What the Tea Party is like to me.

I think most everyone who is alive now in the United States or my age remembers "The Twilight Zone." If not, they probably saw the remakes in the late 1980's and early 90's. The show was perfect as Science Fiction as modern parable, telling of the fears of technological, social or political change. Such was a show in the first incarnation called "Its a Good Life."

This episode dealt with a child named Anthony who has godlike powers. He can wish for anything and its granted. If you don't think good thoughts around Anthony, because he can read your mind. If he doesn't like what you think, he can whisk you away to the cornfield, never to be seen again. You don't go against Anthony because he controls everything, what you see on TV (Anthony loves dinosaurs so that is all there is on TV), what you eat or what you can do. He doesn't like dogs, so dogs have been whisked away. Everyone lives in terror of Anthony, but they can't show it for fear of being whisked away to the cornfield.

Right now, we have an Anthony in our nation. Anthony goes by various names, the TEA party, Fox News, the vast Right Wing conspiracy, what have you. Anthony goes around wanting to control everything and because he believe he is right, and we have enshrined the right to listen to his arguments, they are not questioned. Even when his arguments venture into the bizarre or absurd, we do not question him. It seems only a small minority has anything to say. They rarely speak up and thus the monster gains power. Anthony is in our midst and soon a lot of us may be whisked away to the cornfield for thinking bad thoughts.

This is Rod Serling, and now the Twilight Zone

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3