The American dream in The X-Files: Little Green Men and The Host

The introduction to this series of posts about the American dream as depicted in The X-Files can be found here: https://culttvblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-american-dream-in-x-files.html?m=1

I was delighted to find the table which illustrates this post, as it refers to a 2014 survey of American citizens as to how they saw the American dream. Interestingly it is almost exactly opposite to how I first saw it myself as an outsider: I would have put affluence and basic needs first and personal freedom would only have appeared if I'd thought about it. Interestingly it is almost completely different from the things I, an outsider, am identifying as referring to the American dream in The X-Files, but then I've never claimed to be competent to do this in any way.

Interestingly freedom as originally conceived as part of the American dream was very constrained indeed:

'They wanted freedom-any high school history textbook will tell you that. They themselves would tell you that. But they didn't define it the way we typically do today. In fact, insofar as they did understand freedom as we do, they considered it monstrous. "There is twofold liberty-natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal," Massachusetts Bay founder John Winthrop explained in 1645. "The first is common to man with beasts and other creatures. By this, man as he stands into relation to man, hath the liberty to do as he lists." This kind of freedom "makes men grow more evil, and in time to be worse than brute beasts." True freedom, on the other hand, "is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority." Freedom involved a willing surrender to the will of the Lord, a choice to defer to Godly clerical and civil authorities that ruled in His name.' (Jim Cullen: The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation.Oxford University press, 2003, p. 21.)

Winthrop goes on to describe how this freedom means subjection to authority, but of necessity a freedom from corrupt authority, giving the example of the Church of England that they had escaped. This is actually *exactly* the perception of the dream that The X-Files keeps coming back to. The dream would be that the government isn't corrupt and doesn't preserve the nation's liberty in underhanded ways, so that the citizens (personified by Mulder and/or Scully) can submit happily.

Naturally enough, in a show wet inside the FBI, this 'governmental' side of the American dream is referenced far more than the side of the dream identified in the survey above, and thus indicates that for the dream to function the government should not be corrupt, and shouldn't be continually duplicitous. The show keeps pointing at things the government does that compromise the citizen's ability to submit with good conscience, and specifically its use of secrecy to cover up rather than maintain the safety of the state. I maintain that the show repeatedly references Watergate (and, later the Reds under the Bed panic), weaving them into the show's core alien mythology, to suggest that the government has got quite a lot to hide, some of it real and some of it fictional alien stuff.

2x01 Little Green Men (Core Mythology)

The show does this superlatively in Little Green Men, and the mixture of real history with the show's own narrative is extraordinarily rich. Particularly cleverly, the show draws on some particularly barmy real history to add an aura of verisimilitude to the story.

It starts with Mulder recounting the voyager ships carrying messages for any alien intelligences which may come across them. Once again, any reference to the space program necessarily references the Space Race, intended to cement the pre-eminence of the USA which is so part of the American dream. Mulder goes on to describe the High Resolution Microwave Survey, started and ended not long before this show was made, and intended to intercept any transmissions from aliens. This is real history and seems an incredible way to waste public money, but was unsurprisingly discontinued very quickly. However it's absolutely perfect for the show. The thing here of course, is that that also takes place in a context of the Space Race, and had any alien transmissions been deemed 'hostile' then obviously the government would have had to go in for the defence of the American dream. The observatory where the project took place was part of the US Department of Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency missile defense program, and was intended to detect any other incoming missiles as well as alien transmissions. The experiment was not to interest men with an interest in aliens but was actually military.

Later Mulder and Scully arrange to meet, and they only choose the car park of the Watergate Hotel to do so. This is in the same complex as the building where the Watergate events took place and so apart from the name, we are again directed to think of Watergate, and thus government corruption. Scully even says Mulder looks like Deep Throat. Once again, rather than in the foreground of the American dream that most people would think of, we are in the background of the defence of the dream, and the likelihood that the government will cover up and do illegal or unethical things in its defence. The show is directing us to look away from the facade of freedom and prosperity and look at the corruption and lies that support it. Even though this episode is a core show mythology episode, the subject matter isn't really the aliens at all.

Mulder's sister's abduction comes up in the conversation and the show cuts straight to footage of the actual abduction. With sledgehammer subtlety the TV is broadcasting a news item about Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's secretary, and her role in supposedly accidentally wiping parts of the White House tapes which formed part of the Watergate scandal. Nixon's refusal to comply with a subpoena for the tapes ultimately led to his impeachment and resignation. Do I even need to point out that the show is making a connection between real government corruption and the show's fictional narrative of covering up aliens? 

During the course of the abduction, Mulder goes to get a hand gun that is kept in the house, which of course is one of the more prominent 'freedoms' currently causing problems. Is it or was it even legal to keep a gun in the house and not have it in a safe? How does that make any sense if it is?

We then have Mulder summoned to see a senator who references the Voyager recordings; another reference to government involvement and complicity in the show's core conspiracy.

Cigarette Smoking Man makes an appearance, and let's not forget that he has previously been indentified as a CIA fixer, although he is mostly a less-clearly defined figure. He isn't portrayed as such but I think we are supposed at least to think of the kind of fixers who always turn up after alien events, even though he doesn't wear black. He is therefore emblematic of government complicity in the core conspiracy.

It may be because I'm wringing every drop of anti-government meaning out of this but we shouldn't forget that the observatory is in Puerto Rico which is a territory of the US but not a state. I only recently learned that the residents therefore have the considerable advantage of mainly not paying income tax but the considerable disadvantage of not being able to vote. There's a subtle hint that this isn't exactly some dream democracy you've got going on there, what the hell. The show makes no mention of this fact but it is probably the biggest problem here and directly contradicts a major principle of the American dream:

'And democracy, it almost went without saying, was for Lincoln the greatest form of government. He realized this was not something everyone took for granted. "Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of equal rights to men, as I have, in part, stated them," he wrote in notes to himself in 1854. "Ours began by affirming those rights. They said, some men are too ignorant and vicious to share in government . . . .We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant, wiser; and all better, and happier together. We made the experiment, and the fruit is before us."' (Cullen, op. cit. p. 86)

I am not really equipped to deal with the show's depiction of the Hispanic man at the observatory, but you could definitely get implications of racism and imperialism from it if you tried. Again, explicitly suggesting that a complete nightmare underlies the dream.

We have more agents surveilling Mulder's flat to reinforce the aura of government over-surveillance.

Finally the episode draws our attention back to the Watergate scandal by the reference to missing footage on the tape, which is another reference to the missing footage on the White House tapes. Alone, the fact the tapes have been wiped would be readily explained by Scully's scientific explanation, but given the constant subtext about Watergate and government surveillance, the show is directing us to think that the tapes have somehow been wiped by government agents.

In fact, if you take out the few bits where aliens manage to get a look in in this episode, it's basically a whole fifty minutes shouting, 'The government is corrupt and so we can't submit in peace to them as is the American dream!'

Because of its significant content relating to the government's failures to maintain its side of the American dream I an going to list Little Green Men among the episodes most prominently about the dream.

2x02 The Host (Monster of the Week)

No great reference to the American dream. The episode, does, however, introduce X, Mulder's new informant from the shadowy group within the government, who is keen for him to expose the truth.

As I go through these posts I am going to keep a tally of how many episodes of Core Mythology and Monster of the Week types have significant content making the American dream in effect part of the plot rather than the omnipresent setting, and so far we have 

Core Mythology: 7 (4 with signifcant content relating to the American dream: Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, E.B.E., and Little Green Men.)

Monster of the Week: 19 (5 with significant content relating to the American dream: Eve, Beyond the Sea, Young at Heart, Miracle Man and Shapes.)

As always, I'm totally unequipped to do this so if I've missed anything corrections are very welcome in the comments.