zone episode of 2011 titled the Republican Primary we also get to view aliens making all kinds of promises and prose as to how they will make America better, by denying rights to the LGBT community, dismantling social security, ending all restrictions on pollution and polluters, having the poor stay poor and stopping unemployment checks, permitting those who can't afford health insurance to, well suffer and die, remove the divide between church and state, and hate anyone who does not pray, work, look or think like a true American (as defined by the aliens).

All the Republican primary candidates say they are running To Serve Man. They have a plan or is it a recipe to shape America to look or is it to be cooked the way they wish, leaving out minorities, the poor, the union worker, the elderly, the Gay. They have a following of people who look no further than the hate, bigotry, and bias of the Republican primary candidates and as long as it is someone else who is the bad guy, the minions/lemmings permit the aliens to run roughshod.

In the end of the original Twilight Zone episode the aliens were found to be nothing more than phony. It was too late for those earthlings who boarded the spacecraft the ones who let the snake oil salesmen sell them baloney. The others still standing in line were saved by the bell not from their own intelligence but from the action of others who wanted more than promise and prose.

Wonder if, by the time the Republican primary is over how many people will not be saved and board that spacecraft to the planet Crazy/Hate/Bigot Ville? Wonder how many people will be on the menu of How To Serve Man?