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Zombies
Zombies are often described as arising from some kind of disease or mutation, a biological fear that spiritual practices seek to resist. (iStock Image)
Zombie stories combine the terror of death and depravity with the chaos of weird science. In this popular meta narrative, a virulent disease process converts ordinary loving people into lumbering, soulless, and ravenous cannibals. Sometimes the victims die and are reanimated. Other times, they slowly mutate, but the effect is the same. Friends, family, neighbors, strangers become predators that hunt, kill, eat, and infect, leading to a pandemic that ultimately destroys human society: the zombie apocalypse.
The myth of the zombie apocalypse has occupied our collective consciousness for several decades. Dozens of movies and television series ranging from Star Trek to The Walking Dead have incorporated this theme, just as zombie walks have become a social phenomenon.
The persistence of a myth rests in its ability to express or communicate a transcendent truth. Hermeneutic deconstruction can help us identify this truth. The zombie apocalypse is always an uncontrolled pandemic crisis. Zombies are former humans and violently react to non-zombies. Zombification involves three steps: 1) gradual reduction of the human agent to the status of ravenous predator; 2) cognitive impairment or assimilation into a tribal hive-mind; and 3) virulent spread in victims through contact and trauma.
Seen this way, a zombie need not be a deformed, decayed, mindless monster. These attributes are merely superficial, cinematic, and shocking, outward and visible signs of an inward and invisible depravity. The true defining attributes are psychological. The zombie has lost both empathy and individuality.
Empathy and individuality are paradoxical traits that distinguish human beings from zombies. Empathy allows us to experience and appreciate the feelings, ideas, and needs of others, while individuality permits us to remain differentiated from others and their ideas, to be rational and critical.
In humans, no biological pathogen is required to diminish these traits. Fear of scarcity and solitude are more than sufficient to overwhelm them.
Students of spirituality will notice that ascetic disciplines such as abstinence, fasting, meditation, almsgiving, study, and prayer directly address the fears of scarcity and solitude and promote social solidarity and critical thinking. The life of Christ is defined by resistance to these fears and the cultivation of empathy and individuality in himself and others.
The life of Christ is defined by resistance to these fears (of scarcity and solitude) and the cultivation of empathy and individuality in himself and others.
Just as intentional spiritual discipline can reduce these fears, exposure to propaganda, violence, and trauma can agitate them. The vectors of the zombie virus and its cure are cultural, social, moral and intellectual, not biological.
The zombie meta narrative also provides some insight through its tactics for survival. Within the genre, four tactics are deployed for survival, but only three are ever successful.
1. Destroy all the zombies.
This option never works. Violence awakens the zombie collective, and zombies outnumber humans. Ammo will run out long before the zombies are eliminated. (Remember, that zombie was once your roommate.)
2. Create a sanctuary zone.
Zombie disease spreads geometrically. Exclusion or sanctuary zones, property supplied and fortified, can protect humanity and allow for a semblance of peace. At the same time, poor barriers, boundaries, and filters may allow the infection into the exclusion zone, while insufficient supplies may agitate humans to act like zombies.
3. Infiltration: Walk, smell, and dress like a zombie.
Zombies have heightened senses that are triggered by human sounds, smells, and behaviors. Zombies only attack non-zombies. Learning to imitate zombies, allows temporary infiltration into the infection zone for strategic purposes.
4. Cure the zombies.
The most difficult of all tactics, the cure is the only permanent solution. This approach requires tedious research, trial and error, courage. and immense patience. A truly effective cure will restore humanity to zombies, prevent zombie infection in others, and replicate itself. Due to the reactionary nature of zombies, however, it is often necessary to remove the individual from the infestation before applying a cure. This presents its own risks to healthy humans within the sanctuary zone.
In conclusion, if the genre is correct, things will be difficult, but hope is not lost. Tactics exist to survive, overcome, and reverse a zombie apocalypse.
Considering the course of human history, the question we actually face is not when the zombie apocalypse will happen, but when will it end?