Dystopian. You’ve read the books and have seen the movies. Classics like Dark City or Road Warrior, The Matrix. Authors like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell.
The themes are similar. Paranoia of our government and even our neighbor. “Newspeak” where the language becomes controlled by the enforcer. “Thought Police” where any expression can be a criminal offense.
We’ve seen it in Nazi Germany, and it is alive in China, North Korea, and the United States. Didn’t recognize it, did you? It’s subtle. Each generation has no deep reference to the past.
Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson plays a character whose response to anything is “OK.” Today we lock down everyone and make them wear a mask. Tomorrow we give them an ID to allow free travel. “OK.”
Buffalo Springfield had a popular song “For What It’s Worth.” The lyrics:
“Paranoia strikes deep/ Into your life it will creep/ It starts when you’re always afraid/ You step out of line, the man come and take you away.”
We should start playing the song again, and stop, think what’s going down and not superficially.
Jan Lipski
Vandenberg Village
This article appears in Nov 5-12, 2020.
