Let's see:
- Loss of individual rights to the government? (or as Rod Serling usually referred to it, "The State") Check.
- State mandated murder of (rather than protection of) children, the most vulnerable of our society? Check.
- Mandatory criminalization of some people but not of others, i.e., preferential treatment for certain classes? Check.
- The State telling the citizens what opinions and beliefs they can and cannot hold? Check.
- Strip the citizens of the ability to protect themselves from The State? Check.
- Exemption from the law for certain classes of people preferred by The State? Check.
- Dismantling of the U.S. Constitution? Check. (By the way, gotta love the term "sunset provision" rather than "dismantling of your constitutional rights provision". Very catchy, very cleverly deceptive. I think that's my episode title right there.)
I see stuff like this and I find myself thinking how much I'd love to see what Serling and George Orwell would be writing if they were alive today. I have a feeling they would run afoul of Mr. Yang and his ilk.
The oppression of the individual and individuality by "The State" was a favorite theme of Serling's; the episodes Eye of the Beholder, The Obsolete Man, and Number 12 Looks Just Like You spring to mind. And if the kind of "policies" listed above were to ever actually be implemented, we would be in a real-life Twilight Zone and Orwell's thought crimes wouldn't be far behind.
And I'm not kidding about writing a Twilight Zone spec. Not with this kind of material to work with. The guidelines for TV specs always include a rule that the show has to currently be in production, so it would seem like TZ is fair game.
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