In an episode of Twilight Zone, written by Rod Serling in 1960, entitled “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, Serling creates a mirror of society in 2024. Serling’s insight into the human personality is insightful and somewhat terrifying, even by today’s standards.
The Maple Street show is the 22nd episode of the first season of Twilight Zone. It is available on many streaming platforms. Watch it! The episode conveys the message far greater than this column can.
Spoiler alert – the rest of this column discusses the episode and its possible lessons for today’s daily living.
In Everywhere USA, on a sunny afternoon on Maple Street, a loud noise and light flash overhead. Most everyone thinks it is a meteor, and they go about their daily business. Then, the power goes out. Good neighbor Pete offers to walk over a couple of streets and see if the power is out over there, too.
Young Tommy, a fourteen-year-old lad, tells everyone about a science fiction book he read, where alien monsters shut off the power in order to attack.
After initially laughing Young Tommy off, the friends and neighbors on Maple Street start to turn on each other. A car doesn’t start. Then, inexplicably it does. The neighbors accused the owner of the car of being the monster.
The friends and neighbors start accusing each other of being the monster. As the power goes on and off, they accuse different neighbors of being the monster.
Then, a mysterious shadow appears out of the dark. One of the neighbors, Charlie, sees that the mysterious figure is holding a hammer. Charie grabs a shotgun from one of his neighbors, shoots and kills the figure.
The figure turns out to be good neighbor Pete who was just returning from checking on the power a couple streets over.
The neighbors turn on Charlie. He must be the monster, because he killed Pete. They pursue him and try to stone him.
To deflect attention, Charlie accuses the boy, Tommy, of being an alien. Young Tommy’s mother says the accusation is absurd.
Neighbors turn on neighbors, and Maple Street is engulfed in a full riot.
On a hill, overlooking Maple Street, two aliens stand next to their flying saucer. One says, now you understand the procedure. Just turn the power on and off on their devices and sit back and watch the pattern.
The other alien asks if the pattern is always the same.
The first alien says “With few variations, they pick the most dangerous enemy they can find . . . and it’s themselves.” All the aliens need to do is sit back and watch. The world is full of Maple Streets.
Rod Serling’s eerie narration comes in. He says:
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...the children yet unborn. (a pause)
And the pity of it is...that these things cannot be confined to...The Twilight Zone![1]
The point of the story is that when our consistency is destroyed, we search for the easiest scapegoat we can find.
Coronavirus destroyed our consistency. Our lives, for a period of time, were turned upside down. The medical experts had no idea the possible extent and nature of the pandemic. They erred on the side of caution.
The medical experts gave inconsistent recommendations – mask, no mask. Quarantine – no quarantine. No travel --- Travel. Commerce – no commerce.
Many people were hurt by the pandemic. Now, the pandemic is largely over. Great distrust has been created in our political system, our medical system, our scientists and our ability to respond to disasters.
Most recently, CrowdStrike programming glitches disrupted our consistency, again. That event was followed by the incompetent protection of Donald Trump. After that, a mysterious backroom deal substituted Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate for Joe Biden. Lots of attacks are happening on our consistency. We need to be careful not to seek scapegoats. We should not attack the innocent with conspiracy theories and lies – but place blame where blame is due – based on solid evidence.
For a few years now, we have been turning on each other – calling each other monsters or some synonym -- placing our faith in old wives’ tales -- disregarding facts – and in some cases, attacking those who tell the truth.
Welcome to Maple Street USA. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2005 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House.
He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
[1] Dialog from The Twilight Zone – Courtesy of CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
