© Virgin Films
Much like Huxley's A Brave New World, we are churning out a society of watchers who "have their liberties taken away from them, but ... rather enjoy it, because they [are] distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing."
Much like Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, the populace is now taught to "know their place and their duties, to understand that they have no real rights but will be protected up to a point if they conform, and to think so poorly of themselves that they will accept their assigned fate and not rebel or run away."
And in keeping with Philip K. Dick's darkly prophetic vision of a dystopian police state-which became the basis for Steven Spielberg's futuristic thriller Minority Report which was released 15 years ago-we are now trapped into a world in which the government is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful, and if you dare to step out of line, dark-clad police SWAT teams and pre-crime units will crack a few skulls to bring the populace under control.
As John W. Whitehead examines in this episode of 'On Target', all of these works of fiction - and the writers who inspired them - understood what many Americans, caught up in their partisan, flag-waving, zombified states, are still struggling to come to terms with: that there is no such thing as a government organized for the good of the people. Even the best intentions among those in government inevitably give way to the desire to maintain power and control at all costs.
The only stories available out there are the ones we create. This is the entire range of story line options. IMHO