Are You a Zombie?
Halloween, all the time....
We all know the basic zombie story. It’s hard not to know, considering that zombie books, movies and TV shows abound. Which got me to thinking; WHY do they abound? What is it about zombies? Surely, somewhere within ourselves, zombie stories resonate.
I did a quick check with Wikipedia, the ultimate source of crowd-sourced factual and not-so-factual reporting. The zombie legends, in one form or another, go so far back that we can’t say for sure where they originated. In somewhat more recent times, zombies have been associated with Haitian voodoo practices.
But zombies perhaps truly achieved greatness with the movie, Night of the Living Dead, in 1968. Others preceded, but this one has staying power. Whether most people watch or not, most are aware of The Walking Dead, which seems to just keep on walking. I would like to personally recommend Return of the Living Dead, 1985. It is one of those rare parodies that outperforms its source material. And the ending is irony on steroids. In it, as in other zombie movies, the zombies are former normal humans who, having been “bit” by other zombies, become zombies themselves.
Also worth mentioning, although not a zombie movie, is They Live, 1988. In this movie, special glasses allow humans to recognize space aliens who, without the glasses, look just like humans. And, of course, those space aliens are plotting the overthrow of mankind.
One more. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956. In it, plant spores develop the ability to grow to exactly replicate individual human bodies, and then kill the original human. The theme resembles They Live, in that invaders are systematically taking over human civilization without the normal humans realizing it. Will they succeed? Or will they be thwarted by the end of the movie? I won’t be a spoiler; you’ll just have to watch for yourself. But I’d bet on the normal humans, at least in Hollywood.
But all of the above is just the set-up. This post is to ask if you are a zombie, remember? Of course you aren’t, right? Well, why not? Let’s consider. Let’s examine what it is that has made these movies into classics. And TV shows into long-running events. This must be more than casual entertainment. Who wants to watch movies about humans being converted into mindless zombies, unless it strikes a chord in our minds? Is that a true fear in our lives? Are we afraid that our own individual minds will be converted into some vessel for absorption of omnipotent control by some outside entity?
I’d say, yes, we are afraid of that. And we should be. While today’s communications are impressively efficient, there has never been a time when ‘just us folks’ haven’t been pressured to adopt somebody else’s ideology. It’s just more efficient now. People have continually been expected to adopt certain religions, to adopt certain cultural values, i.e. politics, and to like ‘these’ people but to hate ‘those’ people. We now have official ‘thought leaders’ and ‘influencers’. These are not people who give a damn who you are or what you think. They are people who derive their income and their influence by convincing you to give up your individuality in favor of the comfort of being one of the crowd, which they lead. There are those who are eager to feel the comfort of conformity. Their desire to belong takes precedence over concerns with what it is that they belong to. Perhaps their sense of self is already weak, and needs reinforcement by outside influences.
Others, like yours truly, fight for our individuality on a daily basis. We aren’t the slightest self-conscious about holding opinions that run counter to the latest trend. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of in between on this spectrum. You are an individualist, or you are not. Yes, there are different flocks, different herds seeking your conformity. Different zombie clans, perhaps. If you feel comfortable with conformity, if you feel threatened by opposing points of view, and want “those” people to be eliminated from your range of experience so that you need not stress or feel conflicted, perhaps you should consider… Are you a zombie?
This should be required reading for the masses... If only we could get them to shut off the tv and read, and maybe think?
You know, of all the dystopian future scenarios tossed around for many years, for some reason I didn't expect it to be the zombie apocalypse. I didn't - until I realized it's already here. Your essay just confirmed that. Damn.
It’s really hard to watch this zombie apocalypse unfold to be honest, I keep thinking where on earth did they find all these ass hats that fall in line behind each other, and not only do as they are told but actually believe it’s the right thing to do. I think something is wrong with the numbers all the way around , if zombies are a statistic, I don’t know very many of them, so where do they come from? When they were Boasting about having 70% of the population vaccinated, I kept thinking no fucking way could this be true. I walked around the city with a Jason mask on with a post it note taped to my forehead that said “ITS YOUR FAULT “ just to let the so called 70% know how I feel about the whole situation, but honestly for the most part everyone I asked wasn’t touching shit with a ten foot poll. Maybe there are less zombies out there then the so called numbers would have us believe? We just need to find a way to unite so we can weed the true zombies out! We can point them all toward the same transgendered bathroom, I mean that’s where all of our politicians came from right? Or at least it’s there biggest accomplishment!!! Anyways they’ll be in good company, and we can then move forward instead of following a 300 year old play book, that led us to zombies and Transgendered bathrooms!! The End!!