The American Dream in The X-Files: Reflections after Season 2

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

Another pause for reflection now that I've got to the end of Season 2.

When I started this series of posts I adopted a definiton of the American dream taken straight from the relevant Wikipedia page, of the national ethos of the US including representative, democracy, rights, liberty, and equality, in which freedom is interpreted as the opportunity for individual prosperity and success. I have since added to this another one I found, where the national ethos is defined as the rule of law, equal opportunity, equal justice, hope for the oppressed, and human rights.

I was subsequently a little surprised to find that this isn't necessarily how citizens of the USA see it themselves and that the definition of the dream is apparently endlessly mutable. The table from a survey which illustrates this post is the exact opposite of what I would have listed myself and different from the narrow definition of freedom on Wikipedia: I think a broader idea of personal freedom as a more primary characteristic of the dream is probably more representative of the people who scream 'You can't tell me what to do because of my God-given freedom!' on the app formerly known as Twitter.

This mutability has made this series of posts quite difficult to do and all I can say as an outsider is that if as a country with a written consitution you can't define your dream in the constitution then you're just making life unnecessarily difficult for TV bloggers.

I have, however been surprised to realise that the version of the dream The X-Files criticises is the one I had in my head to start off with: that the dream is prosperity, opportunity, justice, rights, democracy, safety, transparent government. Of course this may merely mean that my impressions of the US, which I've filed in my mind under the label of 'American dream' because I'd heard it) may have been absorbed from watching The X-Files rather than, say, Fox News. I've also watched a lot of The Simpsons and I suspect that show's criticism of the nation's ethos is even more pointed because it doesn't have the softening fiction of aliens.

Of course the aspects of the dream that The X-Files criticises are also ones that are specifically woven into the mythology of the show: government secrecy, lack of justice, racism, the military-industrial complex, the treatment of native Americans, unethical experimentation, and so on. 

Since so much of the core mythology relates to government cover up etc, i was expecting to find a majority of the American dream episodes I have identified among the Core mythology episodes. In fact this hasn't happened, and in fact I have identifed 35.7% of core mythology episodes as having significant content relating to the American dream in my opinion, but 40% of Monster of the Week episodes.

I was also surprised to find a run of episodes in the middle of Season 2 which apparently had no connection as far as I could see to the American dream and I began to wonder whether I was imagining my perceived depiction of the dream in the show. However Chris Carter said that it was in the middle of Season 2 that the show started getting into its stride so I would imagine that it is because the show started the exposition of itself and the previous exposition of the US ethos was part of the scene setting.

There are just another couple of things that have come up which I am not sure are directly connected to the American dream, however you may find it, but have been interesting.

One is Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech, which I suppose being part of the American ethos is actually part of the dream. Perhaps the most obvious reference to these freedoms in The X-Files is the freedom from fear, because of the ongoing thread of fear: fear of the government, fear of aliens, fear of the unkown, and so on. Perhaps the most obvious fear to an outsider is the freedom to bear arms. Yes, you read that sentence right and I have equated two things which are likely to be different in many Americans' minds. However what I'm getting at is that if you are sitting there thinking you are glad you have the freedom to bear arms so that you can defend yourself in case one of the other people around you with guns attacks you or the government tries to take away your freedom, then what you are living in is fear. That is not freedom. 

And the reality is that carrying arms increases the likelihood of the thing you're frightened of, namely being shot. Strangely this is illustrated by a scene in Anusazi, the one where Scully has taken Mulder's gun off him and Mulder finds Krycek at his apartment building. If you watch this scene carefully, in the early moments before Mulder expresses his intention of killing Krycek and Scully gets involved, because Krycek is armed but Mulder is not, Mulder's initial priority is to disarm Krycek. Because the unarmed man doesn't want to get shot his priority is to disarm the other man. Had they both had guns, it would have escalated quickly to a standoff. Despite his stated intent to kill Krckek, Mulder disarms him with neither of them getting shot. Had he left it at just wanting to disarm him there would have been no need for Scully to shoot Mulder. She had to shoot him because of his intent to shoot Krycek. In other words, The X-Files actually has a scene showing how not having arms means people don't get shot. But you all knew that, of course.

I can't remember what season it comes in but I'm looking forward to the future references to the reds under the beds scare. Of course this is necessary because Communism (even when it was 'Communism') was the perceived enemy that led to so much of the totally unethical things that went on during the Cold War in defence of the dream. I have also been interedted by the mention of Nixon's secretary: the show really isn't pulling any punches in its depiction of the dream being a hollow front is it?

And surely everyone is thinking of Nixon this week, aren't we?

And in case you're wondering what I mean by 'Communism', watch these interviews with people in California who thought a ban on drink driving was 'undemocratic' and 'Communist' in the 1980s. Perhaps that is the best criticism of the untrammeled 'freedom' to do whatever you feel like, that some people think is the essence of the American drem, to the extent that making it illegal must be Communist.

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: 14 (5 with signifcant content relating to the American dream: Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, E.B.E., Little Green Men and Anasazi.)

Monster of the Week: 35 (8 with significant content relating to the American dream: Eve, Beyond the Sea, Young at Heart, Miracle Man, Shapes, Blood, Sleepless and Fresh Bones.)

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