Amazon wasn’t seen as a prime vendor of new form TV. Their television series “Transparent” though, managed to break through over the last few years, and another series — The Man In The High Castle — also went on to net a few Emmy awards. The story attracted science fiction fans, who had long waited for another Philip K Dick storyline to be put on film. They looked forward to another journey into the mind of the well respected science fiction writer.
The story of A Man In The High Castle is largely about alternative history. What would have happend if Germany, not the allies, had prevailed in WWII? What would America look like in that circumstance? And while the thought of losing World War II can be scary, those who expected a series built on lots of killing, murder, and rampant rage will be disappointed. Instead, the Amazon series focuses on something far more dangerous and terrifying: the human desire to accept the status quo as “normal” even when it goes against prior basic beliefs.
Rarely has a series been better timed for the modern era than Man In The High Castle, which returns for Season 2 this year.
While we often imagine that humanity would fight all horrors at all cost, Philip K Dick put forward a perspective far more disturbing: that if faced with a horrific world view, but a world view that seemed out of our control to change, humanity would simply adjust and accept the horror as our daily reality.
Throughout the series, it isn’t the Nazi leadership or the Japanese governance that presents the scare, it is instead the fact that every day individuals within the series simply move around their daily life, shrugging off the horrors of oppression, as long as it doesn’t impact them.
A crematorium a few miles away takes away the elderly and infirmed? Society understands this is just how the Nazi’s govern, and well, those are the rules within the series.
While Philip K Dick’s novel presents a horrific outcome where people are shocked at the reality, billboards and advertisements from the program started to hit a bit close to home post the election.
The posterboards, which can now be found on New York and Los Angeles mass transit have raised some eyebrows especially with those who have struggled with the outcome of the election.
Dick’s key point is far more important today than ever. The author argued through his text that there is an inbuilt need in humanity to believe the status quo is normal, to turn over decisions to others as a way to remove ourselves from responsibility to change it. Dick’s theory is played out in graphic form through Man in the High Castle, but expressed repeatedly throughout our own history.
The acceptance of horrible things that seem out of our control has long been a trademark of what it means to be human. Only a select few who see those issues of inhumanity who stand up repeatedly. At a certain point, many simply say “OK, well, I guess this is how it is”.
We see that in our culture today, as Trump, despite repeated picks that defy reason, can issue out polling results showing improving popularity. This has very little, if anything, to do with good governance, great issues or plans to pick good people for the right offices.
Instead, as Dick argued, this rise in the polls is about our desire to just accept things, shrug it off and move on.
Season 2 premieres December 16th. Unfortunately, for too many, the quiet horror on the small screen will seem far too real this holiday season.