# Twilight Zone--Obsolete Man **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [September 8, 2021, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300 "2021-09-08T04:09:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/1 "2021-09-08T04:09:17Z")
I’ve seen it before, but the closing narration is chilling: > The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshiped. Any state, any entity, any ideology which fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man…that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under “M” for “Mankind” - in The Twilight Zone. Wow, very powerful. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/2 "2021-09-08T08:37:26Z")
_“But they found it’s a trap, like a Narcotic, because when dreams become more important than reality…”_ Not so heavy, Man. _Or is it???_ ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/3 "2021-09-08T08:47:19Z")
One of the weaker episodes, IMO. Its plot is basically a retelling of the same old “atheists are just mad at God and will admit they believe in him when the chips are down” canard that makes up a good chunk of evangelical glurge. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/4 "2021-09-08T20:23:35Z")
I see how one could view it that way, but I didn’t see it in that fashion. It was not that he was religious but that the State forbade him from being religious and that the Chancellor’s cry out to God showed the State to be form over substance. That the idea that we can control people to form a more efficient society has been tried and has been shown to be obsolete, both morally and practically. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/5 "2021-09-08T20:33:01Z")
Stated differently. Nobody should be able to tell you not to be an atheist, me not to be a Christian, or that guy over there not to be a Buddhist, or that lady over there to question her own mind about it. The Burgess Meredith character was not being executed because he was Christian, but because he was a librarian, and was obsolete because nobody needed books anymore. That State should never exist, ever. And yes, I have been irritating about it today. You must say “obsolete” the way the clerk says it. Preferably at least 100 times to your wife. 🙂 ETA: And she says I’m about to be obsoleted. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/6 "2021-09-08T21:49:11Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > And yes, I have been irritating about it today. You must say “obsolete” the way the clerk says it. Preferably at least 100 times to your wife. 🙂 > > ETA: And she says I’m about to be obsoleted. I’m reminded of the undersized former football player in a John D. MacDonald novel, who was “obsoleted by vast strides in nutrition”. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/7 "2021-09-09T06:20:26Z")
That is a weird reading of the episode in my opinion. It’s about the hypocrisies of fascism. The source of the hypocrisy isn’t what’s important. EDIT: I think I might have responded to the wrong post. This was a response to the post that compared it to glurge. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/8 "2021-09-09T07:09:10Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > That is a weird reading of the episode in my opinion. It’s about the hypocrisies of fascism. The source of the hypocrisy isn’t what’s important. Then why make the state atheist and have the chancellor get obsoleted for acknowledging that he believes? It obscures any point that’s being made about fascism by equating atheism with evil and totalitarianism, and claiming that the people who claim not to believe in God are just lying about it. Are you an atheist? I am. And I don’t like when people try to claim all atheists are evil or liars in order to try to make a point. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/9 "2021-09-09T07:18:26Z")
The point that was shown could have been any inconsistency, but this State made it a point that the State was the only “god.” That was critical to its existence. Nobody should look to anything higher than the State, but the Chancellor did, exposing the flaw that the State was omnipotent. I respect your religious view. But you haven’t demanded that all citizens follow it; this State did and why it is obsolete. And also you should use the syllables and say it as: Ob-so-lete with each syllable being said in small pauses and don’t tell my wife. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/10 "2021-09-09T11:55:00Z")
We see atheism and totalitarianism as seperate ideas today, but sixty years ago when this episode was written and broadcast the American viewing audience did mot differentiate Heck, it was only a few years earlier that we added “under God” to the Pledge to confound those Commies. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/11 "2021-09-09T13:12:59Z")
The closing narration was intended to be longer but got cut for time: > [@](#): > > The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshiped. _Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all._ Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man…that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under “M” for “Mankind” - in The Twilight Zone. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/12 "2021-09-09T18:10:05Z")
Oh yes. It was definitely a commentary on the Soviet Union, no doubt. But I disagree with the idea that it was preachy. As you said, it was sixty years ago when there was no serious argument in society about there being a God vs. no God. The important part was that the State proclaimed that _it_ was God. The Chancellor destroyed that very idea by looking “elsewhere” in his moment of need and why he was obsolete. But he was obsolete _already_ because outside of the limited view of the episode, we know that this has been tried before and failed and is immoral at its core to do that to people. In centuries past we condemned people like @Smapti. Sometimes people condemn Christians or Muslims. Any State that does that has been shown to be wrong both morally and practically. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/13 "2021-09-09T18:14:33Z")
Much better, IMHO. Whatever higher power is out there, whether the Christian God, Muslim God, or just general goodness, the State has no faith at all. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twilight-zone-obsolete-man/950300/14 "2021-09-09T18:37:31Z")
My only point was the show wasn’t saying you should accept Jesus into your heart or get torn apart. It was that fascist/totalitarian governments are full of crap, using something that would relate to the audience of the time. I am positive Rod Serling would be fine with your atheism. That said, I know how it feels to be a minority so I get why you might read the episode that way.