As the neighborhood on Maple Street dissolves into absolute chaos and panic following the tragic shooting, the camera pans up to a dark, elevated spot overlooking the area. Two figures are revealed to be extraterrestrial observers manipulating the town’s power grid.

  • The First Alien explains that their strategy doesn’t require complex weapons; they simply shut off local machines, power, and communication lines for a brief period, and then step back to watch the results.
  • The Second Alien asks if the outcome is always the same.
  • The First Alien confirms that it follows a consistent pattern: when humans are cut off and left to doubt one another, they inevitably choose themselves as their own worst enemy. They note that all they have to do is sit back and watch.
  • The Second Alien inquires if this particular suburban street is unique.
  • The First Alien responds that Earth is filled with similar communities (“Maple Streets”), and that they plan to move from one to the next, letting humanity destroy itself from within.

“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosion and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices—to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a madness all of its own…”

Rod Serling

Twilight Zone

Season One, episode 22

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”

Putin or Xi don’t have to worry about firing a single shot to destroy America. We’ll be quite happy to do it ourselves. Abraham Lincoln is said to have said no foreign military power could ever conquer or destroy the United States by force. Instead, he warned that if America were ever to fall, it would come from internal division, disregard for the rule of law, and self-destruction from within—stating that as a nation of free men, Americans would live through all time or die by suicide.

If this election doesn’t result in a “blue tsunami”, and allows the Republicans to remain in control of the Congress, I fear Lincoln’s and Serling’s words may become our reality. I’m crossing my fingers.