Parallel realities, they do exist.
To Cite the great scientists of yonder days "one parallel dimension exists for every possible possibility", by this we can without a doubt say that every story ever written about any dimension holds some if not complete truth no matter how fictional it is in our world.
Atlas Park is really out there, just not out here.
just because we've stopped playing our parts to direct our alter egos and just because we were forced to stop watching over them doesn't mean they aren't still there doing what needs to be done.
heck, each of our lives is probably a TV series in some messed up parallel world, Or... is our world.. the messed up world? it would have to be figured on an average of all the parallel universes combined to find out what is more dominant as a world outcome, that by definition would be normal.
The question to blow minds would be, why do our alter egos think that they are holding torches on the steps of city hall? to say it is for the same reason as us would mean they acknowledge what we were thinking or had access to our minds, or at least have some access to knowledge of the existence of our world and the context of the effects of the shut-down. Are they suffering?