At the tail end of lab today, I caught one of my groups discussing the "coming zombie apocalypse". It doesn't help that a new form of PCP led a man to hallucinate and bite off another man's face or the guy who went around PRETENDING to be a zombie for kicks, because these stories have put it on the minds of people who otherwise care very little about this. I do not understand the fascination with the zombie apocalypse; zombies are an ancient horror meme rather than a new one, and I wish it would stop.
If you think about it, the fascination tells us some interesting things about the young people who think about it. This is not an exhaustive list, but however inchoate it is, it is a start for discussion about just what led to this. That is at least a valuable inquiry as opposed to the topic on which the youth have decided to focus their attention and energies. Sometimes I think they forget we have real enemies and real problems that loom much larger than some putative eventuality that may never happen. Contumelies never seem to yield useful work.
They are preparing for the right things albeit for the wrong reasons. It is always a good idea to gather together some survival supplies, a little food storage, think of an escape route in case of a disaster, etc. As a young boy living in Florida, our family would sit down and pack 72H kits and discuss plans in case a hurricane hit the area. I imagine that places where they have tornadoes, earthquakes, or locust swarms likewise prepare for eventualities. Apparently according to my students there is a store in Henderson that was once an army surplus theme that has changed it's decor to be "zombie apocalypse" related so as to attract younger clientel. It's a brilliant marketing strategy, and at least it gets them thinking about the future.
However, it also gets them thinking about villains. I see nuances in the zombie fad that have occurred before. What we have is an entire group of people who are not only vilified but also that the solution to stopping these villains is to kill them. It sounds very much like the thinking that precipitated every bit of holocaust and genocide ever perpetrated by men. Merely spending enough time with a zombie might make you 'infected' which can only be solved by a mercy killing 'before it spreads to your friends'. It's very darwinian, dog-eat-dog, kill or be killed, etc., type of mentality that pits people against one another and balkanizes them, just like the nations in which so many of these genocides occur.
Of course, it also begs some fun puns. I spoke with a friend today about how we could 'make a killing' selling t-shirts to women that say "I like guys for their brains" and to men that say, "I like women for their brains" that play to the fad. You could have one that says, "If I only had a brain..." with an Oz themed zombie. That is profiteering, but it seems to be both just and righteous if you're doing it to support the president, so why not?
Finally, I have to wonder why exactly young people are the most taken with it. Is it that zombies are the only villains with sufficiently low brain power that our youth believe they can conquer them? Is this how they view heroism? Is this what they think is going to happen to society? It's not really based in sound science; it comes mostly from cinema, which is of course cinema, and hence not to be relied on for facts. After all, how successful would a race be that actively renders its only food source unable to be a sufficient food source? When everyone is a zombie, whose brain do they eat?
As I shake my head, I think about Oz's Scarecrow. Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking. Some people with brains come up with stupid ideas. Is this really the best villain they could come up with? Of course, it's inoffensive, at least until one of the youth, in their craze to actualize their fantasy, actually creates them. I pity the food (us).
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