![]() And the shelter itself could only house three people. They rammed the door down (risking hurting the doctor's family by the way) and then nobody was safe all of a sudden. Suppose the threat actually turned out to be real. These things aren't feasible and they just get destructive after a while, especially if they go unchecked.Īlso, notice the aftermath of them barging into the bunker at the end. ![]() If I'm the only guy with a house in a neighborhood of homeless people, sure it would be generous to help out to some reasonable degree, but I'd be under zero moral obligation to do that and especially let them all come in and live with me now. ![]() It's not the responsibility of a richer nation to let the rest of the world's poorer people flood in indiscriminately just because people who have less want it to be. Take richer countries and poorer countries. I've thought about this episode a lot too and it really is a microcosm of something of a grander scope in the world. If they weren't, I'd be doing my family a grave disservice. My wife and children are more valuable to me than some random person or their children. People are not all equal in each other's eyes and they never will be. That's not even relevant and it's an arbitrary talking point designed to signify that everyone should consider everyone else of equal importance to them in society, and as an extension guilt trip the more capable of taking care of those less so, even if it's not in their best interests. I'm looking out for my family, and part of that means protecting them and being there for them. Yes, anyone's own family 100% gets top priority to them. He had no "downfall" just because he didn't sacrifice himself for others to look out for his family instead. The doctor's actions are perfectly justified. Otherwise as Serling feared, it’s just every man for themselves. Ultimately, if we want to human civilization to survive, those with the means to save themselves need to also start thinking about how they’ll save their neighbour’s children too, well before the disaster strikes. Meanwhile those that don’t have the resources, in this case the poor, are left with few options. But only those who have the resources have the means and ability to build bunkers to ride those disasters out. Anyone can have the foresight to know that a disaster is coming. If there’s a political parallel today of this philosophical theme, I would argue that it is economic inequality, particularly in the face of impending environmental destruction. When Serling speaks of humans needing to remain civilized, he is not just speaking about the mentality it takes for a mob to ram down a door, he is also talking about the mentality it takes to keep that door locked. ![]() The question is what ethical imperative do those with the means to survive have to others, particularly those who are more vulnerable? Although it’s not explicitly said, the doctor believes that because he was able to invest his resources into building a bunker, that he and his wife are more deserving of being saved than the neighbors or their children. However, at no point does the doctor offer to sacrifice his own place in the bunker in order to save one of these children. He knows that those children won’t survive any radioactive fallout. He knows that his neighbors have children. Whilst a lot of people focus on the mob and view the doctor as the hero, the doctor’s own actions are questionable. Both the neighbors and the doctor are representative of an every man for themselves mentality. This is also a corollary to when one of his neighbors discusses whether to go to the next street for help and another says that the other street can go to hell because he doesn’t want them trying to get into the doctor’s bunker too. The Doctor builds the bunker to save his own family because fundamentally he is a pessimist who assumed the worst of humanity was possible. Serling wrote the episode as a reaction to the survivalist mentality gripping the nation during the Cuban missile crisis. Whilst a lot of people focus on the actions of the neighbors ramming the bunker door, which is a clear representation of the mob mentality, it’s also important to consider the actions of the Doctor which are often overlooked. I saw a recent post about the episode ‘The Shelter’ regarding how human civilization needs to remain civilized in order to survive and how this relates to our current political environment.
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