The world seems to have a love affair with the walking dead that is only growing more passionate as the years go by.\u00a0 It began with ancient legends and dark fairy tales, warnings and scare tactics of our ancestors to keep straying men at home, women indoors and curious children at the hearth where they belong.\u00a0 Nearly every culture has an ancient legend involving the walking dead and each culture has a different, yet eerily similar spin on the concept.<\/p>\n
In the age of the silver screen, we saw the images come to life in a few black and white flirtations and with our first kiss in 1939 with Bela Lugosi in \u201cWhite Zombie”, we were hooked.\u00a0 After a few more flirtations, we finally fell in love with Romero\u2019s iconic \u201cNight of the Living Dead\u201d.\u00a0 Once bitten, never shy, the affair only increased in severity and complexity after this first taste.\u00a0 While new films have emerged since then, the \u201cOf The Dead\u201d franchise continues to generate revenue with new additions every few years.<\/p>\n
The point of my long-winded recitation today isn\u2019t to comment on each picture through the ages, but to comment on the nature of our relationship with this particular subject.\u00a0 \u00a0What is it that draws us to the focus of our dead rising?\u00a0 What is our obsession with this idea?\u00a0 We are attracted, in sometimes unhealthy ways, to the concept of the walking dead even though instinct should repel us.\u00a0 The scent of death repels living things as a warning, a sign of danger, disease and dis-ease.\u00a0 These instincts are deep within our biology, going back much farther than our appreciation for gore, as a way of protecting ourselves.\u00a0 Mankind has fought hard in the living world to advance and perfect medical science in hopes of elongating life and create a higher quality of living, all the while also creating entertainment which depict the dead in reanimated states, all that we love and have built in this world being destroyed and playing out these horrors in as many ways as we can think of in film, art, comics, books, any form of creative media we can get our hands on.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s like our entire species has a bad case of Dissociative Identity Disorder!<\/p>\n
SO, why do we do it?\u00a0 What\u2019s our deal?\u00a0 Are we really just sick, morbid beings that revel in the thought of our own destruction? \u00a0Is it only because we appreciate the gore, the skill of make-up artists and special effects teams? Or does it mean more than this?<\/p>\n
Well, I\u2019ve thought long and hard about this and here\u2019s what I\u2019ve come up with.\u00a0 It might be something you already knew or thought about before.\u00a0 Honestly, it\u2019s pretty common sense so don\u2019t think I expect to wow you with my intellectual insight. LOL\u2026 anyway, here\u2019s what I think.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s because of a constant \u201cwhat if\u201d in the back of our minds.\u00a0 That dark part of our subconscious that longs for a day of reckoning when all who didn\u2019t care, didn\u2019t pay attention, didn\u2019t love the life they were given are driven asunder by mobs of blinded, flesh eating dead and you, being one of the smart ones, were ready and can watch from high on a hilltop, laughing at society\u2019s undoing.\u00a0 Maybe the dark side of our souls long for that \u201cFalling Down\u201d moment and secretly (or not so secretly) hope for the day when we can stand on the hood of a car on the freeway, holding a rocket launcher and screaming at the universe as we unleash glorious, explody death on the undead horde.\u00a0 As silly as that may sound, it\u2019s probably not far from the truth.\u00a0 There is a fair amount of desire for karma in our society and the promise of chaos and a proverbial \u201crestart\u201d button seems to make some people giddy for the thought of a Project Mayhem style wake-up call and all the better if it should come from zombies!<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more to it, however and it\u2019s somewhat of a long story.<\/p>\n
The simple answer; Man is mortal.\u00a0 What does that mean to us?\u00a0 Our time here is fleeting and no matter how religious or spiritual or atheist you are, no one really knows what happens on the other side.\u00a0 Our obsession with death and the afterlife began the moment the first human experienced death for the first time.\u00a0 Maybe as they killed their meal with spears, maybe it was watching an animal get killed by another, or watching others die of thirst or disease.\u00a0 Who knows, but in that moment, that first human experienced true magic- something was there\u2026. And then it simply wasn\u2019t anymore.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been obsessed ever since.<\/p>\n
Now, that might explain our obsession with death and even our belief in a God, but that doesn\u2019t account for the obsession with the undead.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s my theory;<\/p>\n
We humans, are really good at lying to ourselves about our true nature.\u00a0 We do our best to hide it; we wear fancy clothes, get \u201crespectable jobs\u201d, live our lives in society and try to make the most of our lives as best we can while repressing most of our base instincts and our pack mentality.\u00a0 We try to be unique, and in so doing, advertize our uniqueness, inevitably ending up in groups of unique people who all look or think the same. Why?\u00a0 Because we love the feeling of safety in numbers.\u00a0 We get a fuzzy feeling when someone shares our perspectives, interests and values. \u00a0\u00a0We compare ourselves to others, even if the comparison isn\u2019t any more logical than comparing a dish washer to a Macbook Pro, but we do it.\u00a0 Mothers scrutinize one another, however slyly, to see who has the best stroller, the best diaper bag, the best baby clothes and toys.\u00a0 Men do it, maybe a little less quietly with cars, houses, suits and shoes, pay checks and business cards, watches and garage set-up\u2019s.\u00a0 Women do it with make-up, \u00a0shoes, handbags, whether we have kids, or don\u2019t have kids and we rate ourselves against our peers in every way possible, from free time to what drinks we like to order at bars.<\/p>\n
We hide our age, our rage, our fear, our self-deprecating personalities and smile along as we work only to pay bills and pretend our \u201cstuff\u201d is worth the 10 hours a day away from those we love. \u00a0Rarely do we find ourselves in careers that we actually, truly enjoy. \u00a0More often than not, we simply find the least terrible place to spend the better half of every day in order to buy things that make us feel safe and good about ourselves. \u00a0We hide behind sex, hair dye, nice cars, warm houses and couture clothing to pretend we are more than flesh and bone, meat that will one day return to the Earth and neither the status symbol Audi nor the 100 dollar face cream will change that fact.<\/p>\n
Anger and sadness are our natural reactions to a baser, more powerful emotion; Fear.\u00a0 Fear governs a great deal of our actions.\u00a0 Mazlow\u2019s pyramid provides an example of this fact.\u00a0 We fight for our base needs and if these are not met, we cannot move forward in our cognitive\/emotional development.\u00a0 We need food, shelter and safety.\u00a0 Without these three things, we cannot progress as individuals.\u00a0 Take for instance, a shopping mall on Christmas Eve.\u00a0 The experience is absolute madness and depressing chaos.\u00a0 How do we describe the scenes on the evening news on Black Friday or December 24th<\/sup>?\u00a0 We might say people become an angry mob, or crazy and blind to others, or biting mean, or \u2026 mindless zombies.\u00a0 See, it\u2019s my theory that zombies represent the very base needs of human desire; the mindless, thoughtless driving force that demands satiation and the overpowering drive to win above all others and all things until there is nothing left to conquer.\u00a0 We see this every day in the news.\u00a0 We see it on the roads, angry people driving and rushing to their destinations, selfish and unwavering in their pursuit of purpose.\u00a0 They have somewhere to be and that is more important than the speed limit.<\/p>\n We put ourselves and others at risk every day with our need to be the best.\u00a0 We \u201ceat one another alive\u201d in the corporate world every day to get ahead and make the most money, have the best status and as slaves to the light, we devour all who may keep us from it.<\/p>\n Simply put, zombies are us and we are them.\u00a0 The apocalypse is now and we fight them every day outside as well as within ourselves.\u00a0 Every one of us has a little zombie in them and once we realize this, the connection and the love affair we have with the genre is all the more clear.\u00a0 We are frail, flesh and bone and without the spirit to keep us believing we are more than fate\u2019s accident, what are we to become?\u00a0 Lifeless, wandering, lost and hungry.<\/p>\n So many of us feel this way at some point in our lives, but the scary and familiar quality zombies have is their blindingly complacent attitudes.\u00a0 Now, the cause of a zombie\u2019s state of being is dependent upon the author\u2019s preference, whether it be zombie powder from Haiti, a rage virus from England, corporate experiment gone wrong or a barrel of Trioxin-245, the concept all boils down to a few solid facts.\u00a0 Reanimated dead people are scary.\u00a0 People who act like reanimated dead people are equally if not more scary.<\/p>\n Zombies are a blinding truth.\u00a0 We all decay.\u00a0 Within the stories of zombies, we can witness our greatest fears play out in another person\u2019s imaginary world. Not just that, but in these stories, we see not only the mob mentality which destroys our society and breaks apart the fundamental parts of what makes us who we are but we also see those who have not turned overcome just about every obstical possible.\u00a0 The classic story of the zombie apocalypse surrvior is strong, powerful, aware, compassionate, has killed to survive and has saved those who could not save themselves.\u00a0 The survivor unites opposing sides, rights wrongs, helps build relationships and creates foundations for new generations of survivors to flourish in the new world of the aftermath.\u00a0 We see in the survivors all that we wish for ourselves, knowing the unfortunate truth is the fact that we are much more like the zombies than the survivors most of the time.<\/p>\n The other factor to consider is that zombie apocalypse stories are a fables.\u00a0 They\u2019re modern folk tales and as all folk tales do, they teach us lessons.\u00a0 Zombies are the embodiment of blind thinking and blind action. \u00a0They are the decayed, disheartened and broken spirit within our culture that breaks free and mobs the world with chaos, fear and eventually either death, or a doomed, lifeless existence.\u00a0 The survivor shows us the heart of man, how strong it truly can be when it fights against the horde to show us what we can do differently in the real world to prevent the infection from spreading to far.<\/p>\n We have the ability to see these stories not as terrifying horror filled with the worst parts of man, but as statements of optimism for the spirit of mankind.\u00a0 The zombie isn\u2019t here to teach us to be afraid; it\u2019s here to teach us to fight.\u00a0 Through compassion and appreciation of ourselves and those around us for what they individually contribute to the world around us, we can fight the apocalypse of complacency.\u00a0 The classic formula demands it- the survivors only do so if they work together and fight as one, united people.\u00a0 A small band of comrades against a dying world and a mass of dead adversaries gives us hope and reminds us not only to appreciate what we have, but focus on how much we can change what we don\u2019t like\u2026 before an \u201capocalypse\u201d actually happens.\u00a0 The problem is, has it already? Are we already too late?<\/p>\n Next time you’re in a group\u00a0 of people, at the movies, in a mall, grocery store or even on the freeway, take the time to really look at the people who pass by you.\u00a0 How many people are actively participating in the experience, talking with one another, noticeably joining in and how many are blindly walking with a glazed look in their eyes, headed toward their next, predictable destination.<\/p>\n Our love affair with the walking dead on camera will continue to capture the essence of our struggle in the real world with our real life (hah!) zombies.\u00a0 Couple this struggle with our desire to start over and burn away the past to start a new future and you have a perfect recipe for zombie appreciation on all levels of our psyche.<\/p>\n So what can we do to avoid the apocalypse?\u00a0 If it’s happening now, how can we avoid it?\u00a0 Live in the moment.\u00a0 Be.Here.Now.\u00a0 Actively participate in the experience of your life and don’t wait another day to achieve what you know you are capable of.\u00a0 Don’t let others make choices for you.\u00a0 Learn all you can, live all you can and revel in the lessons, both good and challenging.<\/p>\n Fight the zombies by always being as alive as possible. That’s the formula for surviving the apocalypse.\u00a0 Sound easy?\u00a0 Prove it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world seems to have a love affair with the walking dead that is only growing more passionate as the years go by.\u00a0 It began with ancient legends and dark fairy tales, warnings and scare tactics of our ancestors to keep straying men at home, women indoors and curious children at the hearth where they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-and-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1opIU-jb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2599,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/the-walking-dead-inside-the-walking-dead-zombie-eyes-amc\/","url_meta":{"origin":1189,"position":0},"title":"The Walking Dead – Inside The Walking Dead: Zombie Eyes \u2013 AMC","author":"Janelle","date":"September 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Walking Dead lens tech, Gazal Tabrizpor, shows us how those haunting zombie eyes are created in Season 2. Take a look! via The Walking Dead - Inside The Walking Dead: Zombie Eyes \u2013 AMC.","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2470,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/four-new-the-walking-dead-teaser-videos-now-online-the-walking-dead-amc\/","url_meta":{"origin":1189,"position":1},"title":"Four New The Walking Dead Teaser Videos Now Online – The Walking Dead – AMC","author":"Janelle","date":"August 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"SO excited about this!! Four New The Walking Dead Teaser Videos Now Online - The Walking Dead - AMC.","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15744,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/image-skybound-announces-the-walking-dead-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1189,"position":2},"title":"Image\/Skybound announces THE WALKING DEAD Day\u00a0 \u00a0","author":"AJ","date":"May 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Special variant by Charlie Adlard in celebration of Skybound's 15th anniversary \u00a0 Image\/Skybound Entertainment is pleased to announce that October 13th will mark THE WALKING DEAD DAY\u2014an exciting all-day, globally celebrated event commemorating the world\u2019s favorite, long-running, survival comic created by Robert Kirkman (OBLIVION SONG, OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2f108662-9236-4232-b55f-0f811693ac25.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2f108662-9236-4232-b55f-0f811693ac25.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2f108662-9236-4232-b55f-0f811693ac25.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2621,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/the-walking-dead-talk-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":1189,"position":3},"title":"The Walking Dead…..talk show?","author":"AJ","date":"September 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From Blastr AMC thinks you'll watch a weekly Walking Dead talk show. Really? You've watched\u00a0The Walking Dead. Maybe you've even live-tweeted an episode. But do you love that particular zombie world so much you'd watch a weekly talk show about it? AMC thinks so. Apparently, AMC was so wowed by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3267,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/the-walking-dead-graphic-novels-dominate-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list-hollywood-reporter\/","url_meta":{"origin":1189,"position":4},"title":"The Walking Dead Graphic Novels Dominate The New York Times Bestseller List – Hollywood Reporter","author":"AJ","date":"December 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Kirkmans acclaimed zombie series The Walking Dead has taken over The New York Times graphic novel bestseller list like, well, a pack of zombies. The newest edition of the newspapers signature sales list will find the The Walking Dead holding an unprecedented three of the top four paperback slots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3754,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/the-realm-cast-the-walking-dead-invades-comic-con\/","url_meta":{"origin":1189,"position":5},"title":"the Realm Cast | THE WALKING DEAD invades COMIC CON!","author":"Janelle","date":"May 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"And... there's also this. Is the opportunity to run away from the horde of zombies from Walking Dead incentive enough to pay an EXTRA $80 on top of your regularly scheduled Comic-Con fees? I think it might just be... To celebrate issue 100! \u00a0 One of the GOOD things about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}