The American Dream in The X-Files: Blood
The introduction to the American dream as it appears in The X-Files can be found here: https://culttvblog.substack.com/p/the-american-dream-in-the-x-files
I actually thought this series of posts would be very simple to do, but it isn't, and it's because there is no single definition of what the American dream is. What is wrong with you people? Why can't you have one single, perfectly simple dream to agree on. You are, after all, a dream beacon of liberty to get away from jolly old Blighty, where all we can agree on is (checks notes) mumble, mumble mumble.
Anyway, of course that means I'm going to throw another definiton of the dream at you. This is the one I was looking for to start off with, and the one I would have expected:
'But what does America stand for these days? Traditional answers-the rule of law, equal opportunity, equal justice, hope for the oppressed, human rights-are necessarily qualified by the uglier realities of American history: forced removal of indigenous peoples, slavery and segregation at home, illjudged wars abroad. Nonetheless, America used to have certain ideals. We often failed to live up to those ideals, but they were a moral template inspiring (or reproaching) our leaders.' Source: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/41438/great-empire-little-minds-the-american-mythology-that-enabled-donald-trump
This quote isn't only here because it fits with my initial expectations, but these values are, I think, the best expression of what is held up as being expected as the dream, and yet are failed again and again, in the show (I will add it to the introductory post). It is, of course, entirely possible that my own perception of the American dream was imbibed subconsciously by repeated watchings of The X-Files.
2x03 Blood (Monster of the week)
The foreground of this episode directs us to notice and question the strange things that various pieces of technology are doing here, but if you look away from that in the foreground, this episode actually comments extensively on several aspects of the dream.
Yes, I know, it's almost as if it's doing it subliminally. Spooky, eh?
We start with one of the icons of the American dream: a man working a blue collar job. We know his motives are obviously worthy. He may be doing it to pay for his mother's cancer treatment, to put his children through college (so they can keep him), or any other worthy motivation.
However this icon of American life hits two problems in the American dream of prosperity and virtue: the first that not everybody can succeed, not always through their own fault, and the second that there is a tendency in the American dream to equate success with virtue. In this, seen through the lens of the American dream, Edward Funsch is both a failure, but this must automatically mean some sort of moral failing on his part. So until we are pointed towards subsequent kllings prompted by screens later in the episode, the episode can be interpreted in this rather idiosyncratic way, which is absolutely in the background. You will note, of course, that I'm ignoring the way screens tell him to kill people, but you could treat this as an artistic way to suggest his own thoughts. He's a killer, if you like, so we could be seeing his own thoughts.
Nowadays I tend to read books on my laptop and I make notes by taking screenshots rather than writing them down. The titles I give to the screenshots will reflect my own thoughts. I have noticed that from my reading I have accumulated several (no other heading has more than one screenshot) indicating that a major problem with the American dream is that, quite literally, it isn't humanly possible for everyone to participate.
The American dream holds out the hope, the dream, or the theoretical possibility of 'success' (define that one as you will), but not always the means or the opportunity. In the case of Edward Funsch he has lost his job and the cause of this is plainly capitalism. His employers have decided to make him redundant by a poll so its not his own fault he's lost his job.
However in a cruel twist the American dream also incorporates a tendency to make you responsible for your failure as well as your success:
'Failure is made more harsh by the [premise of the American dream] that success results from actions and traits under one's own control. Logically, it does not follow that if success results from individual volition, then failure results from lack of volition. All one needs in order to see the logical flaw here is the distinction between necessary and sufficient. But that distinction is not obvious or intuitive, and in any case the psychologic of the American dream differs from strict logic. In the psychologic, if one may claim responsibility for success, one must accept responsibility for failure.' (Jennifer Hochschild: Facing up to the American Dream. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1995, p. 30)
Now the problem with that is that there is another part of the American psyche which may explain the value placed on success (not for nothing that the USA is the home of the prosperity gospel), and that is the particularly poisonous connection between success and virtue or moral worth. This is, of course, a common human idea, in that we all wonder what we've done to deserve this particular indignity, but this connection has a particular connection to the American dream:
'That quintessential American, Benjamin Franklin, illustrates three of these associations: the Autobiography instructs us that "no Qualities were so likely to make a poor Man's Fortune as those of Probity & Integrity." Conversely, "Proverbial Sentences, chiefly such as inculcated Industry and Frugality," are included in Poor Richard's Almanack as "the Means of procuring Wealth and thereby securing Virtue, it being more difficult for a Man in Want to act always honestly, as . . . it is hard for an empty Sack to stand upright." Finally, mere wealth may actually impede true success, the attainment of which requires a long list of virtues: "Fond Pride of Dress, is sure a very Curse;/ E'er Fancy you consult, consult your Purse"; "A Ploughman on his Legs is higher than a Gentleman on his Knees"; and "Pride that dines on Vanity sups on Contempt."' (Hochschild, op. cit., p.23)
In this reading of the show and the American dream, we know that Funsch isn't virtuous because he's been let go from his job, and we can be certain about this when Mulder says that he doesn't have a High School diploma. Obviously he's never stuck at anything in his life and is a listless drifter and should be avoided.
You may of course say that I'm reading way too much into this episode (or into the American dream) but I'm purely taking my reading and seeing what comes up. Yes, I'm probably overdoing it, but I honestly think you could read the show this way, and remember, I am a foreigner so you can't expect me to understand.
In the latter part of the show it shifts again to undermining our confidence in the justice of the American dream by yet more chemical experiments, which turn out to be probably causing the hallucinations. The example here of spraying pesticide is apparently based on the real-world example of spraying Malathion in California in an attempt to save the state's farming from devastation from a fly infestation. This meant the state's economy would otherwise have faced devastation to the tune of $14 billion. I see that Malathion is one of those chemicals which are apparently completely safe (the director of the California Conservation Corps publicly swallowed a mouthful of the solution) but has been criticised for considerable environmental damage. We are explicitly pointed towards the comparison with DDT which was similarly apparently safe for immediate human consumption (I have been unable to find footage online at present but I have seen people eating powdered DDT in the past), but devastating further down the line. We have exactly the same conflict in the episode: the message is that the councilman will put the economy of the area (and we know how the economy is shorthand for the American dream, don't we?) over the safety of the people. Let down by the state and lacking justice, yet again.
Because of the significant references to aspects of the American dream which I've read into it, I'm going to include my idiosyncratic interpretation among the episodes which have more significant content related to the dream.
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: 20 (6 with significant content relating to the American dream: Eve, Beyond the Sea, Young at Heart, Miracle Man, Shapes, Blood.)
As always, I'm totally unequipped to do this so if I've missed anything corrections are very welcome in the comments.