"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Humans 3.3: Human Leo on Fictional TV and the American Southern Border in Reality



Humans, the excellent British series about sentient androids aka synths struggling to be treated like human beings in a racist society - i.e., a society that puts the human race above other sentient beings - has an important, especially disturbing relevance to the treatment of people seeking refugee status at our southern border.   The subject matter of Humans would always make it disturbing, but it's never been less escapist and more relevant to what we see on television news these days, in which Trump and his minions have severely damaged the American ideal like no other President in my lifetime, exceeding by a long way any runner-up, which I guess would be Nixon and Watergate.

Episode 3.3 was especially relevant on the differences and fundamental similarities of synth and human, with Leo, previously half-synth and a synth leader, finding it difficult to live into his now fully human essence.   His budding relationship with Mattie is especially promising as a tableau for his emerging humanity, and that's just a part of it.

The other part - related to Mattie, because everything is connected - is what role Leo will play in the synth attempt to find some peaceful place in our human world (or, at least, some of the synths).  Max is finding it increasingly difficult to hold his group together, in part because he realizes that he and his group are in an intractably vulnerable position.  He correctly sees that we humans ultimately hold all of the cards.

Which bring us back to the refugees seeking a better life in the US on our southern border.  These people are totally dependent on our good will and decency.   We have the all the power.   Which is why it's especially infuriating and heartbreaking to see our President misuse and abuse this power.  Drama on television is fiction.  What's happening in Texas is all too real.

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