The representation of private interests ... abolishes all natural and spiritual distinctions by enthroning in their stead the immoral, irrational and soulless abstraction of a particular material object and a particular consciousness which is slavishly subordinated to this object.
~ Marx
While progress marches forward, and technology reaches dizzying heights, are we humans conditioned to look at the world through a fractured, unhappy spyglass? Or are we, by nature, a happy lot resilient to the misfortunes of life that slaps us from time to time? Why is it that the Zombie genre is having such a resurgence? The social issues that create the desire for folks to delve into the world of the undead are what I would like to explore in this paper. Why do people, me among them, want to watch and imagine being in the apocalyptic world? As far back as people can remember we have had the desire to remove ourselves from society. In the 1960s, from 64 – 67, Gilligan’s Island aired, and if we make the effort, we can see the connection to that show and The Walking Dead. While Gilligan’s Island was a comedy, it still explored a group of people being forced to survive their “new world” by whatever means they could muster. Yes, they were all white, but they were of differing classes and professions. It was the same idea as The Walking Dead, but on a much smaller scale, and with no zombies. Some of the areas I want to explore are social deconstruction: including government, military, monetary systems, technology, sexism, racism, ageism, the nuclear family; including children, education, religion, the arts and addictions: including drug, alcohol, gambling and the Internet.
Zombies is defined as: zom·bie ˈzämbē/ noun noun: zombie; plural noun: zombies 1.a corpse said to be revived by witchcraft, especially in certain African and Caribbean religions. The popular zombies that are on shows, such as: Z Nation, The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, and World War Z are not those that originate from witchcraft, but a virus of unknown origins. All are infected, and no matter the cause of death, all turn into the “walking dead”. The term “walking dead” is a great metaphor, as it can apply to many in our society. Those that are stuck on the treadmill of making money to pay money, to barely live is what most have become.
Combine the lack of “mindfulness,” with the level of distraction most seem to be afflicted with these days and we have the perfect storm for a zombie apocalypse. These days the engagement in life is swept aside by the daily grind that reduces many of us to nothing more than the dust we are meant to return to after death, except we die before death, and become the walking dead. The “cocooning” that Faith Popcorn warned us about in 1992 is happening, but in more ways than just not wanting to leave the house (Popcorn). We “cocoon” with our laptops, tables and smartphones. All those that tap phone keys are all so busy being engaged with someone else, somewhere else. Watch them with those that they are seated with and notice most are not “being in the moment”. Personal, “real-time” interaction is a dying art. The Buddhists believe in, “being in the moment means being mindfully aware of what is going on right here and now” (wildmind buddhist meditation).
So, if so many of us are the walking dead, then why are we drawn to these shows and movies involving zombies? My thesis is that we desire to be engaged in the basic struggles of life, the lowest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: food, water, sleep and homeostasis. We have become steeped in the abstract: bills, 401k plans, healthcare benefits, mortgages, credit cards, loans, etc. We lose sight of the basis struggle that we, as humans, need in order to feel fulfilled. I agree with Agent Smith, speaking to Morpheus, in “The Matrix”: Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy[?] It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization. (Brothers) Marx writes, “…the worker sinks to the level of a commodity and becomes indeed the most wretched of commodities” (K. Marx, Estranged Labour). I think that the following is another key point made by Marx:
…the worker is related to the product of labor as to an alien object… the worker spends himself, the more powerful becomes the alien world of objects… the poorer he himself – his inner world – becomes,
the less belongs to him as his own. It is the same in religion. The more man puts into God, the less he retains in himself. The worker puts his life into the object; but now his life no longer belongs to him but to the object… Whatever the product of his labor is, he is not. Therefore, the greater this product, the less is he himself. The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object…It means that the life which he has conferred on the object confronts him as something hostile and alien. (K. Marx, Estranged Labor) I think of Marx’s quote, “Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks” (K. Marx). Instead of vampires, we create zombies that bite/eat our bodies, slowly. The zombie is the embodiment of Lakoff and Johnson's assertion that the metaphorical concept TIME IS MONEY has “arisen in modern industrial societies” and serves to “structure our basic everyday activities in a very profound way” (Lakoff). We have a blend of extremes in our society Hedonism and Epicureanism, in that we want what the Joneses have therefore, we are willing to spend our time making money to have, and yet we desire to be removed from the society that creates the desire in the first place. According to Barry Schwartz, the paradox of choice states that the more choices we are offered the less we are satisfied. “All of this choice has two effects, two negative effects on people. One effect, paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis, rather than liberation. With so many options to choose from, people find it very difficult to choose at all” (Schwartz). Schwartz also brings to light the second point of the paradox of choice, …Dan Gilbert made a big point…about how much the way in which we value things depends on what we compare them to…there are lots of alternatives to consider, it is easy to imagine the attractive features of alternatives that you reject that make you less satisfied with the alternative that you've chosen (Schwartz).
I think of the problems that the industrial age brought us, and the philosophy and poetry that grew out of the aversion to it, such as: Wordsworth, Burns, Shelly and Blake, whose lines from his poem, Jerusalem express the fear and loathing of the new age: And did the Countenance Divine/Shine forth upon our clouded hills?/And was Jerusalem builded here/Among these dark Satanic mills?” (Blake) Many of society’s ills, such as industrialization, are done away with when the apocalypse washes the world clean. We want advances but dread the side effects that come along with those advancements. According to Nikki Menis’s article, “Industrial Revolution Philosophers,” the philosophers that grew out of the industrial revolution were many, including Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Robert Owen. I think of the literature as well, including Aldous Huxley’s 1932 fictional, Brave New World, and how we all are now so far removed from nature that children may indeed be soon decanted instead of born. I wonder if Huxley had Edwin Robinson’s 1910 poem, “Miniver Cheevy,” in mind when he wrote his novel, especially the line, “And eyed a khaki suit with loathing”
when he created the Deltas, the lower laborers, manual work in factories wearing khaki? If we are going to explore social deconstruction, via zombie apocalypse, then we need to understand social construct first. According to Encyclopedia, Social Construct is “... in the domain of social constructionist thought, a social construct is an idea or notion that appears to be natural and obvious to people who accept it but may or may not represent reality, so it remains largely an invention or artifice of a given society.” Some forms of social constructs are gender, social class, race, and according to Michel Foucault, language, history and sovereign power can be included in our listing. Within the zombie apocalypse many social constructs/biases are erased, such as race, gender, class, etc. Money has lost its power in this new world. Aesthetic value is a thing of the past; the arts have lost their place. Plato would be happy with this change, but it is not the Utopia he was planning, but an apocalypse which brings about this development. There is no room for, “…they copy images of virtue and the like, but the truth they never reach? The poet is like a painter who…” (Plato, The Republic Book X). In 360 B.C.E. in book ten of Plato’s The Republic we are instructed how the arts are detrimental to man’s higher pursuits. Plato makes a great argument for the banning of the painter, as (s)he is nothing more than a, “creator of appearances…not speaking the truth…” (Plato, The Republic 459). The poet is just as corrupting of Utopia, as (s)he is considered by Plato to be, “…an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king and from the truth” (460). The main cause for Plato’s desire to ban the painter, the poet and the actor is due to their producing and engaging in an, “…inferior degree of truth… inferior part of the soul… because he awakens and nourishes and strengthens the feelings and impairs the reason” (469). His reasoning is that “the imitative poet implants an evil constitution, for he indulges the irrational nature which has no discernment of greater and less, but thinks the same thing at one time great and at another small-he is a manufacturer of images and is very far removed from the truth” (469). His concern was twofold; the imitative was not truth and the passions raised by the arts stymied the increase of happiness and virtue, as evidenced here:
And the same may be said of lust and anger and all the other affections, of desire and pain and pleasure, which are held to be inseparable from every action ---in all of them poetry feeds and waters the passions instead of drying them up; she lets them rule, although they ought to be controlled, if mankind are ever to increase in happiness and virtue. (470)
Stefan Morawski states in his article, “The Aesthetic Views of Marx and Engels”: …fundamentally mythological postulation that aesthetic phenomena are to be regarded as a cultural activity of homo sapiens in his slow progress to self-realization within the matrix of his socio-historical processes. The non-isolate phenomena of the arts, which variously depend on the other manifestations of culture, social, political, moral, religious, and scientific, in turn influence other spheres of activity. (Morawski 303)
While Marx and Engle agree with Plato that the artist, whatever the discipline, is a form of” reflection” on reality, I do not hear the condemnation of the artist as Ido from Plato. We must keep in mind what Paul Watzlawick says, “The belief that there is only one reality is the most dangerous self-deception” (Watzlawick).
Morawski explains that “The continual dynamic flux and change in aesthetics and the arts derive chiefly from the rise and decline of the always complex ideological outlooks…are conditioned by the general contractions and evolution of class society” (303). He also delves into the “dynamism” of the “crystallized” and the “emergent” attitudes. Where Marx and Engle make the case of the “function” of the arts and aesthetics is when they express: …irrepressible desire of men for emancipation from tyranny, injustice, and hunger…man-the-maker, homo faber…might gain the capacity to exchange his collective toil and oppressive ignorance for a mode of social being…homo aestheicus he might freely and creatively achieve the totality of his potential faculties. (304)
Governments, in whatever form they take, are no longer ruling countries. Their militaries also fall quickly once the “grid” falls. Even as the government has evolved over time to become more aligned with man’s rights, no government has truly protected the people. The Glorious Revolution, the American Revolution, the French Revolution were connected and piggybacked off the prior.
I see the ties between kings, religions, the uprising of the oppressed, even by the means of a zombie apocalypse. What I find amazing, and amusing, is that instead of freedom for the people, each replaced one form of tyrant for another, they became what they hated and fought against. In America, while we were crying for our freedom, slaves still suffered on plantations and elsewhere. The French beheaded the king and queen and then went on to terrorize its citizens. I also see the progression of the idea of “rights.” The Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789, written by The Marquis de Lafayette, the “savior” of the American Revolution, and The American Bill of Rights, were written in the same year. Then “The Rights of Woman” 1791 reads, or “answers” the “Rights of Man As a matter of fact, class distinction is wiped out. Again, Marx would be delighted as he wrote, “…the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force…the means of material production…has control…over the means of mental production” (K. Marx).
Technology becomes obsolete after the zombie apocalypse, and all are forced back to the dark ages. The world shrinks and the ideology of globalization is as far off the mark as a cure for the zombie virus. Cell phones, computers, etc. have lost their power to detract folks. As a matter of fact, humans can no longer afford to be distracted, even for a short time, as it can lead to being killed. Folks must be in the moment, and all forms of entertainment are only thoughts to be reminisced about by those who were born before the apocalypse.
Education, at least the formal form, is no longer an option. What now matters is if someone can shoot or defend themselves and their group. Higher education seems to be a liability for those that have spent their lives in academia, as they are the least prepared to defend themselves and their loved ones. It does seem certain majors would have some benefits surviving the zombies. According to an article by the University of Washington, “College Students vs. the Zombie Apocalypse,” pre-med students would have a survival rate of 56%, and engineering majors would have a survival rate of 67% (Elenes).
This zombie phenomenon is becoming so contagious that even the U.S. News has written an article, “Where You Should Go to Survive the Impending Zombie Apocalypse”. The article lists the five best cities in America to survive the zombie invasion: Boston; Salt Lake City; Columbus, Ohio; Baltimore and Virginia Beach, Virginia. The worst cities would be New York; Tampa, Florida; Los Angeles; Riverside-San Bernardino, California and Chicago, Illinois. These rankings were: Based on factors like population density, industrial resources, skilled labor concentration and medical facilities, the ‘totally necessary and 100 percent practical’ report ultimately determined that Beantown has "the highest chance of surviving a zombie apocalypse. (A. Soergel) The article goes so far as to inform us: ‘Ideally, a city would have a high concentration of occupations that deal in the areas of defense,
including military occupations and protective services occupations (including law enforcement, firefighting and security), along with biomedical research and development (the better for its chances of developing a cure), such as microbiologists, biomedical engineers and biotechnicians,’ Mary Lorenz, corporate communications manager at CareerBuilder.com, tells U.S. News in an email. ‘Engineering prowess and construction trade skills are also crucial to help build reinforcements that keep the zombies out’ (A. Soergel)
Boston ranked at the top of the pack in terms of cure development, thanks to its high concentration of "biological and medical scientists and professionals," the release said. San Diego, Indianapolis and Baltimore, all of which made the study's Top 10 best cities for survival, weren't far behind.
The nuclear family has been deeply affected by the apocalypse, in that almost everyone has lost someone in their family. There are hardly any complete families left. People are formed into tribes, which are comprised of many differing peoples. Again, race and gender, sexual orientation, and class are not considerations to be a member of a tribe. As Rick, from The Walking Dead says he asks three questions to anyone wishing to join the “group,” as that is what these tribes are called, “How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? WHY?” These three questions are the new benchmark for those seeking inclusion in Rick’s group. He is asking how many “walkers,” the infected has a person killed, which indicates if the new arrival can contribute to the safety of the group. The second question, “How many people have you killed?” is a bit tougher to answer and a bit deeper as an indication of how the new arrival thinks of human life, its value and if any reason is worth taking a life. Most in the show have had to kill people, but usually there is a very good reason. The indiscriminate killing of each other is a thing of the past, as each non-infected person is a potential contributor to a group. Rick’s third question, “Why?” is the deciding factor if the new arrival is worthy, or conducive, to becoming a member of their group.
Having children is a liability; not a financial sense, but in a struggle to survive sense. The noise produced by a child is what may endanger the group, as it draws the attention of the walkers. If there is a child in the group, it must be attended to keep the child quiet. This has the added benefit of child neglect/abuse being eradicated. There are very few children in the after-apocalypse world, and so each is considered valuable. Humans are the only species; I think, that routinely abuse and kill their own. According to Michael Petit’s, President of the “Every Child Matters Education Fund,” essay in his online BBC article: Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The child maltreatment death rate in the US is triple Canada’s and 11 times that of Italy. Millions of children are reported as abused and neglected every year. (Petit)
And according to the 2014 Children’s Defense Fund’s Annual State of America’s Children report: The most recent figures from the 2014 Children’s Defense Fund’s Annual State of America’s Children report that 1,825 children are abused or neglected each day in the U.S., and 1,923 for 2014 according to Children’s Bureau 2014 Child Maltreatment report. National estimates of child deaths from abuse and neglect in the U.S. totaled 1,640 for 2012, and 1,580 for 2014 according to Children’s Bureau 2014 Child Maltreatment report. This amounts to at least four child maltreatment fatalities per day. (The State of America's Children)
Addictions, in all their forms, are given no quarter in the post-apocalyptic novice society. Those addictions that make folks dependent on the grid; cell phones, Internet, video games, etc. cannot be entertained any longer; as well as addictions, in the physical form; drugs, sex, alcohol, etc. According to Renew Everyday website, some statics on addiction are: Twenty-three million Americans age 12 or older suffer from alcohol and drug addiction. More than 15 million of those are dependent on alcohol, roughly 4 million are dependent on drugs, the rest are Addiction Treatment Center Locator dependent on both. In 2006, nearly 1.8 million Americans were admitted to drug and alcohol treatment facilities. Preliminary data for 2009 from the CDC show the highest percentage in a decade measured for adults who have consumed more than 5 drinks a day (23 percent). Individuals treated for alcohol misuse are approximately 10 times more likely to commit suicide than those who do not misuse alcohol, and people who abuse drugs have about 14 times greater the risk for eventual suicide. (Addiction & Recovery: The Stats) If these statics aren’t frightening enough, we have Marc N. Potenza, MD, PhD, Senior Scientist at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse and Professor of Psychiatry, Child Study and Neurobiology at Yale University School of Medicine, with some statics on addiction to sex, gambling and the Internet. When Dr. Potenza was asked, “What role does the environment play in behavioral addictions and does it play a larger role than it does in substance addiction?” during a presentation for The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse he answered: Genetic and environmental factors seem equally important for both behavioral and substance addictions. Twin studies find that 30 to 70 percent of the factors contributing to substance addictions are environmental in nature, and similar estimates have been reported for gambling disorder. (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse)
We can become addicted to almost anything in our lives. On a more serious note, considering the present condition of our electoral process and the two main party candidates, it is no wonder some would rather deal with the “seen” threat, than try to contend with the “unseen” within our society. I would like to see how most of us would survive, even thrive, within the rewritten nation of the zombie apocalypse.
Works Cited
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