What Is The Deal With The Zombie Apocalypse?

[spnadmin]

What exactly are the culture wonks talking about? The Zombie Apocalypse is in the media daily and I do not have a clue what this means. Has this notion of a Zombie Apocalypse hit India yet? Western governments have apparently taken notice some lawmakers think it is a joke and others aren't quite sure.

What's the Deal With the Zombie Apocalypse? How the undead took over pop culture

From the StraightDopeBlog http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/...pe-whats-the-deal-with-the-zombie-apocalypse/

What’s the deal with the so-called zombie apocalypse? It’s all over the Web, in movies, and on television, and there are even books about how to survive when the shambling hordes come for you. Did I miss something? —Anonymous

Well, I prefer “teeming millions” to “shambling hordes.” But you think I’m surprised at the idea there’s a large subset of the populace out there plaintively crying for brains?

The zombie fixation that became so familiar in the 2000s has spread to federal bureaucracy. The government of Quebec attempted an emergency preparedness exercise based on the premise of a zombie apocalypse. (It was canceled by humorless spoilsports.) This was preceded by a discussion in Canada’s House of Commons where the government was questioned about its ability to withstand a zombie attack. The Centers for Disease Control released a zombie pandemic preparedness manual, in comic book form. We’re compelled to wonder: What’s behind it all? Or has the ZA become a self-sustaining meme?

What accounts for the heightened fascination? Theories abound:

• Decaying corpses are horrifying. Get out, all monsters are horrifying. That’s why we call them monsters.
• Decaying reanimated corpses are really horrifying. This gets closer. The scariest moment of my postcollegiate moviegoing experience was watching the Terminator come back to life, or whatever it is homicidal robots come back to after they’ve been to all appearances annihilated and you’re getting ready to head for the toilets.
• “Zombie narrative presents us with a postcolonial consideration of identity and power, which allows us to challenge social and cultural hierarchies and power structures.” Please, professor, save it for the faculty lounge.
• Let me throw in my own theory: If not zombies, then what? Vampires? Vampires have been the alpha pop-culture monster for at least 46 years. (See Barnabas Collins, Dark Shadows, 1967.) But let’s face it, the vampire = decadent sex metaphor, notwithstanding its ongoing box-office success, is surely running on fumes. We need zombies because they are relatively fresh.
• Another hypothesis is that zombie films are more common when the U.S. faces war or societal upheaval. My assistant Una has charted 492 zombie films by year of release from 1910 to the present; she finds modest annual production until a spike of 15 zombie flicks in 1973, followed by fluctuating but fairly high output till 2003, when zombie filmmaking went through the roof. The 1973 jump coincides with Watergate, and I suppose 2003 might be a delayed reaction to 9/11, but more precisely it’s the year we invaded Iraq. Not to harp on this, but was there ever a time when we were more desperately in need of brains?
• Paging through the scholarly journals, we find claims that zombies are a Marxist metaphor for the human face of capitalist monstrosity, or tap into a latent desire for racial violence, or somehow are connected with Hurricane Katrina.

Enough of this foolishness. We at the Straight Dope know damn well what the zombie apocalypse is a metaphor for: the tsunami of ignorance that’s threatened to overwhelm us since 1973. Will we be able to hold off the shuffling dimwits? Reading news accounts of, say, the budget crisis, where you have an unfortunate conjunction of the brainless plus the spineless, you have to think: This doesn’t look promising. But I tell myself: Light always chases out the dark. —Cecil Adams

 

[spnadmin]

Is this a joke? Some Internet views have turned this into a cultural joke; but others are dead serious. Please forgive me.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mayan-doomsday-prophecy/videos/impending-zombie-apocalypse.htm

Now that video may be too literal an interpretation of ZA. So what about this explanation?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/m...-not-kidding-about-the-zombie-apocalypse.html

It gets more abstract and then it gets more concrete. Which is it? Is it abstract as in "metaphor" or is it concrete as in "right around the corner?"

We all worry about becoming obsolete; recently, my Slate colleague Farhad Manjoo sketched a frightening scenario in which robots take over industries like the law, medicine, even scientific discovery. The zombie apocalypse is the opposite scenario, in which our white-collar skills become worthless not through technical advance but through total system collapse. For blue-collar workers, the zombie stories are tales of comeuppance, of triumph: skills in auto maintenance, farming, plumbing, and electrical work—not to mention marksmanship—land blue-collar folks at the top of the new social order. This is not a bad thing, but it's nevertheless deeply disorienting to anyone who thought a college degree would mean never having to fix a generator.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/..._zombie_boom_is_inspired_by_the_economy_.html

Could be that the Zombie Apocalypse is a projection of our fears. If that is the case, then why do we need generators and other paras?

I honestly cannot get to the bottom of what ZA is supposed to mean. It has something however to do with being prepared and the incompetence, even the immorality, of government. Somewhere in the back of my mind, Guru Nanak is saying "I told you so!" Reality is maya, maya is delusional, people create delusion from delusion, and then run scared and do horrible things to each other.

Any ideas?

 

[Navdeep88]

I think it's to do w/ people becoming apathetic, ie, Zombies.

*I personally think entertainment (all entertainment)'s kinda dumb, & only for people that can't think & use their own imagination. The idea of relinquishing control to others, whether it be cultural trends or what 'looks good' sounds awful to me. It's cooler to Create in a positive space. When you're part of a minority, it's great, cuz not everyone understands & then u don't owe everybody an explanation, it's prety liberating.

 

[Harry Haller]

I think it's to do w/ people becoming apathetic, ie, Zombies.

I think with a slight grammar correction you have hit the nail on the head lol

 

[Luckysingh]

I think there is a lot to be said about zombies and popular culture.
Zombies have been quite popular for quite some time.
Games, movies, books, comics, fashion ..etc.. all seem to have some zombie element to it.

It's funny how this topic came up because I have often had this conversation with my kids and discussed how we had the huge trend of robots before they were born.0

In a way I think that popular culture and what ever comes at the forefront is usually some kind of expression from the subconscious of society.

Zombies are basically the living dead, or dead corpses that have been woken by some kind of voodoo.
They have no feelings, emotions and are in a way like a plague such that whoever they touch or come in contact with becomes a zombie.
I think this is kind of what the apocalypse refers to.

I know that anyone trying to produce or make a game, ipad app, movie or book is only going to get some serious attention if there is some kind of zombie element involved.

Remember the dark drugged heroin eyes on the fashion catwalks in 90's ??
Well, now we have had the glamourized zombie look as well and it is still happening.
Then we have had the associated fashions of skulls, bones wrapped in marks of love and peace from the likes of fashion designers like Christian Audiger, Ed hardy, Versace..etc.

In fact, zombie seems to be a metaphor associated with communism and the society feeling mentally oppressed from what I personally make of it.
Even a simple public protest is termed a ''zombie march'' !

REMEMBER- How in the 80's and 90's everything associated with ROBOTS was so popular culture ?? We had robots every where!!

Robots on TV shows and games shows like dusty bin on 321, Metal mickey and Dr Who...etc...
Then we had the Robotic dancing that lead to the invention of Michael Jackson's moonwalk and then Body-popping, break dancing and the associated hip hop with electro dance, movies like 'Beat street and 'Breakdance'
We even had a dose of zombies in MJ's 'Thriller'' back then as well, but it waited for it's day which is now.
There was so much more with movies like Terminator, Alien, Independence day ...etc...

Society loved it because that is how they felt they were being treated by goverments and authorities. They felt like an overworked, abused and used slave like society of robots. Subconsciously, this made everyone feel that they could relate to them.

Hollywood tried to hang on to this robot culture and I think that Will Smith's Men in Black series and IRobot were the last few remainders until they found the newer market of Zombies !!!

Anyway, now we have a society that relates to zombies.-
A society highly dependent on drugs from a young age.
A society that feels goverments and authorities feed us poisons and additives in foods and medicines.
A society that feels all the shortcuts manufacturers take by using cheaper preservatives in foods, making longer life shelf foods, pumping up chickens and meats....etc... are All coming back to haunt us in some suffering of disease and cancers later in life.
Dead and mindless corpses operating on some voodoo like supplements and chemicals is the overall and general impression in the subconscious.

And then, more importantly, a society that wants to come back like the dead zombies and zombify or spread the plague amongst those who oppressed them originally.
''You can't finish and kill us'' seems to be the message and ''We shall come back to haunt'' is what they are shouting.
I'm sure the list can go on and on, but my point is that society seems to relate to this idea of zombies just like they did with robots back in 80's and 90's.


All the above is just my own general information that I have deduced on this matter and from the trends I see happening on the streets and media.

 

[spnadmin]

Luckysingh ji

That is really thorough! It helps a lot because I am only finding contradictions on the Internet, examples that contradict other examples. I think you have created the way to tie all the different points of view together.

I am left with questions.

For example, why were news casters, talking-heads and commentators last week talking about the Zombie Apocalypse in relation to the government shutdown in Washington? I could not figure out who were the Zombies.

The American public waiting for things to return to reason?

The Tea Party politicians who were following a "programme" dictated to them by ultra-conservative think tanks?

The Tea Party adherents who adhere to their political leadership without asking obvious questions?

Another possibility: Zombies are the lower classes who have been feeding, so to speak, on welfare programs and entitlements, according to the conservative politicans. The Tea Party would de-fund government and leave them without any social safety net.

Somewhere in this mix, Zombies are supposedly going to rise up - once civilization as we know it has been destroyed - and attach, kill and feed on those who are not zombies. That group has to be prepared and needs to have survival mechanisms in place. Who are they in this big metaphor for life?

I only heard of the Zombie Apocalypse last week. No one has been able to clear this up so that I get it. You have however taken me pretty far toward "enlightenment lol " Serious not joking about the topic.

 

[Luckysingh]

Adminji, I haven't actually paid attention to or know exactly what is on internet sources because I know that you can never count on the accuracy.

All the above is what I have picked up from the talk of youth and youngsters along with my occasional read of Gentlemen's magazines like Esquire and GQ.

The zombies in terms of the USA especially, refers to Us all- The people.(from what I gather)
There is THEM, the administrations, government and authorities and then there is THE PEOPLE, the zombies, the living dead, Us normal people trying to get by.
The apocalypse is something us the (Walking Dead) will have to face to try and rise when goverments completely shut down after the damage is already done by them, leaving us on our OWN since there will be no healthcare or any other Human services....etc..
- ((Imagine movies like Terminator, where the robots take over the world making us slaves to them. In the same manner we are the slaves of these higher institutions but instead of normal humans trying to survive and challenge them we have turned into zombies because they can't kill us twice! ))

The youngsters are normally the ones that pen these terms and I think some of the elders think they know what they mean, but go off the mark. Which is why you have got confused with some conflicting references !

Although, I have never watched or been interested in AMC's mega hit 'The Walking Dead'. I know that most of the youngsters references are related to this.Therefore it may be easier if you just think of 'The walking dead' next time you want to make some sense of zombie references.

I also think the confusion arises because you start to think who are the zombies??
Is it them, the higher authorities and institutions OR is it Us ?
I think this is where some go off track.

I can try to explain here to the best of my knowledge-
Firstly, no one is getting credit by being labeled a Human !!
-Remember, that zombies can spread like the plague or a zombie can zombify another 'normal human' person. In the same way, you should not think that the higher institutions are being addressed as Humans- They are in fact the Primary Inhuman zombies !!
It is them and their actions that have made us into zombies and now there shall be the revelation, a rising or the apocalypse !!

Youngsters that are heavily into these games and movies and other stuff, will often ask each other ''What weapon would you choose if you could only have one to help you through the apocalypse ?''

I think you should get the idea and a little better understanding now. I think if you don't have much contact with under 20's and young teenagers, then you probably wouldn't get these terms immediately !!

My kids were asking me about what the shutdown meant and I tried to explain what I knew and that it had been done a few times before but I couldn't remember if it was Clinton's or Bush's time or not.
Funny enough, the first thing my eldest said was ''Apocalypse.... it's happening !!''
So, it seems they already had some preconceived ideas from zombie media and general talk some where.

I hope I have answered your concerns a little, because there is no official correct or wrong answer as it's all about what the talk and trend is at the time.

 

[spnadmin]

Luckysingh ji

Thank you because I am starting to get it !!!!

Also, it is astounding that your son said "It's the Apocalypse!" when he heard of the shutdown. That means that the theme of zombification has really taken hold. That might just make a younger generation motivated enough to turn the tide. With luck that will happen. Yet...... and this is a big yet..... The Tea Party actually believes that it is the group that is stopping the evil tide.

OK I have things to consider. Thanks again!