Invasion of the Mind Snatchers

Passion is the element in which we live; without it, we hardly vegetate.  Lord Byron Growing up I loved Saturday afternoons in the ‘70s because the Creature Double Feature was on TV. Many of these classics made an impression on me, especially Invasion of the Body Snatchers which was first released in 1956. Several weekends ago, I watched the 1978 remake with Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy and all my childhood fears were reanimated, this time in my adult mind. For those of you who have been living under one of these diabolical pods, the movie is about space invaders who replace human beings with duplicates that appear identical on the surface but are devoid of any emotion or individuality. After the takeover, they explain, life loses its frustrating complexity because all emotions and sense of individuality have vanished. How lovely; prepare to be assimilated! The movie’s horror component comes from the unstoppable onslaught of dehumanization and the fear of the loss of individual identity as the new creatures attempt to install a tightly organized, conformist society (in 1956, there were many who stated it was a political statement on the advancement of McCarthyism and communism in America). As I watched the remake, I was struck by how relevant it was in today’s world. As a child of the 60’s and 70’s everything was groovy. Different strokes for different folks. Live and let live. And if you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with. Today, we are being stripped of our ethical and religious identity and becoming one homogeneous group. There are cities that no longer allow flags or celebrations of religious holidays. Ethnicity is also downplayed as our great melting pot of a nation is becoming bland and non-descript under the scorching heat of political correctness. All is being stripped away; there can be no individual identities as we walk around with a blank stare, buzzing about the hive, doing our drone duties. No one has any passion so there is no desire to get ahead or change their status. Leave it to the government; after all, absolute power doesn’t corrupt absolutely in our new world order. There is no love, no sacrifice, no frustration; indeed, nothing worth dying for. You can’t make the world a better place for anyone in particular because that upsets the global status quo; shut up and color, you colonialist, capitalist pig. We’re all just vegetative carbon-based units. Can you imagine?? Why, even the creator who made man in His own image gave him the ability to choose. Are we going to take even that away? Are we trying to create a truly better image of man by stripping away anything that defines our very being? So wake up people! Stop walking through life asleep and reclaim your individuality, your humanity, your destiny. If you don’t, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will be a thing of the past, even in your dreams.