Zombie Apocalypse

There’s not going to be a Zombie Apocalypse if only because there’s no such thing as zombies. So why would someone suspend disbelief so much to watch a show about zombies?

One thought I’ve had is that we enjoy the relief at the end when the zombies are killed, and we won’t be facing the threat of zombies until we watch another zombie film. Perhaps this is part of the attraction to the horror genre and even to suspense films.

I enjoy suspense and even a work where suspense meets horror. But I’m willing to suspend disbelief only so far.

Another thought has come from psychologist Sarah Rose Cavanagh, author of Hivemind. She introduced me to a theory about the popularity of horror shows involving aliens from outer space, ghosts, vampires, and zombies.

… while the primary fear underlying all of this horror is actually our fear of losing touch with reality, the choice of monster still holds symbolic meaning. Aliens are, easily enough, about our xenophobia. Ghosts about our fear of death and the afterlife. Vampires about our fear of our own bodily appetites. (105)

Zombies are about our fear of those deemed subhuman. In the predominant American culture, the primary candidates for subhuman have consistently been Blacks. There has been pervasive fear of them and permission to treat them as though they are beasts and even worse. But, it’s not acceptable to torture animals. However, like beasts, Blacks have been killed – lynched – in community celebrations. Symbolically, this reminds us of animal sacrifice as a public ritual. And now we’re paying attention to how law enforcement officers regularly shoot unarmed black men, reminding us of the only way to kill a zombie.

… zombies and racism are both about the dehumanization of beings who appear like us on the surface but who don’t fully ‘count’ as human in the same way. Are these others somehow less conscious, less discerning, less capable of the full range of human emotion? If so, perhaps they are less deserving of the full panoply of human rights and opportunities – or, even, are like zombies we should double tap. (107)

Collectively, they are the Enemy Below and deserve to be debased and dehumanized.

Space aliens are the Enemy Outside.

These enemies … are those human beings who are not like you, who do not eat the foods that you eat or wear the types of clothes you wear or worship the same god as you do. They are other, foreign, and therefore highly suspicious. (115)

But, aliens may also be the Enemy Within.

They eat your foods and wear your clothes and worship your god … or at least they appear to do so. But secretly they are still Other, still opposed to your interests, working internally to bring you to ruin…. When the Enemy Within is waxing, no one is safe from suspicion. This Enemy is calling from inside the house. (116)

Right now in the United States, both the political Right and the Left have notions that each is the Enemy Within. They have suspicions about each other – what do they want for America? Each is the Other to be vilified as dangerous to the country.

Each has a different take on reality, and each fears losing touch with their reality. If I may sum up, Liberals – the Left – see America as having been great for some people but not for all. If I can give them a slogan, it’s “Let’s make America greater.” Conservatives – the Right – see the greatness of America having declined. Maybe it was last great during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. It was surely great during the 1950s and ’60s. Their current slogan, “Make America great again,” characterizes them.

The Left and Right seem to be struggling with their take on reality. But, the Other threatens to take it away. Both believe that gains on either side are zero-sum. If Liberals have their way, white fundamentalist Christians will lose out to people of color and immigrants. Christianity won’t enjoy preference and special consideration. If the Right has its way, white fundamentalists will engineer the U.S. into a theocracy ruled by their understanding of their Bible. Christians will have power as Christians. For both, the fear of losing one’s view of reality underlies the horror most members of the American body politic feel, whether on the Right or the Left.

So each group dehumanizes the Other. Both sides regard each other as idiots not capable of governing. Liberals run the large cities and violence and crime are rampant, says the Right. The Left says that the fundamentalists on the Right are ignorant and therefore disdain science and expertise.

Each side believes that the other side shouldn’t count. They are opposed to each other’s interests, and for each, the Other is working to bring ruin to the country. Each has zombified the other one. Both sides fear losing their view of reality, so they’re both reacting with horror at what they perceive to be a national calamity.

So far I seem to be balanced. But to be fair, I want to look at a truth that is uncomfortable for the activist Right. The Republican Party of Donald Trump is not faithful to its antecedent. It is no longer the party of compassionate conservatism. Today’s Democratic Party, in contrast, is still faithful to the way the party has been until now, although it is moving to the left. Today’s Right and Left are not symmetrical. Today’s Right views the reality of America in its founding as a Christian country governed by a particular reading of Scriptures. The Party of Donald Trump looks back to this mythic past and feels the responsibility to restore America to its supposed Christian greatness.

The way I see it, the Party of Trump is alien to the letter and spirit of the way the United States has been since World War II, if not before. America hasn’t gone astray. The extreme religionists who prop up Donald Trump have gone astray. They have pushed their religion into politics where it doesn’t belong. They sympathize with an authoritarian president. They’re not committed to democracy like the Left purports to be.

There is no horror here for me. No subhuman zombies. Just a large number of misguided Americans (some of whom are on the Left, too). I will not be frightened. I will not be moved. I remain faithful to my Jewish roots and way of life. Whatever happens, there will not be an apocalypse.

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Inspired by reading Sarah Rose Cavanagh’s Hivemind: the New Science of Tribalism in Our Divided World (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2019).