Commie Chronicles - The Obsolete Man Part 02

Commie Chronicles: The Obsolete Man / Part 02 of 02

Edmund Burke said, It is one of the finest problems in legislation, what the state ought to take upon itself to direct and what it ought to leave, with as little interference as possible, to individual discretion.

-And -

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

Meaning, what entitlements government bestows with one hand, it inevitably takes freedoms with the other.

This episode of The Twilight Zone illustrates both the past and potential future of Totalitarianism. Edited for time. I own nothing.

Excerpted from The Twilight Zone: The Obsolete Man / 1961

Written by Rod Serling. Directed by Elliot Silverstein. With Burgess Meredith, Fritz Weaver, Josip Elic.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734667/plotsummary

In a totalitarian society, Romney Wordsworth is condemned to death for the crime of being a librarian, and he is subjected to the harangues of the state's Chancellor and his lectures about Wordsworth's obsolescence. Wordsworth, however, makes one final request - that he be allowed to choose his method of execution and that it be televised live to the society. The Chancellor agrees and later visits Wordsworth at his house, where he learns that Wordsworth has had tons of explosives rigged under the house to go off at midnight in full view of national television cameras. But as The Chancellor begins to leave, he finds he has been double-crossed by Wordsworth, and suddenly he must face Romney Wordsworth's terrifying vigil as the clock ticks down to the fateful period of midnight.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Totalitarianism
• Statists
• Communism
• Fascism
• Government
• Stalin
• Hitler
• Healthcare
• Cap and Trade
• Religion
• Atheism
• Book burning
• Classic television
• Twilight Zone
• Rod Serling
• Burgess Meredith
• 1961.

[starcrafter13terran]

Communism failed as a totalitarian state because it didn't employ religion. The only way to keep people as sheep is to give them a false reward in death to justify their mindless servitude in life. You want a good example, just sit back and watch what religion does to this country within the next few years. You'll be owned by the state, but it will be a state of smiling pious faces.

[haypenny]

@starcrafter13terran Communism is itself religious zealotry in the extreme. It is the most murderous, bloody cult in world history. Its ethos is to set itself up as a substitute for Deity, and become the object of worship. Man's life is not his own, but property of the State and its dictator. There is nothing more pious or self-righteous than the modern politically correct socialist.

[Solidstryker]

why was this edited????

[haypenny]

@Solidstryker Because YT only allows each video to be 10 minutes long.

[haypenny]

This is not explicitly about God or religion, it's about freedom vs. tyranny; Freedom to practice any religion or no religion is one of the corner stones of a free society. Forced secularism or forced theism are the marks of an oppressed society. If the prisoner in the show had been an atheist and the jailer had been a religious zealot, the result would still be tyranny. When this show was made it just so happens that secular regimes that had been the most recent problem. [Germany, Russia]

[FinFags]

why do I feel like this is america today? RON PAUL 2012!

[commanderkruge]

@haypenny Sigh... Communist != Socialist

Get your definitions straight, 'merican.

[commanderkruge]

@haypenny "most murderous bloody cult" - nope, that were the Nazis. Unlike communism THEIR worldview included countries with a population that has no other use than to be used as slaves in the future and countries/populations they PLANNED to exterminate completely from the get go.

Communism (as a "philosophy or whatever you may call it) never did that. Sure - Stalin still was a mass murderer, but not *because* he was communist.

[TheBoredomOtaku]

In a sense mankind in itself can be obsolete, we need one another to have a feeling of purpose to try and sepereate ourselves from the various animals in the world who's only purpose is to survive and breed. Humans religious or otherwise always desire to have some form of hierarchy over animals, including other humans, the ways we do this vary wether it's helping one another or by demeaning someone else's purpose or make them depend on ones self. So in the end you may ask what is humanity?

[frankbass1]

But what about capitalism? It certainly doesn't care about the rights of man. or God.

[matakame]

(cont.) I'm a man of letters and even though I am disappointed in this kind of system, I had to only follow the current trends, because in a capitalist setting, money runs everything. I am not promoting communism here or any other governments. I'm just telling of how this episode in the 60's perfectly figured out how in four to six decades, books and librarians would really be obsolete, and it's no longer fictitious. Books for eBooks, and librarians for IT programmers. I think I'm obsolete.

[matakame]

This episode's both still very relevant and very ironic. For one, this promotes democratic principles very American, but it is from the US where capitalism started. Though it is not as blatant and straightforward as communism and socialism, capitalism makes literature and librarians obsolete. Thinking about it, capitalist industries gave us eBooks and the Internet. It renders reading paper books and librarians obsolete.

[mickigoe]

Isn't monotheism every bit as evil and ludicrous as personatity-cult ideologies such as communism and fascism. Believing in and venerating god is as supine and immoral as worshipping a Hitler or a Stalin. This film only advocates one form of idiocy as being superior to a similar one. We don't want totalitarianism - but neither should we tolerate organised religions.

[BloodofPatriots]

@kdreamland Lenin would be proud of you, comrade! Hail to the State!

Putz.

[sonrouge]

@kdreamland I support the separation of everything and government.