I haven't seen this episode in a few years and as I watched it this time I found it incredibly frightening and prescient. Fascism exists today as much as it ever has. The difference is a large group of people would agree with the Hitler loving character portrayed perfectly by Dennis Hopper. His ability to switch quickly from the man-child he is in front of his elderly friend to a cold blooded Nazi at his rallies brings forth a depth and a sad psychological assessment of his character.
The man in shadow whose face is hidden advising him on how to relate to his crowds of angry bitter people is very reminiscent of today's most extreme politicians. Far-Right populism sticks to a tried and true playbook: appeal to the crowd's fears and prejudices and offer simplistic solutions designed to sound convincing to them no matter how ridiculous or evil those solutions may be. Perhaps most importantly, by telling your followers the same lies over and over again and those oft repeated lies begin to gain an appearance of plausibility.
Written by Rod Serling himself, this episode is dark and contemporary, it could have been filmed last week with little added or subtracted.
The man in shadow whose face is hidden advising him on how to relate to his crowds of angry bitter people is very reminiscent of today's most extreme politicians. Far-Right populism sticks to a tried and true playbook: appeal to the crowd's fears and prejudices and offer simplistic solutions designed to sound convincing to them no matter how ridiculous or evil those solutions may be. Perhaps most importantly, by telling your followers the same lies over and over again and those oft repeated lies begin to gain an appearance of plausibility.
Written by Rod Serling himself, this episode is dark and contemporary, it could have been filmed last week with little added or subtracted.