The Man in the High Castle

Based on a friend’s recommendation, I started watching a new TV series on Amazon Prime called, The Man in the High Castle.

Holy wow.

I’d never heard of it, and I had no idea what the show was about. But, here’s a snapshot: In an alternate history, the Axis powers defeated the Allies in WWII. The United States surrendered after a nuke was dropped on Washington, DC. What remained of the United States was divided between the Nazis and the Japanese, and only a small strip in the middle of the former States serves as a buffer between the two empires.  The show is set in 1962, and in this alternate history, we see what roughly 20 years of uninhibited Nazi occupation would look like, complete with Jewish and Christian extermination, and super-sized kilns.

I can honestly say, I’m unnerved.

What would our lives be like had the Greatest Generation not stood the gap and defeated one of the worst evils in world history? This stark glimpse of what could have been has significantly frightened me. Can you imagine having the SS Nazis serve as our police force? Or the Kempeitai, the Japanese version of the Gestapo? Can you imagine how radically different our lives would be? No, you cannot. That’s why you must watch The Man in the High Castle. Not because it’s enjoyable and intriguing, but because we must all know and appreciate the sacrifice our Allied troops made in protecting us from evil.

In the same turn, I’m ashamed of how our Nation and the World is now cowering to a similar evil in the Terrorist Wars of the last 20 years. This storyline should re-awaken the proverbial sleeping giant, and rouse us from our lethargy, for we could face a similar occupation.

Historically, America has served as a bastion of freedom, a sentinel against evil, a beacon of light to a dark and dying world. However, in The Man in the High Castle, there is no stop-gap measure. There is no Dutch boy with his finger stuck in a dyke. There is no one to stand against the two world Empires. There is no America. There is only power and pain, and suffering is a fact of life. Information is a commodity. Life is meaningless. Hope no longer exists.

Am I upsetting you? I certainly hope so. I highly recommend you watch this show. It’s rated TV-MA, but not for graphic sex scenes. Be warned, there is bad language and some brief scenes of nudity, but it’s the kind of nudity you’d find in a prison camp. This is not a show you will watch because you enjoy it. It’s a show you will watch because you should. And I promise you, the next time Memorial Day rolls around, you will find deeper appreciation for our soldiers than you ever imagined possible. It’s your duty as an American to watch this show and utter a prayer of thanksgiving.