Just in case people are interested, here is a copy of my presentation from last September’s 3rd Annual Rod Serling Conference.  One of the more interesting things I learned there was that the first script Serling wrote for The Twlight Zone was called “The Happy Place” where the unwanted and non-productive members of society are gifted with a complementary elevator ride that they never return.  Given the current wave of triage-thinking and social deconstruction going on these days, wide-spread dramatization of this script could be very educational and perhaps even life-saving to some.

Comments welcome on the paper, folks…

Social Justice fromthe Twilight Zone

Rod Serling as HumanRights Activist

 

A Paper by

 

Hugh A.D. Spencer

09 September 2011

 

 

 

 

 

The Perspective of the Analyst:

Edifying Entertainment

 

Ishould begin with a confession.  I am nota civil rights lawyer, an expert in international relations, a philosopher,historian or scholar of popular culture. I’m not even a particularly well known writer.  My day job is to work with museums and planexhibitions, and in this capacity I get frequent crash courses in subjects fromnatural history to technology, aviation, ethnography and military history, evenart history.  My professional interest inhuman rights and human rights education came from working on two projects: 

 

·        100 Years of the Nobel Peace Prize, a largetemporary exhibition  in Seoul, intendedto celebrate the Korean President Kim Dae Jong receiving the award in 2000.  

·        The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, whichwill open in 2013 in Winnipeg Manitoba.  The Museum is planned as an international institution which takes as itsstarting point a commemoration of the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights andFreedoms and a world-wide history of the human rights story.

 

Themajor challenge with both projects was to communicate concepts and idealsassociated with human rights  in waysthat visitors would find exciting, inspiring and even entertaining.  While the goal of the experience was toinform and motivate visitors (Victorians might use the word “edify”) we alsohad to attract and entertain them. People are making a substantial investment of their free time and moneywhen they come to exhibitions – and if you bore or irritate them it will notmatter how important your message is.

          This is the same problem thattelevision writers and producers face; the first step is get the viewer’sattention, the next one is to keep it, and then you can move on to telling astory of substance.  Rod Serling firstcame to pubic attention writing teleplays such as Patterns, Requiem for aHeavyweight, The Comedian and The Velvet Alley, all of which expressa strong moral sense and social consciousness. But, as most of us here know, this exposure came at the price ofincreasing interference from sponsors and network censors who feared thatpolitical statements in TV drama would offend viewers/consumers.  When interviewed by Mike Wallace in 1959, itappeared that Serling had given up the battle:

“I don’t want to fight anymore.I don’t want to have to battle sponsors and agencies. I don’t want to have topush for something that I want and have to settle for second best. I don’t wantto have to compromise all the time, which in essence is what a televisionwriter does if he wants to put on controversial themes.”

 

Itturned out that creating The TwilightZone did not represent surrender but rather a change in tactics.  The anthology series would become a forum fortelling relevant stories without commercial or bureaucratic interference.  Serling’s creative strategy was to set thenarratives in an imaginary setting with fantastical characters.

In fact if you approach Serling’s scripts for The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery as just exercises infantasy or speculative fiction, then you are missing the point.  Many of Rod Serling’s stories explore valuesand themes that express the essential equality, freedom and dignity of allpeople and in that sense he is acting as more than just an entertainer but alsoas an educator and an advocate.  I wouldalso argue that because of the relevance and power of these themes of socialand personal justice, Serling is an extremely effective educator.

         

 

 

The United Nation’s Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights

Once I startedwondering whether Mr. Serling and I might both be in the business of raisingawareness of human rights issues, I began to think about how the struggle forhuman rights might have inspired his creative vision.        As an intellectual exercise but also as way of educatingmyself, I started comparing themes from TwilightZone and Night Gallery episodeswith charter and constitutional statements of human rights.  I chose the United NationUniversal Declaration of Human Rights as the human rights “template” for myproject.    

Briefly, the Universal Declaration of HumanRights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 andin 1976 it was ratified as international law. The Declaration was a response to the atrocities and conflicts of WorldWar II and is the first world-wide expression of the inherent rights of allpersons.  The document consists of 30articles which can be found at number of websites including : 

http://humanrightsmuseum.ca/exhibits/udhr/[1]

 Iselected the UDHR because it was developed by an international body and as suchrepresents one of the most inclusive and comprehensive statements of human rights.  It is not surprising that there have been criticismsas well as praise for the Declaration but in my opinion, the criticalcommentary relates to categories of rights that have not been includied (suchas freedom of sexual orientation and gender identity)  or when the articles cause discomfort for specificcommunities and political regimes. 

 

Revealing Injustice andCalling for Human Rights

Fortoday’s discussion, I chose three episodes of The Twilight Zone and three NightGallery segments to compare with specific articles from the UDHR.  After reading Spaceships and Politics: The Political Theory of Rod Serling[2], I am convinced that manymore of Serling’s scripts would provide insightful comparisons but I selectedthese six stories because a) they represent something of a range in Serling’swork and b) I think they represent fantastic television (in both senses of theword!) that has people still talking around the water cooler half a centurylater.

 

Robots, Military Schools and Truthful Education: 

“TheAcademy” and “The Class of  ’99”

Article26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

 

(1)  Everyone has the right to education.Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional educationshall be made generally available and higher education shall be equallyaccessible to all on the basis of merit.

 

(2)  Education shall be directed tothe full development of the human personality and to the strengthening ofrespect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promoteunderstanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religiousgroups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for themaintenance of peace.

 

 (3) Parents have a prior right to choose thekind of education that shall be given to their children.

 

Bothof the Night Gallery segments explore the role and process of education– or rather they demonstrate the nightmarish consequences of the perversion ofeducation.

In“The Academy” Mr. Holston visits Glendalough Academy, a military school todetermine its suitability for his son Roger. We gradually learn that Roger is a discipline problem and theapplication of a strict regime of traditional curriculum and militarydiscipline may be just the thing to straighten the boy out.  “Discipline is the major item word here,” theAcademy Director states.  Studies and thedaily schedule are accompanied by continual drill:  “Physical drill…drill at every level.”

     “The Academy” was broadcast in 1971 in themidst of a decade of anti-war and civil rights protests and a climate of unrestand activism on many university campuses – including the Kent State Universityshootings on May 4^th, 1970.

Educationaltheory and practice during this period were also perceived by some as becomingincreasingly permissive, with a greater emphasis on the needs of the individualstudent, a more “expressive” curriculum and with many school boards banning allforms of corporal punishment.  There was growingpublic reaction against such “liberal” initiatives and it is not difficult toimagine that  at least some of thetelevision audience probably believed that a return to traditional educationwith a heavy emphasis on conformity and discipline was exactly what the then-youngergeneration needed.

     The resolution of “The Academy” is achallenge to the conservative attitudes of some viewers. First Mr. Holstonlearns that Glendalough is a self-contained world with little contact withfamily and the outside world.  Second, whenHolston asks an older man in uniform how long he has been employed by theAcademy, the man replies that he is actually a student and has been enrolledthere for his entire adult life.  

Thethird and last development is the possibly the most shocking.  Holston has made up his mind, Roger is “a rotter”,Holston tells his chauffeur and Glendalough is just the place for the boy.

     So, who is the real villain, “the rotter”in this case?  Could the son’s behaviour bea reaction to his father’s cruelty and callous nature?  Might we be witnessing some manifestation ofa dysfunctional family?  Or perhaps theson’s rebellion is some form of political action? 

     We can’t know the answers to thesequestions because the story stops at this point.  But we can reach the conclusion that “TheAcademy” represents a monstrous distortion of the right to education, whereschooling becomes a form of imprisonment and punishment.

     There is a complication when we look at thelast provision in Article 26.  Mr.Holston is exercising his right in that he is making the choice as to how hischild will be educated.  This a reminderthat no charter or constitution is perfect and cannot address everysituation.  The intent of this provisionis to respect the values and heritage of families and individuals in theireducational decisions.  I can see thepressing need for this right: I come from Canada, a country where youngaboriginal children were forcibly taken from their families and taken to livein residential schools.  At these allegedinstitutions of learning, the native languages and cultures  were actively suppressed and many childrenwere physically and sexually abused by staff. If Canadians had respected Item #3 of Article 26, residential schools couldnever have existed.

     However, we do have to consider thepriority and balance of different human rights. In the context of “The Academy”, I feel that the possibly malevolentmotives of the father and the coercive nature of the institution, over-ride theright to parental choice.  You do havethe right to decide where, or at least, what kind of school your childattends.  You do not have the right tosend your child to prison or to have them tortured.

     “The Class of ’99” was also produced in1971 and written in the same social and political context as “The Academy”.   Thestory seems to offer a different perspective on education, at least at first.   The action starts in the lecture hallof  what looks like a contemporaryco-educational university.  A professoris administering an oral exam to the class:

Professor.  Let me review briefly our procedure:  I will direct random questions to various ofyou and will grade you immediately.  Keepin mind, however that the question may be repeated at any time to someone else.

 

Itdoesn’t take long to establish that this a really difficult exam – and it isalso a manifestation of a very exacting and unforgiving educationalsystem.  Partial answers are scored ascomplete failures, there’s no form of learning through discussion or trial anderror, and professors are free to insult their students.  The initial set of questions come from arcaneand archaic fields of math and physics – content that is probably difficult toremember simply because it is so far removed from the experience of thestudents, and has questionable relevance.

     The questions soon address even morechallenging issues and the oral exam starts to feel more like a “graduateschool seminar from hell”.  One student(Mr. Clinton) is asked by the Professor if another student who is obviously  African-American (Mr. Barnes), mightrepresent a “special problem”.

 

Clinton.  Possibly inferior.  (looks towards Barnes)  Being black, he might be inferior.

 

Thestory now unfolds like a dramatization of a social psychology experimentdesigned by Stanley Milgram[3], wherethe students are coached through different conflict situations based on race,class, income, politics and war.  Eachtime the students do as directed by the Professor and there is a certain amountof psychological and physical violence involved:  verbal abuse, slapping, spitting and evengunfire.  Each time noxious and evencriminal behaviour is permitted because it takes place in the context of intellectualauthority.  Just like Milgram’sexperiments.

     Unlike most of Milgram’s test subjects, oneof the students (Mr. Etkins) eventually rebels and refuses to kill anotherstudent (Mr. Chang) who has been identified as being from an “enemyculture”.  Mr. Etkins is destroyed forhis trouble and his destruction reveals the true nature of the Class of’99.  They are humanoid robots and theuniversity is building them to “re-populate society”.  As Mr. Johnson, the class valedictorian,states, education is crucial to this process:

Johnson.  All that we know…our attitudes…ourvalues…are part of the integral data fed into us and we shall use them as apoint of beginning.  We must bejust…but ruthless in terms of survival. We must recognize that many of the ancient virtues are simplyweaknesses.

 

Ifwe apply Item Two of Article 26 we see that this fictional university and itsfaculty represent an abuse of educational institutions and the rights of theirstudents.   The education of the Class of’99 is not dedicated to their personal development nor does it strengthen arespect for human dignity and freedom. Instead the class has been inculcated with cultural misunderstandings,intolerance and hostility.  To say thatthese attitudes must be embraced as part of our basic human nature is cynicaland evil.  Even robots deserve bettertreatment.

 

 

Privacy, Person-Hood and Aliens: 

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”

 

Twoarticles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are relevant to thisclassic episode of The Twilight Zone:

 

Article12:

No one shall be subjected toarbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor toattacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to theprotection of the law against such interference or attacks.

 

Article6:

Everyone has the right torecognition everywhere as a person before the law.

 

Toexplore how these rights are represented, and then violated, we can start withwhat may be some of the most powerful words written in the history of dramatic television:

 

NARRATOR.  The tools of conquest do not necessarily comewith bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that aresimply thoughts, attitudes, and prejudices— to be found only in the minds ofmen. For the record, prejudices can kill and sus­picion can destroy and athoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own for thechildren . . . and the children yet unborn.  And the pity of it is . . . that these things cannot be confined to . .. The Twilight Zone!

 

Thisclosing narration is a stark and unforgettable warning about the dangers ofsocial paranoia and the failure to respect the dignity and privacy ofothers.  When we disregard these rightswe place the ties of trust that hold communities together at risk.

          This Twilight Zone episode hasbeen interpreted as a critique of McCarthyism and political witch-hunts and thestory certainly works at that level. However, there is a more universal relevance to “The Monsters Are Due onMaple Street” if we keep Articles 6 and 12 from the Universal Declaration inmind as we watch it.

          Ambiguity and the threat of dangeroften places stress on community life which in turn puts our rights atrisk.   The story starts with amysterious meteor passing overhead and an inexplicable interruption ofelectrical power, communications and transportation – the very services thatmake suburban life possible.  The crisisof uncertainty is made worse when a boy (Tommy) offers scenarios from sciencefiction as an explanation, and these scenarios call the person-hood of some ofthe residents of Maple Street into question:

 

TOMMY. That was the way they pre­pared things for the landing. They sentfour people. A mother and a father and two kids who looked just like humans . .. but they weren’t.

 

There’s another silence as Steve looks towardthe crowd and then toward Tommy. He wears a tight grin.

 

STEVE. Well, I guess what we’d bet­ter do then is to run a check on the neighbourhoodand see which ones of us are really human.

 

BeforeTommy put the idea of “aliens among us” into the neighbours’ minds, they weremerely frightened, but now people are thinking along the lines of “us” and “notus” and that perspective rapidly erodes the social fabric of thecommunity.  As the action continues,events and situations that would normally be regarded as innocent ortrivial:  lights flashing on and off, owningham radios and suffering from insomnia, are now seen as highly significant andpotentially dangerous.  As the trueinvaders remark, the downward spiral has begun, from suspicion, to violence, tochaos.

          Steve Brand is the only resident whoseriously questions the “aliens among us” theory and struggles to defend hisand his neighbours’, integrity and reputation. Brand also defends his right to privacy when his neighbours insist ongoing into his home to determine if he has been using his ham radio to signalthe space aliens.

MRS. BRAND. Steve! Steve, please. (Thenlooking around, frightened, she walks toward the group.) It’s just a hamradio set, that’s all. I bought him a book on it myself. It’s just a ham radioset. A lot of people have them. I can show it to you. It’s right down in thebasement.

STEVE.(Whirls around toward her) Show them nothing! If they want to look inside our house—let themget a search warrant.

Brandis eventually overwhelmed by his neighbours as the street degenerates intohouse-to-house warfare.  Even with humanrights on his or her side, the individual cannot overcome violence andpersecution without some support from others. The destruction that follows teaches us that human rights andproclamations about our freedom and dignity are not just legal concepts orguidelines for good behaviour – they are essential principles for the peace andprosperity of our communities.

 

 

Individuality, Community and Asylum: 

“The Eye of the Beholder” and “The Different Ones”

 

Three UDHR principles are relevant to these two programmes:

 

Article1:

 

All human beings are born freeand equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscienceand should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

 

Article 21:

 

(1) Everyone has the right totake part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosenrepresentatives.

(2) Everyone has the right ofequal access to public service in his country.

(3) The will of the people shallbe the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed inperiodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrageand shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

 

Article 14:

 

(1) Everyone has the right toseek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

(2) This right may not be invokedin the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or fromacts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

 

Thisepisode of The Twilight Zone and this segment of Night Gallerycan be viewed as inversions of each other. In one story, a person we would see as normal-looking is surrounded by asociety of monsters.  In the other,someone we would regard as monstrous lives in world of people who look justlike you and me.  In both stories, theperson who is different is abused by the conforming majority.  Monstrosity is not a function of our outwardappearance; what makes us truly ugly is our failure to respect the dignity andinnate rights of others.

          “The Eye of the Beholder” is anexample of the medical deprivation of human rights and civil liberties.  Janet Tyler awakes in a hospital bed, herface completely covered in bandages, awaiting the results of the series ofcosmetic surgeries.  Her appearance isconsidered so grotesque that she must undergo treatments to make her closer to“the norm”.  Tyler has little say in thecourse of her treatments or even in the details of her daily life – she’s notallowed sit in the hospital garden or even open the window of her room.  Tyler is not a citizen, a person with rights;she is a patient, a medical and social problem that must be solved.  Doctor Bernardi and the nurses at thehospital represent a paternalistic state. They do stress their compassion for Tyler’s situation but they also saythat this is her final treatment and that she is running out of options:

         

BERNARDI.  Thisis your 11^th visit to the hospital where you have the received themandatory number of treatments and afforded as much time as possible, MissTyler.

 

EvenTyler’s status as patient will not protect her from her persistentindividuality indefinitely.

          The character Victor Kotch in “TheDifferent Ones” is also marginalized by his unacceptable appearance – not as ahospital patient but as a housebound recluse who only interacts with hiswidowed father Paul.  Paul Kotch tries toprotect Victor in the context of a traditional family but both know that theywill eventually be unable to shield themselves from growing verbal and physicalassaults from an increasingly hostile community. 

          Paul Kotch contacts the “Office forSpecial Urban Problems” for help but learns that his son’s condition is soextreme that it is beyond the scope of the State’s compassion and capacity tohelp.  We also learn that there is anadditional “ticking clock” to this family’s dilemma:  Victor’s unusual appearance is in violationof “The Federal Conformity Act of 1993”. Sooner or later Paul will have to do something about his son. 

          The possibility of the State endingthe lives of these unfortunates is discussed as a possibility in bothstories.  After the failure of her finaltreatment, Janet Tyler in “The Eye of the Beholder” asks to be euthanized butDr. Bernadi is reluctant and encourages her to immigrate to one of the coloniesset up for “people of her kind”.  TheState in “The Different Ones” is less compassionate – there are no suchcommunities in Victor’s world and the representative from the Office of SpecialUrban Problems even raises the possibility of the youth’s termination to Paul:

 

SOCIAL WORKER.  Putting him to sleep for humanitarianreasons is hardly an act of murder, Mr. Kotch.

 

BothVictor Kotch and Janet Tyler escape death and their oppressive situations.  Tyler meets a representative of one the colonieswho is “just like her” (i.e. physically perfect by our standards).  And Victor leaves the Earth as a part of aninterplanetary cultural exchange program, where he meets people who are “justlike him” (i.e. grotesque by our standards). The principle that allows these characters to survive is the UDHR Article14, the right of asylum.

          These are happy endings, but not very,because asylum is a right of last resort. It is unfortunate that Tyler and Victor can only live in communitiespopulated by “their own kind” and it is commentary on the larger societies thatcasts out those who cannot fit into an arbitrary set of narrow criteria.  These states are diminished by theirinability to accommodate diversity and care for the afflicted.

 

The UDHR Conceptual Pillars: 

“The Obsolete Man”

 

Thisis one of the most remarkable episodes of TheTwilight Zone.  The script and actingcould be from a production of a Berthold Brecht play and the sets andcinematography are reminiscent of German expressionist cinema.  As with many Twilight Zone and NightGallery stories, the intent is to create a sense of nightmare and in “TheObsolete Man”  it is definitely apolitical nightmare. 

          Romney Wordsworth, who states hisprofession as “librarian”, has been tried by the State and has been judged as“obsolete”.  As a “bug not a person”, inthe words of the Leader and with no function, Wordsworth is to beexecuted.   It is inadequate to say thatWordsworth lives in a totalitarian society – the power of this system is soabsolute that they are able to attack his rights at every possible level:  his dignity, his safety, his livelihood, hismeans of expressing himself and even his religious beliefs. 

The “special problems” the State has withMr. Woodsworth are also the pillars or foundational categories of rights thatmake up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Thepillars are more than a system for organizing ideals, rather they representinter-dependent principles; if one of these is weakened, then all the othersare compromised.  Mr. Wordsworth’s rightto live is called into question because his economic rights have been devalued(his profession is “obsolete”).  Theright to live is the foundation of his rights as an individual and he cannot bedefended through the vehicle of his civil rights because this future State hascorrupted the legal system.  There are nolaws to protect the individual beyond a report of “functionality” from theState’s field officers.   The rights ofbelief receive special attention from the Leader in Mr. Wordsworth’ssentencing:

 

LEADER. There is no God!  (Into microphone)  The State has proven that there is no God!

 

Ibelieve there is more meaning to the Leader’s outburst than an indictment of“godless communism” (or “godless fascism”). It is vital for the Leader and the State he represents to deny allrights of belief because these are the seeds from which all the othercategories of rights grow.

Mr.  Wordsworthis more effective in defending his human dignity and rights than Steve Brand in“The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”. Wordsworth rejects the legitimacy of the State’s accusations while heaccepts the inevitability of his death. Unlike Brand, Wordsworth is able make his death count forsomething.  By choosing death byexplosion – which is broadcast live on television – Wordsworth is able todemonstrate the cowardice and moral weaknesses of the Leader.  This action not only destroys the Leader, itreveals the inherent contraction of this totalitarian state.  As Serling says in the closing narration:

NARRATOR.  Anystate, entity or ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the rights, thedignity of man…that state is obsolete.

 

Asociety that sees no inherent value in its individual members has no inherentvalue in itself.  Men and women shouldnot have to justify their existence and their place in the community accordingto whether they are perceived as useful or meet external criteria.  This position is in direct contradiction tothe proclamation shouted at the protagonist:

 

LEADER. You are worthless, Mr. Wordsworth!  You have no function!

 

Thatstatement is irrelevant and completely mistaken in its premise, because peoplehave value in just being themselves.  Ifyou cannot accept this premise then you do not understand the essential needfor human rights.

 

 

Crossing Over from Twilight to Reality:

The Moorpark College Speech

Somedefine true political activism as “walking the walk” as well as “talking thetalk”.   In other words at some point our ideals,values and moral narratives must take some form of action in the realworld.   With this principle in mind itis interesting to look for examples where Serling’s belief in human rights andsocial justice crossed over into overt political statements and acts.  

There are a lot of them. 

He was politically active as a member of theUnitarian Community Church of Santa Monica, a dedicated supporter of theUnitarian Universalist Association, and the American Civil Liberties Union.  Serling often supported these organizationsand others through speaking engagements and with financial contributions.

          Serling also viewed the processes ofwriting and storytelling as political acts. We have already seen how much of his fiction contains moral andpolitical themes and he publicly stated that it is the duty of writers toexplore relevant and socially significant content in their work and a dangeroussituation when sponsors, censors or outside agencies interfere with thisresponsibility:

 

“I think it iscriminal that we are not permitted to make dramatic note of social evils thatexist, of controversial themes as they are inherent in our society.”  (Rod Serling taken from the Dictionary ofUnitarian and Universalist Biography)

         

One of the best knowninstances of Rod Serling acting on as well as talking about his politicalbeliefs is found in his 1969 lecture “The Generation Gap” at MoorparkCollege.  The lecture has a trulyremarkable opening:

“There seem to have arisen somecomplications relevant to my appearance here this evening that should beclarified before I begin.  Plainly andsimply.  I refused to sign a loyalty oathwhich was submitted to me as a prerequisite both for my appearance and mypay… 

… I have no interest inoverthrowing the government of the United States and number two, to the best ofmy knowledge I have not or am not now a member of a subversive organizationwhose aims are similar.  I know there aremany of you out there who’ve put me in a genetic classification of someplacebetween a misanthropic kook and an ungracious dope.  Actually, I’m neither.  I did not sign the loyalty oath and I waivedmy normal speaking fee, only because of a principle.  I think a requirement that a man affix hissignature to a document, reaffirming loyalty, in on one hand ludicrous—and onthe other demeaning.

A time-honouredconcept of Anglo-Saxon justice declares that a man is innocent until provenguilty.  I believe that in a democraticsociety a man is similarly loyal until proven disloyal.  No testaments of faith, no protestations ofaffection for his native load, and no amount of signatures will prove a bloodything—one way or the other as to a man’s patriotism or lack thereof.” 

 

Serlingrefused to comply with a requirement of the State of California which hebelieved questioned his integrity and violated his rights.  If we once again apply the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights, we see that the loyalty oath does violate Article 19:

Everyone has the right to freedomof opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions withoutinterference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through anymedia and regardless of frontiers.

 

Theremust have been a cost for taking this stance.  Serling had to forgo his speaker’s fee and itis very likely that he earned the animosity of those who created and supportedthe loyalty oath legislation.  However, sincehe had been actively supporting Pat Brown’s 1966 campaign for Governor ofCalifornia, Ronald Reagan was probably already unhappy with Rod Serling.

The rest of the Moorpark lecture is just asthought-provoking:

“Those who shout loudest forfiscal sanity—an end to so-called federal handouts.  Stop this nonsense about Federal Aid toeducation, federal housing, aid to cities. These are the gentlemen who watched us throw two billion dollars to helpprop up the French Colonial Government whose good offices are indistinguishablefrom the North Vietnamese.”

If wesubstitute “North Vietnam” for “Iraq” and find somewhere topaste in the words “Tea Party” — this statement could have been made lastweek.

 

The Tools of Fantasy andSpeculation

AsI close my lecture, I would like to return to the reason why I becameinterested in this topic in the first place – the need to develop new forms of effectivehuman rights education.  One of theprimary principles we applied when developing the curriculum for the CanadianMuseum for Human Rights was to direct many of the messages to visitors who arebetween 12 to 18 years old.  This is theage range when most of us start to develop a sense of social justice and apolitical awareness that extends beyond our immediate circle of family andpeers.  Human rights education is alsocritical at this point in a person’s life because much of what they learn isintended to prepare them to participate as citizens in a democraticsociety.    Accordingly, one of the main programmes theMuseum is currently running is a “rights contract” where youths are asked tomake signed personal commitment to the cause of human rights and dignity at theend of their tour.

          Ages 12 to 18 is also when many of usdevelop our tastes in what music we like to listen to, what books we want toread, and what films and television programmes we enjoy watching.  If my sons were here, they would also remindme to mention websites and video games.

In the 1960s and 1970s and in the 21^stCentury, many young people become still become enchanted with stories offantasy, horror and science fiction – the very staples of The Twilight Zoneand Night Gallery.   Thisintersection of content and consciousness have important implications forSerling’s work – not only are NightGallery and The Twilight Zoneoutstanding works of television drama and speculative fiction, they also serveas invaluable and enduring educational tools.

          And in the 21^st Century weneed every effective educational tool we can get our hands on.

 

-o0o-

I really don’t like people who destroy books.  To me, if you feel the need to burn a book it means you’re afraid of ideas which  in turn means that you really don’t have the character or intelligence to be trusted with any degree of responsibility. 

So when I read in Boing Boing this morning that NYC police and city workers had destroyed the library at Occupy Wall Street, it set me off.  I had to do something.  Nothing extreme mind you, I am a Canadian…

So I packed up a couple of bags of books and humped them down to St. James’ Park where Occupy Toronto is located.

When I got there both my science fiction writer and social scientist training kicked in.  I felt like I was walking into an embryonic utopian community.    It was like a bubble city that had settled on the surface of an older, partly fossilized one. 

Churches are the traditional sanctuaries of the dispossessed and marginal and it gave me great comfort that St. James’ Cathedral is offering what protection it can for the encampment. 

Some media and politico types have been saying that the occupiers are doing harm to the park and that their are sanitation problems on the site.  I’m not sure I agree.  The tent city didn’t look much worse than what you might find at a Provincial Park campground on the July 1 weekend and while the infrastructure was definitely cheap and cheerful, people where taking care to be as tidy and civic minded as possible.

Speaking of which, what really interested me was how institutions and services were emerging.  There was a medical centre…they used the bandstand as a public forum…there was a central kitchen…a place to park your bike (the transportation nexus)…a library…a classroom…and even an arts area/culture space…a self-policing force…and a very active internal communications network.

But it is a very rough and ready environment, made more so by the recent rain, growing November grey and approaching snow.  It makes me sad that some of my fellow Torontians see the occupiers as dirty, deviant and criminal.  The people I spoke to were idealistic, brave and caring.  They certainly did not come across as naive or stupid.

As some of you know, I am a Mormon by my upbringing and recently I have become more interested in my heritage.   When I was working on the visitors centre for the first Mormon temple in Kirtland, Ohio – Lachlan MacKay who was the director and chief interpreter there said something that I will never forget.  Kirtland was the first restorationalist community.  It’s members where the unloved, the unwanted, the (mostly) uneducated and unemployed of early 19th century America.  As Lachlan so eloquently put it:  “These were people that you probably wouldn’t invite into your home.”    Let’s consider what grew from that small band of scruffy people.  While I personally wish that the mainstream LDS faith had less socially conservative views I will always be grateful that I grew up in a climate that respected knowledge and the right to respect the views and decisions of others.  

There’s two things I’d like you to think about in parting:

1.  Various media commentators and related human sock-puppets keep saying that the occupy movement is pointless, spent and really should just go away.  That is just information-war talk.  Occupy scares the hell out of certain political factions because it is operating in ways that they just don’t understand and that is truly wonderful.  The only way that Occupy will lose is if they give up.  Please don’t do that.

2.  The incredible speed and apparent effectiveness that Occupy is able to set up its own institutions and services is sending another message.  Maybe the 99% just doesn’t need the 1%.

.

I spent the weekend at a secret location with the Cecil Street WritersGroup.  It was very productive but also kind of spooky.

 

By the time I arrived itwas completely dark.  I have no idea ofhow I actually found the place nor how I managed to find my way home.

  

We were located in Units #31 and #32 in what seemed to some sort ofabandoned community…I can only describe it as “The Village”.

We were surrounded bystrange and sinister technologies – their origins and purpose impossible todetermine.

And there could be no escape until whoever was controlling the Villagehad decided that we had written enough.

Fortunately I had had a digital micro-camera installed in my navel aspart of this year’s Hallowe’en celebrations and the following are photographsof some of my fellow creative inmates that I was able to smuggle out. 

This man was introduced to me as ‘No.2’.  Just after midnight on my first day in theVillage he came to my room and induced me to take a walk in search ofstars.  While we strode through thenight-shrouded forest he mentioned that there was a bear in the area. 

The next morning we foundevidence of the bear – but No. 2 insisted that it was only a raccoon. 

 
I had no reason to believe him.

This is No. 12 and No.138. 

Both are excellent cooks and their wonderful meals were my main source of comfort in the Village.

This is No. 23.  A brilliant writer but an obviously tortured soul. 

No. 2 watches him constantly, which suggests that No. 23 is a very dangerous writer indeed.

No. 2 also ensures that all of the writers were kept in a passive and controllable state by supplying us with a constant supply of dangerous mind-altering substances.

At times the inmates become so demoralized that some of them don’t bother to change out of their bedclothes in the morning. 

They struggle to keep their morale up whenever possible.

Here No. 48 tries to cheer up No. 23 by using cheezies to explain the rules of cricket.    The courage of this gesture was  truly inspiring.

For whatever reason, I was returned home yesterday.

But I am certain that the Village is in my future.

In 1972 they were making a movie in my home town.  That was weird.  They didn’t make many movies in Canada and they certainly did make them in Saskatoon.  Even so, there was a call for extras in “The Last of the Big Guns” (released as “Paperback Hero”) and the fact that it starred 2001′s Kerr Dulleau made me absolutely desperate to get on that set and see how they created movie magic.  Too bad, my friend Christopher got the gig, I didn’t.  Apparently I didn’t have the right look.  That decision still mystifies me as we were all pretty much interchangeably scruffy back then.

But now, my dreams of stardom have finally come true.  This morning I played the part of “MAN” in “The Picture” a Film Coop project written and directed by Murray Foster. 

It was incredible fun!

Rita Heyworth returned from the afterlife to star in the film.

The brilliant and beautiful actors Laura Nordin and Emily Andrews produced and provided script continuity — proving that they are equally skilled artists behind the camera.

I couldn’t believe how portable the equipment was!  And the crew were incredibly professional.

Make up is very important…

Here our make-up artist is helping on of the lead actors look even scarier.  She later told me that she really likes doing physical effects like gore and zombies.

Most of her work is with fashion models, and you can see her here applying that experience to Ms. Heyworth’s presentation.

Of course in some cases, no amount of talent and make-up can help some aging bit-players…

But don’t you think I look a little like William Shatner in Boston Legal?

It really was a great experience — worth waiting the almost 40 years for!   Here’s a link to The Film Coop:  http://www.filmcoop.to 

They are doing great work and deserve our interest and support — if nothing else for making creative casting decisions!

So last time it was TheWar of the Worlds, this time it’s TheTwilight Zone.  This really isturning into a fan boy blog. 

To be fairto myself, I just attended the 4^th Annual Rod Serling Conference atIthaca College in New York State and I’ve got some impressions and memories toair – that this blog is as much about me doing my emotional laundry as it doesabout geeky stuff. 

To those of you who don’t know, Serling was a visitingprofessor at Ithaca when he wasn’t writing and movie scripts he was actuallyteaching here.  It was wonderful to hearof the experiences of some of the people who actually studied with him and todiscover how Serling is still very much a presence at the College.  (In the nice, enlightened, educationalheritage, inspirational kind of way – not the creepy, spooky thing that’shaunting the cafeteria and locker room sort of way)

So the impressions:

I just managed to miss some fairly serious flooding thatswept through the area but the weird weather did manage to leave a very thicksea of fog over the city which made the already rather isolated campus lookeven more other worldly.  Just aboutevery speaker that morning made reference how Twilight Zoney it all looked.

I was reasonably happy with the delivery of my paper –there was the usual time problems when you’re sharing a session at the end ofthe day so I did have to speak at 45 rpm at some points but that was okay, itjust made it more exciting.  I diddiscover a useful strategy when you give conference papers:  try to make your presentation as “modular” aspossible.  That is, try and write up yourdiscourse in semi-autonomous chucks so that if you have to jettison some ofthat intellectual ballast to leave time for questions, you can do so and yourpaper will still make sense.  

There were some really great papers given and I got tomeet some really wonderful people.  Amongmy favourite papers were the ones on gender identity and the Twilight Zone, thepoet/maker who interpreted Serling’s text as beat poetry and the presentationby the underwater archaeologist who talked about a Night Gallery episode aboutthe Titanic.  The social worker whotalked about how he used TZ episodes as therapeutic and teaching tools forteenagers was pretty incredible.  Therewas also a really scary paper about how some Christian fundamentalists arere-editing Twilight Zone to express their beliefs (and not Serling’s IMHO) anda reading of excerpts from some of Serling’s letters and speeches.  The latter material really needs to bepublished – they are fascinating and still very relevant.

I also got to speak to Carol Serling and tell her howmuch I appreciated all the important work she’s been doing to share herhusband’s legacy.  She smiled and saidthat “it’s been fun and it’s been easy”. Which I read as an indicator of a person who’s actually been workingvery hard but has been loving the work. 

So I got to meet some extremely interesting people, gotto say what was on my mind and learned a lot of interesting things.  What could be better?

So the memories:

This is the part of the blog where I talk about how Ibecame an admirer of Rod Serling’s work and why I think it’s necessary to studyit carefully.  Possible geek alert.

I have dim memories of The Twilight Zone from when I was five and we were living in Californiawhile my dad was working on sabbatical at USC Davis. A lot of things happenedto us during that period but one of the most vivid memories I have was the jumpfrom one TV channel in Saskatoon to five in Davis.  Incredible! Didn’t really matter as far as TZ was concerned – the minute the creditsstarted I was either behind the couch or out of the room. 

My first experience of Serling’s writing was Night Gallery in 1972 when we were backin Saskatchewan and CBC ran it as a summer replacement show.  I never missed an episode if I could avoid itand I wrote about how influential and sometimes infuriating it was in my shortstory “(Coping with) Norm Deviation”. About that time I came across Planetof the Apes and The Man at themovies – which featured Serling screenplays. I knew that this guy was very cool and serious talent.   Backto the conference for a moment:  I reallyenjoyed the presentation on The Man,a 1972 movie about the first African-American President of the United States –you can’t get this film on DVD or VHS – which is very odd given the currentoccupant of that role.   In 1973, theystarted running the last season of Night Gallery and it was like watching aspeculative fiction road accident every week – which taught me something veryvaluable.  Sometimes creative projectscan go very wrong.

Time passes.  RodSerling passes away in 1975, which makes me very sad.  I read one of his last interviews in MarvelComic’s Planet of the Apes magazineand I think it’s one of the smartest articles printed on pulp paper.  Dial up to 1980.  I am struggling to finish my MA thesis onscience fiction religions at McMaster University.  Kind of a best of times/worst of times periodin my life – for me being a grad student was intellectually very exciting, eveninspiring at times.  It was also verylonely and I discovered that I really didn’t handle people all that well.

 

One Friday night, after hours and hours of reading andwriting, and Kraft Dinner, I look over at the clock and discover that it is nowSaturday morning.  I’m so twitchy fromthe data-dump that I know I won’t be sleeping anytime soon.   The radio is either off the air or filledwith crazy peoples’ words so I turn to the UHF knob of my 12” black and whiteTV and roll into an actual signal on Channel 47.  It’s a strange show called The All-Night Show that is hosted byChuck the Night Watchman who runs crudely produced music videos (this ispre-MTV) and ancient TV shows that haven’t been re-run in ages and ages.  What’s he showing?  “Requiem” a first season TZ episode.  I can’t believehow smart the script is, how good the acting is, the elegance of the productionvalues and that amazing black and white photography.

 

So those long slogs at the typewriter (no PCs yet,folks) on Fridays become a lot more bearable because when I get to 2 AM, I havea date in The Twilight Zone.  The combination of my mentalexhaustion/stimulation along with the empty and weird and luminal nature of thetime day makes for ideal conditions very venturing between an area “betweenscience and superstition”. 

After about a month of this, I discover two antiquevolumes in the stacks of Mills Memorial Library at Mac:  1) Storiesfrom the Twilight Zone and 2) ThreeTelevision Plays by Rod Serling. Incredible books.  What was reallystartling was how well written the stories were – equal to original prose thatpeople like Bradbury, Sturgeon or Sheckley were producing.  This Serling guy could write!  This was literature!

As 1980 become 1981, Channel 29 Buffalo starts running TZ at six and eleven every weekdaynight.  I know have daily doses of high qualityTV drama at dinner and bedtime.  Lifegets a lot better. 

There are lots of other encounters with the Serlinglegacy but I need to wrap up.  So here’sthe deal – what do I think the power and the value of The Twilight Zone come from? Like a lot of great stories, the shows take us to a special imaginativespace – where we can dream about wonderful things and face terriblepossibilities – and return to our lives stronger and better able to deal withthese challenges.  Grappling with realitythrough perceptive fantasy.

   

I’ve been meaning to write this entry for several months now.  I think I’ve been delaying it because it’s about some events that were very important to me but that when I start talking about them in public it will just make me sound like a mega-geek.  Oh well, must be done.

Back in 1973 when I was a straggly, pimply teenager, I used to play hookey at the main branch of the Saskatoon Public Library.  Well, it wasn’t really hookey — I only went there when I had spare periods so I never missed any classes.  How lame is that?  Taking my youthful rebellion to  even greater extremes, I used to sit at the record players, headphones on my ears, listening to classical and baroque music.  I mean, how did I get away with it?

Then one day, instead of some obscure Archive recording of completely unknown (and not very interesting) Bach organ fugues, I played the library’s recording of the War of the World radio broadcast.   Then everything changed for me.    Up to that point in my life the real life zone and the drama/story zone were very separate things.   The drama/story zone only existed on stages, inside books or on TV and cinema screens.  The real life zone was everything outside the covers, stages or screen; it was in 3D but since I was living in Saskatchewan it didn’t make muck difference. 

Yeah, the Welles broadcast was dated some but that just gave it an historical veneer that made it feel all the more authentic.  And the first time in my life I knew that stories and life could be connected — affect and reflect — each other in some very powerful and unexpected ways.  Suddenly the whole world was a much more exciting place.  Even Saskatchewan.

A few months later I found a copy of The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic in my high school library.  Here a Princeton social psychologist did a systematic survey of who panicked and who didn’t when they heard the W of W broadcast.  This was also supremely cool!  Not only were stories and life connected in some really bizarre ways — we could employ scientific methods to better understand how these connections worked.

 

So in 1973, the course of my intellectual life had essentially been struck.  Almost every serious project I’ve undertaken has been (to a greater or lesser extent) informed and inspired by my teenage War of the Worlds experience.

Last spring we went to Harbourfront’s Enwave Theatre to see a re-enactment of the 1938 Panic Broadcast with three fantastic actors, a Foley artist with period equipment and a chamber orchestra — who prefaced the experience with a medley of film scores by Bernard Hermann.  Mr. Hermann was also the musical director for the Mercury Theatre and wrote and conducted the music for…you guessed it…

It was a fantastic production!  I was worried that it would be stagey and played for cute nostalgia factor.  Nope, the artists really understood the significance of the material and the production served as a unique view into the creative process of live radio production and the profound sociological consequences of the work they were performing.  (I know, not only am I a geek, I’m a social science geek).

And it was wondrous to be able to return to the roots of my muse for an afternoon.

By about 9:30 this morning it was something I just had to do.   So I got on the 501 streetcar and rode from lakeshore Etobicoke to Toronto City Hall.  When you’re going to the public viewing of Jack Layton that seems to be the appropriate thing to do.

The line to get inside wrapped completely around the City Hall building.  There were thousands of us there. 

What was remarkable was how quiet it was.  Just a few of the party faithful swapping stories and happy memories.  Most of us were just reflecting.  It was actually kind of healing and everyone was very respectful.   And patient…

You had to be patient because it took about two hours to get to the viewing area.

Two hours?!  I haven’t waited that long in line since the premiere of Star Trek: The Motion Picture back in 1979!  I heard that Jack Layton and Olivia Chow were Trekkers so maybe that was appropriate too. 

There were the chalk statements.

There were messages on just about every available flat surface.

What did they represent?

Loving graffiti?

Spontaneous cultural happening?

People Power?

Yeah. People Power Big Time.

And there was an even bigger statement all of us were making by being there.

I hope we listen to that message in the years to come.

Back when we first moved to this part of town in 1990, there were some big branch plants for major international companies.  They were the centre of a lot of shops, cafes and neighbourhoods that sprang up to service all the people that worked in those factories. 

About a year earlier, Canada signed a big trade agreement with the US and it soon became a lot cheaper to make these products elsewhere and ship them into the country.   Within six months of our moving there, they closed the plants and six months later they bulldozed the plants.

Most of it is still brown and grey fields.  Just this one old office building left.

There are various reasons that I give.  That I wanted to improve my presentation skills in my consulting work.  That I wanted to understand actors better when I was writing for stage or radio or film.  That I wanted to get some techniques down for that stand-up routine that I’ve been fantasizing about for years.

All those reasons are true.  It’s just that none of them happen to be the real reason.

I signed up for a series of one-on-one acting classes with a company called Shine: Creative Coaching  (http://shinecreativecoaching.com).  Great range of services, very reasonable rates for the level of expertise and attention you get.

 

My instructor was Laura Nordin, an accomplished actor and one of Shine’s founders. Her CV (http://lauranordin.com) is incredibly impressive and as such you’d think it would be intimidating for a newbie like me to work with her — but she is very approachable, has a vast range of experience to share and is one of the best teachers I’ve encountered in some time.  I met Laura in her capacity as Creative Director with  Praxis Theatre in Toronto (http://praxistheatre.com) who did a dramatic reading of my stage play version of “The Progressive Apparatus” — which you can see right here on this blog site if you click on the video section.

The classes were a fun and stimulating experience — but they were actual work.  I  had to lay down for a couple of hours afterward.

The monologues were probably the hardest for me — at a lot of different levels.  Just remembering the lines, leaving about characters, delivery and trying hard not to speak with raising my eyebrows all the time!   I think “surprised” must be my natural state of being.

Okay –”The King’s Speech” time.  We did lots of work with vocalization and articulation and making lots of weird noises with our mouths and faces.  The three year old child in me (who only lives about 1/8th of an inch below the surface of my brain) loved doing all this.  Very liberating and extremely helpful in the public presentation department. 

Laura’s genius was getting a neurotic man who is twice her age to a place where he was able to do all this important work without making him feel even slightly embarrassed.

I will always be grateful to Laura for helping me to discover my diaphragm.  (and also for letting me take these lomo shots of one of our sessions.

Another exercise was saying a line and then
throwing a tennis ball to the other person,
who would then say their line and then throw the ball back.

This is not easy.  At least not for me.  It helps you focus and project your voice to the other person and makes you listen to what they are saying.  Unless of course you’d like a tennis ball in the head.

These are good skills in many life situations.  At least if you ever want to talk to somebody…

 

One of the things that I learned was how smart, creative and dedicated actors are.  They need to build huge multi-disciplinary knowledge bases to draw on, they have to be effective practical psychologists and their delivery skills are as complex as playing a musical instrument.  We should respect them more and find more uses for their talents. 

BTW – Laura is not screaming at me for messing up on my monologue in the above picture.  This shot is either from the “Cheap and Chippy Chopper” section of the tongue twisters exercise or she’s reenacting something from Shakespeare. 

So why did I take the acting classes anyway?  After all, in that educational context I should know more about motivation, right?  Well…perhaps…I will reveal my reason…at some point….

None of us is the same person we were twenty years ago.  Literally.  All the cells that made up our bodies back then have died off and been replaced by new ones.  We’re just connected by the encoded electrical impulses that stretch across time and try to convince us that we have a constant sense of self. Forget it, we’re self-replicating clones of ourselves. 

Which is kind of cool when you think about it.

So given that our brains are pretty unreliable narrators of identity, how much of our experience is real and how much is illusion?  Ghosts or Memories?  Or mirages?

This fuzzy lomo picture is a young lady on the campus of McMaster University holding a sign offering free hugs.  Perhaps she felt a sense of duty, trying to overcome the existential void that I mentioned. 

More lomos of McMaster University:

A couple of weeks ago, my thesis supervisor from grad school invited me down for lunch at Mac.  It was a lovely experience and the first time I’d been there since 1990.   I decided to bring the camera gear along to make a record of the place to make sure I had record of my naive youth.  It was a little terrifying.  I expected the place to have changed but I could barely recognize anything.  Where was this place?  Who was that young kid who used to study and write and dream there?

Did that guy actually have an office in that building?   Whoever it was, I’m pretty sure it couldn’t have been me. 

The blurry and spooky quality of my photographs just convinced me all the more.