True North

Here’s how to talk politics without throwing pumpkin pie at your mother-in-law this Thanksgiving. Don’t. I mean, don’t be obnoxious about it. Be coy and discuss “entertainment:” Talk about ABC’s series, V.

V offers a new kind of T.V. entertainment: Smart, relevant, prophetical and bold. It also makes you grateful for the freedom of speech, religion and political beliefs that we have in America.

The show is a contemporary reinterpretation of Sinclair Lewis’ book, “It Can’t Happen Here,” charting out the Nazi’s rise to power. Since the first episode of V, there have been numerous critiques of the series – from The Washington Post to the Chicago Tribune – pointing out connections between the series’ plot and characters and our current state of affairs in America.

V is essentially a political science fiction series about a group of lizard-like aliens that come down to earth and claim that they are bringing “peace and tranquility,” “change,” and “universal health care” to humans. They appear to be beautiful, eloquent humans led by “Anna” (Morena Baccarin) – an outwardly charismatic woman on a world power quest under the guise of peace and change. As the show’s FBI agent, Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell), tells her friend, Father Jack (Joel Gretsch), when he says they need to fight the aliens: “Oh, we’ll fight. They’ve among themselves the most powerful weapon out there. … Devotion.”

The Visitors or aliens win over humans by bribing social leaders with rewards of “bliss.” They also win over throngs of naive youth by recruiting them into their Peace Ambassador program. Lastly, the Visitors have a strong hold on the media – Anna uses one key T.V. news anchor, Chad Decker (Scott Wolf), as her pawn to restrict any negative speech or protests against the Vs and get her message of “peace” and “change” out to the public. Anna tells her minions: “We must not underestimate the power of public opinion.” She charges her alien followers to “monitor,” and – if necessary – “shape” all public opinion.

Many critics have seen the generic promises of hope, change and universal health care coverage that the Vs promote as well as their stronghold over the media and youth as startling similar to the ideas and behavior of the current Administration.

As Michelle Malkin uncovered – the current Administration is supported by Senators who will not stop at bribery to accomplish their health care agenda. Furthermore, as I discussed, here, the current Administration has taken efforts to control free speech by demeaning peaceful tea party protests, attempting a ban on FOX news reporters, and demanding that the left-wing media provide, “not just good coverage, but great coverage, not just to be treated favorably but to be treated spectacularly.”

Interestingly enough, the White House seems a little defensive about its similarities to the Visitors and tries to laugh V off as irrelevant.

This is a fun, philosophical movie that is great for discussion of current events and reflection on history. V’s producers say there is no intended agenda to V. This may be true. I don’t think it matters whether they had a political agenda – the fact that V was written and produced now and has spoken so clearly to so many Americans shows that the sentiments, fears and emotions evoked by this T.V. series are relevant on multiple levels.

In case you’re tempted to write V off as a fun work of fiction, think about the power of artistic thinkers to predict and comment on history and current events: Great minds such as Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and Edmund Burke predicted historical evils and government impositions in the past. We should give V more than a passing glance and use it as a catalyst to discuss the best way to preserve freedom in an America of ever-growing government control.

I’m going out on a limb: I predict that tomorrow’s final episode of V’s first season will prove more enlightening than anything that comes out of the Senate on health care this week. Watch it.

Cross-posted at Katie Kieffer