Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Post 1

Hello gentle reader. I apologize for the delay in getting up my first post. My intention is to try and post every Tuesday (new DVD day, huzzah!) but I am in the process of moving so this week has been kind of hectic, to say the very least.

Anyhoo, onward and upward!

I've been kicking around today's topic in my brain for a while and it is a subject that just makes me giddy, so I thought it would be fun to share for my first post. I've been saying for years that us left-handed people are taking over the world, and a recent episode of The 4400 (episode #42 "One of Us," original air date 8-19-07) seems to agree with me, or at least that's what the show's creators seem to be suggesting as the future of their wonderfully entertaining universe.

In case you're not too familiar with the show, here's a basic introduction: Over the course of several decades starting in the mid-twentieth century, 4400 people disappeared without a trace. Then one night a few years ago, a big ball of light appeared just outside of Seattle, and with it, all 4400 of the missing people. None of them had aged and none of them remembered anything about where they had been. Throughout the course of the show we learn that they were taken by "the future" (we haven't to this point really gotten a clear idea of who in the future took them) and each 4400 was given a special ability before they were sent back in order to save all of mankind. There's a whole tricky time-line issue here that I won't address today, but when I think about it (and I really try not to) it makes my head hurt. So...each 4400 has an ability. One girl has visions of the future, a young man can heal almost anything but death, we've got telekinesis, mind control, etc. The driving factor behind these abilities is a chemical called Promicin. The future introduced this chemical into the body of each person they took and sent back, and it seems to remove inhibitors in the brain, allowing people to find these gifts within themselves.

There have been all kinds of issues with the Promicin. When the 4400 were first returned, someone in the government detected it and created an inhibitor for the chemical to prevent the returnees from being able to develop or use their abilities at full strength. Unfortunately, the inhibitor is pretty much deadly to the 4400 and when our two favorite NTAC (National Threat Assessment Command) agents Skouris and Baldwin figured out what their government was doing to these people, they got it put to a stop. So...no more Promicin inhibitor. But that's not enough, the self-proclaimed leader of the 4400 (Jordan Collier) has decided that since the future sent them back to change the world, that's what he's going to do. He and his cohorts study Promicin and figure out that if a normal person takes it, they can also develop an ability.

Sounds great, right? Haven't you always wanted a super power? Well here's the catch, 50% of the people who take the Promicin shot not only don't develop an ability, they die. So there you go. Take the shot and develop an ability or take the shot and die. Those are your options. Collier seems okay with this. He believes that those with and those without abilities cannot coexist peacefully, and that what the future sent him back to do is weed out all of the people who aren't Promicin-tolerant. Of course, the government does not agree and so there's all kinds of a power struggle going on there.

What's so interesting about the whole thing is that they have done a really good job of blurring the lines between good and evil here. There are some 4400s and Promicin-positive individuals who use their powers for good, and some who use them for personal gain or domination of others. But on the other hand, while we have Baldwin and Skouris at NTAC trying to fight the good fight, we've got people within the government and even other private citizens who have proven to be downright nasty when it comes to how to deal with the 4400 or the Promicin issue. Then add in the two factions from the future--those who created the 4400 and those who have sent back their own agents to stop them at all costs--and the fact that we've never been told what the 4400 were actually sent back to change or prevent. We have have no idea who is taking actions that will save the world and who is working to condemn it. I love it. I'm rooting for people on all sides and I honestly have no idea how this is going to turn out.

So, how does this all cycle around to left-handed people taking over the world? Well, in the episode "One of Us" the doctor who figured out Promicin in the first place--he wanted an ability, so he figured out how to get one--is working on a test to try to determine ahead of time who would survive the Promicin shot. He is working with a 4400 who wants to prevent that pesky 50% mortality rate. Well, it turns out there's a part of the brain that is slightly larger in us left-handed folks and that in turn allows pretty much any left-handed person to survive the shot. Sorry righties, I guess you're out of luck.

So there you have it, SciFi television has confirmed what I've been telling people all along. Can you imagine a world full of only lefties? I'm not really sure I can. But just in case, be sure to be extra nice to those left-handed individuals in your life, won't you? You don't want to be the first one against the wall when the revolution comes.

Have a great one!

C

Recent acquisitions: The Office Season 3, Robot Chicken Season 2