The X Files and Critical Thinking

I am slowly and nitpickingly making my way through The X Files, which is on Netflix right now.  (I don't watch every episode; my favorites are the ones with monsters in them.  I'm a sucker for a good Loch Ness creature or Sasquatch.  ::grin::  I know, I'm hopeless.)

Can you believe that I never watched them when they were "in season"?  I saw a bit of one once when I was younger, and the antagonists of the episode scared me so much that I never wanted to see more.  It's very funny to watch them now, because they are so excessively campy and dramatic. 

Sometimes it makes me think though.  I have a tendency to extrapolate and overthink things, but it sometimes seems to me that the believer/skeptic dialog between Mulder and Scully could sometimes be taken as a metaphor for the dynamics between Christian/nonbeliever schools of thought.

Sometimes there are snippets that make me think of the way the government seems to view its citizens nowadays, like this exchange between the Cigarette Smoking Man and an alien dude who's decided not to help the cabal take over the world, or whatever.  ::shrug::  I don't follow it that closely!

CSM:   “Who are you to give them hope?!”

 

 

alien dude:  “What do you give them?”

 

 

CSM:   “I give them happiness; they give us authority.”

 

alien dude:  “Yes, in order to give them freedom under the guise of democracy.”

 

CSM:   “Men can never be free, because they are weak, corrupt, worthless, and restless.  People believe in authority.  They’ve grown tired of waiting on miracle and mystery.    Science is their religion.  No greater explanation exists for them.  They must never believe any differently…”

Doesn't that last paragraph kind of encapsulate what society is like, for the most part?  A bunch of sheep, keeping in line, doing what they're told.  Believing what the "experts" tell them with no pause to evaluate it for themselves.  Depending on the "benevolent" powers-that-be to protect, educate, provide for them.  Offering up their freedoms right and left for the most transient "benefits".

I think sometimes that Satan is probably rolling on the floor laughing at how mindlessly we go through life, and how easily we are deceived.  I'm speaking in generalities, of course, but sometimes it amazes me how little effort people expend to THINK for themselves. 

I'll step down off my soapbox now.  :)  Before I get a bunch of comments along the lines of "who are you to judge," let me say that I realize I am as guilty of this as the next person; we're all human, and flawed.  But at least I'm trying!