Pluribus: Anthemic Aliens

Latest in creation from the producer of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is the series Pluribus. Essentially, the singular season has depicted what can be described as akin to tales like Anthem by Ayn Rand or Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, but with Aliens. 

The world of Rand’s novella is one where the notion of even the singular ‘I’ is obfuscated in attempt at total depersonalized and collective consciousness. Vonnegut describes in his short story the inclusion of built in inhibitor chips, of sorts, in order to achieve this totality. Pluribus combines these tropes and mixes in the presence of an extraterrestrial hive mind which infected all but 13 humans on the Earth. Liken-able in some regard to an international Fascism; it’s almost similar to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith wherein the rise of the Empire coincides with the Republic Clone army’s hidden brain chips were activated.

While the detractors within both of the 20th century writers martyrs are depicted as ousted oratory others or murdered martyrs, it’s suspiciously more positive in its presentation of the hive mind; most remaining accepting the invaders odd hospitality. Actively working to add the 13 remaining singular souls; they indulge in excess or revel in families that no longer really exist beyond a performance put on for their benefit. Interestingly this extraterrestrial care is apparently part of their biological prerogative; they aren’t even able to harm a plant by picking fruit according to their own admission; pitfall of such empathetic nature results in excruciating bouts of pain, akin to epileptic seizures, to all those in the vicinity of a character such as Rhea Seahorn’s  played Carol, when she has intensely negative emotions— and extreme to the point of causing mass casualties at times  

Actualized equality in totality is the essence of these bits of data. Pluribus shows an uncomfortable situation, at least for two of the 13 remaining individual human entities, and anyone who wouldn’t want a boring as shit spoon-fed existence— at least until the alien inhabitants figure out how to connect them too.