Rod Serling, in my opinion, was a literary genius, who wrote some of the most creative, prophetic, and thought provoking material, you can find anywhere in entertainment. He was an American patriot, and deeply affected by what he experienced during his time in WWII, portraying those experiences in a lot of what he wrote for his TV shows, in particular ‘The Twilight Zone’. You can pick any episode that he wrote, and they almost always dealt with death, mans strengths and weaknesses, or what frightens us to our core as human beings. Some of those being ‘The Eye of the Beholder’, ‘The Howling Man’, ‘Nick of Time’, ‘Long Distance call’, ‘The Hitch-Hiker’, and ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’. Rod Serling had the ability to scare us out of our seats, or have us thinking about the human condition and how it can and might affect everyone of us. Each episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’, was a collection of what if’s, that were wrapped in an alternate reality called the Twilight Zone. One episode in particular, was a season 2 episode called ‘The Obsolete Man’. Though based in an alternate reality, ‘The Obsolete man’ gave us a look into a possible future that only Rod Serling was capable of predicting. A story that proves as relevant today, as it did when Serling was prophesying a “what could happen”. As Rod Serling aptly opened with each episode:
“You’re traveling into another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Your next stop…the Twilight Zone.”
The Obsolete Man is a Referendum on Todays Society
‘The Obsolete Man’ was written by Rod Serling and starred Burgess Meredith as Romney Wordsworth, a librarian who has been declared obsolete and no longer necessary to society. It also stars Fritz Weaver as the Chancellor who sentences Romney Wordsworth to death because of his obsolescence. The episode opens with a court and the Chancellor calling for Romney Wordsworth. As we see Wordsworth enter the chambers, Rod Serling comes into view, to give the audience a preview of what to expect, what to beware, and to let you know, that you witness what is about to happen… at your own risk.
“You walk into this room at your own risk because it leads to the future. Not a future that will be, but one that might be. This is not a new world. It is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time, It has refinements, technological advances, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the super states that precede it, it has one iron rule: logic is an enemy and truth is a menace.”
Rod Serling, in my opinion, understood the dangers that a government run by powerful self serving men could wrought if unchecked. Serling’s opening monologue alone could be a referendum on what is currently happening in the United States, with its cancel culture of big tech “misinformation” labels, tearing down of our history, burning of our books, censorship of our speech, and mandates meant to control us.
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Our Government Might Consider Us The Obsolete Man
Romney Wordsworth has been deemed obsolete by the State. Much like parents, truckers, nurses, and kids have been deemed not intelligent enough to make decisions about their own health with the pandemic, our Federal Government and local State governments, have tried to force their wills on the American people, and take away their freedom of choice. In ‘The Obsolete Man’s’ alternate reality, books and libraries have been eliminated, as well as all belief in God. As a result, Romney Wordsworth is declared by the State to no longer serve a function in society. Wordsworth has been relegated to an anachronism according to the Chancellor. During his trial, Wordsworth defends his existence by reminding the court they cannot destroy the truth by burning pages.
“I am nothing more than a reminder to you that you can’t destroy truth by burning pages”
The Chancellor responds by calling Mr. Wordsworth delusional into believing the books that he reads have any meaning.
“Delusions, Mr. Wordsworth, delusions that you inject into your veins with printers ink. The narcotics that you call literature, the Bible, poetry, essays, all kind of it an opiate to make you think you have strength, when you have no strength at all!”
Mr. Wordsworth is found summarily guilty of being obsolete by the board, and is to be liquidated within 48 hours. Mr. Wordsworth is allowed to choose how he is liquidated and does so, but opting for the condition to have an audience that witnesses his liquidation. Everything in this episode up until this point is something we can relate to today. Christians being discriminated against during the pandemic, in the classroom, and in our mainstream media. Films and TV shows, once thought representative of our American spirit, creativity, and innovation, and representative of America’s freedoms, whether you agreed with their message, hated or loved them, are now being eliminated, censored, or denigrated as racist.
The Twilight Zone
Credit – CBS
The Average American is to be Respected
The character of Romney Wordsworth represents the average American who is extremely patriotic and the backbone of society. He is the “deplorable” as Hilary Clinton and the left describe us. But the average American patriot is not a deplorable. They are someone to be just as respected as the elite in Washington DC think they should be. They are the people that deliver the things you buy and arrive at your front door, they are the truck drivers that run freight all across this country, they are the alternate media that risk condemnation in order to seek the truth, they are the nurses and first responders that protect us, and they are the men and women who serve in our military. But, the average American is being cancelled by a select few, “The State”, simply because they might have a differing opinion than those that think they know better. But what has happened in America, as a result of cancel culture, the pandemic, mandates, and the freedom of choice being eroded away, is a swell of patriots that want their country back, who won’t tolerate the suffocating control some in government are trying to exact over the populace. Patriots are fighting back against this censorship of their freedoms and as Paul Atreides claims in 1984’s ‘Dune”…”The Sleeper has awakened!”
The “State” Can’t Survive Without the Average Person
‘The Obsolete man’ and the character of Romney Wordsworth demonstrates the resolve of the average person and their relevance in society. This is exemplified further in the episode when Wordsworth invites the Chancellor to his room to witness his liquidation. The State, being as misguided in their grand importance and conceit, as todays average Tik Tokker, needs to prove to Wordsworth just how strong the State is, and just how unimportant Wordsworth’s relevance really is:
Chancellor: “I’ll tell you why I came Mr. Wordsworth. Perhaps to prove something to you.”
Wordsworth: “And that is?”
Chancellor: “To prove to you that the State has no fears, none at all!”
Wordsworth: “No, you will forgive me Chancellor. That has all the elements of a joke. I mean you come to my room to prove that the State isn’t afraid of me? Oh, what an incredible burden I must be, to have to prove that the State isn’t afraid of an obsolete librarian like myself. No, I’ll tell you the reason you came. I’ll tell you the reason, though you won’t admit it to yourself.”
Chancellor: “Now it’s my turn to ask. What might that be?”
Wordsworth: “I don’t fit your formulae. Somewhere along the line, there’s been a deviation from the norm. Your State has everything categorized, indexed tagged. You are the strength. People like me are the weakness. You control, order, and dictate, and my kind merely follow and obey. But something’s gone wrong, hasn’t it? I don’t fit, do I? Oh, yes,”
Chancellor: “Yes, you fit, Mr.Wordsworth! Indeed, you fit! In a few minutes, you’ll be cringing and pleading just like they all do! Oh yes, indeed you fit. You have a worthless meaningless little life, but you also have an instinct for survival. And in a few minutes when you feel life slipping away. When you feel that your survival is just a question of minutes, we’ll see then which is stronger, Mr.Wordsworth, The State or the librarian! (pause) I take it you’ve had a talk with whoever has assigned your liquidation.”
The “State” Will Lose Because They Are Repeating the Same Mistakes
Romney Wordsworth continues in the scene and talks about how relevant history is and how the State has learned nothing from that history. Just like todays left who won’t learn from history’s past mistakes, they make the same, not realizing they are repeating what came before. The difference being, that there has been an awakening of sorts, and the average person’s patience has reached a boiling point, of how much they will tolerate, from an out of control attack on everything from pop culture to politics.
Chancellor: “It’s not unusual that we televise executions, Mr.Wordsworth… last year in the mass executions, we televised around the clock. Thirteen hundred people were put to death in less than six hours.”
Wordsworth: “You never learn do you? History teaches you nothing!”
Chancellor: “On the contrary. History teaches us a great deal. We had predecessors, Mr.Wordsworth, that had the beginnings of the right idea…”
Wordsworth: “Ah, yes, Hitler!”
Chancellor: “Yes, Hitler.”
Wordsworth: “Stalin.”
Chancellor: “Stalin, too. But their error was not one of excess it was simply not going far enough! Too many undesirables left around and undesirables eventually create a corp of resistance. Old people for example, clutch at the past and won’t accept the new. The sick, the maimed, the deformed, they fasten onto the healthy body and damage it. So WE eliminate them! And people like yourself, they can perform no useful function for The State, so…we put an end to them.”
The Covid pandemic could be considered an example of the “State” trying to see how far they could control us and show us jus how easy it could be. We are still two years into the “pandemic”, and there are States that still won’t lift certain restrictions. There are big tech companies, Hollywood, mainstream media, and schools, who are trying to shape what we watch, read, and learn, in hopes of luring us into “right think”.
Credit – CBS
The “State” Will do Anything to Survive
Romney Wordsworth is a figurative example of how much people value their freedom of choice and independent thought. It’s also an example of how far people might go in defending that freedom. The Civil War and WWII come to mind, as examples of America’s resolve in the face of adversity and the fight for freedom and equality. In an ironic twist in ‘The Obsolete Man’, Wordsworth tricks the Chancellor by locking him in to the same fate Wordsworth has been condemned to. Wordsworth locks the Chancellor in his room with him so he can experience the same liquidation as Wordsworth. The Chancellor becomes visibly upset and frightened, as the minutes tick away and edge closer and closer to his eventual demise. Wordsworth meanwhile, pulls out a Bible that he’s kept safe for twenty years, and starts to read from it, telling the Chancellor that having a copy of the Bible would be a death sentence these days. The Chancellor becomes more and more frantic as Wordsworth reads from his Bible, and in the very last moments before the Chancellor knows he’s going to die, he begs for God to set him free. Wordsworth obliges the Chancellor, lets him out of his room, shuts the door, and is liquidated. As a result of the Chancellor’s cowardice during Wordsworth’s liquidation, the Chancellor is deemed obsolete himself, and is sentenced to liquidation. As he is dragged away by members of the State, he screams over and over again that he is not obsolete and has a purpose. One of the reasons he is liquidated, is because of his invocation of God, which is punishable by death. Being a person of faith, in our current society, is something looked down upon as ridiculous and out of the norm, when just a few decades ago, for example, prayer in public schools was something quite normal. Just another example of the increasing control the government has effectively perpetrated on the American people.
As Man Becomes Obsolete, so Does the “State”
Rod Serling’s story in ‘The Obsolete Man’ is an indictment on how precious our freedoms are and how easily we could lose them if we don’t fight for them. It is also a referendum on the “State”, who risk being obsolete themselves if they continue to not value the worth of the average person. Rod Serling was as profound as he was entertaining. One of the great storytellers that died before his time, and whose genius is sorely missed. Rod Serling closed out the episode with this epilogue:
“The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete, but so is the State, the entity he worshiped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under “M” for mankind—in the Twilight Zone.”
