Zombie Apocalypse - 11/23/10

The recent proliferation of zombies running rampant in television shows, video games, and movies is pretty undeniable.  It's also a lot of fun; good zombie fiction is always extremely gory, disturbing yet hilarious, and wholly astute social commentary.  But I think there's something more to the whole concept that warrants thoughtful examination.  Surely the living dead conceit wouldn't be nearly as popular if it didn't tap into a primal fear that exists on a mostly unconscious level within all of us.

At least that's what my friend believes, that we all innately fear the loss of our ego.....and that mass conformity will lead to an empty shell devoid of identity, seeking only to consume as a means of survival.  But I think there's something more philosophically unsettling about the ubiquity of zombies in our pop culture, and that's that it may well be an indication that we are very much aware of the EXISTENCE of these entities in our world, and we can only express this awareness through the violent, grotesque characterizations that we portray them as in our media. 

You see, I think the reality is altogether more sinister because their presence isn't obvious.....the walking dead don't roam about mindlessly, trying to eat our flesh or devour brains.  Still, they're out there.....lifeless automatons disguised as regular human beings.  They have bodies but lack consciousness; empty vessels that exist solely to feed off of our life energy.  They are the psychopaths, the sociopaths, the Dexter's of this world.  They are truly without souls and so are incapable of human emotion.  They are masters of deceit, emulating normal behaviours so as to blend in with the crowd....but although they aren't as easily recognizable as an animated corpse, the insidious harm they inflict wherever they go is just as substantial as any act of zombie, and the worst thing about all of this is you can't shoot them in the face with a shotgun.  This isn't a movie or a videogame, there's no easy solution for disposing of these monsters within our society.  I honestly don't even know what, if anything, CAN be done about them.  Rehabilitation for something so inhuman clearly isn't an option, and while I realize this discussion is a very slippery slope (I don't agree with you ≠ you don't have a soul), I still feel like there are certain people in this world who cannot be considered a part of our species and must be - if not imprisoned or destroyed - than at the very least watched and possibly even avoided, lest an infectious zombie breakout risk the lives of billions of people across the planet!