In the last decade there has been an increase in zombie activity. So much so that in the last couple of years zombies have become so much of a craze that everyone wants to sink their teeth in. Right up to having a major TV series based off one of the best books series ever, The Walking Dead.
Where did this sudden increase come from? Why the sudden Class 4 outbreak of undead culture? Well many reasons factor in. For one vampires have been taken about as far as they could go and then ruined for generations to come. The ruining of vampires is an entire article in itself but I will go into it here only to express another reason society has fallen head over heels for zombies. Quite simply vampires were a darkness people are not allowed to tap into. Vampires are former humans who have become monsters, creatures of evil with the power to do and take whatever they want. Vampires offered all the advantages of undead believes and culture combined with an actual desire to become one. This is the vampire's fatal flaw, while the question "werewolf or vampire?" has been one every person has had to answer at one point or another and many have a hard time choosing, the question "zombie or vampire?" is an easy choice. No one wants to BE a zombie. There is no romance in it, no glory, to be one of the mindless horde. The question "zombie or dead?" is one that suits this particular monster much better and why they will not fall into the trap of the vampire. That is the trap of becoming a teenage dream with no flaws. Of course people are playing with the idea of zombies thinking and zombies having memories, things that the zombie community fights against harder then the vampire community fought against vampires sparkling. But zombies have two more very strong advantages in this category, zombies are real, the evidence will always be there to show zombies are not to be love interests and zombies are ugly. While a vampire is a picture of twisted human perfection, a zombie is a picture of the most disgusting thing a human can become. Vampire's flaws are what made them so great, the weaknesses made them tragic and mysterious combined with all the advantages. But once those weaknesses were taken away by the popularity of teen girls, the idea of absolute perfection is a lot less appealing to people than one would first believe. So society can't use the seductive creatures of the night as their undead of choice anymore; another must take it's place.
But why have undead at all? That goes into the fear we all have buried somewhere inside or possibly just resting on our sleeves. The fear of death; more specifically the fear of what comes after death. The undead are something we can really latch onto and stare in the face. It fulfills our natural morbid desires to find some comfort in death, even if that comfort is just knowing what comes next or comparing what comes next to what could happen if we don't pass on! So few choose to become a zombie once bit, the majority would rather die and find some sort of peace then become an abomination. Humans love to think about death in the same way they love to think about God. That is to say some people love thinking about it and other people would rather just be shown something solid and reliable or even just ambiguous and open ended. Thus so many turn to agnostic instead of a religion or atheist. In the same vein people get wrapped into zombies instead of facing finality and some unknown end. Zombies are the physical representation of inevitable death. Slowly but surely it will come for us all. But it can be fought, it can be avoided, it can possibly even be beat!
Zombies also represent something much more rooted in our generation. Zombies represent freedom. Not the freedom previous generations fought for the freedom the current generation does not fight for. Freedom from society. The vast majority of people, even though all logic and knowledge say society is correct and the ways you have been taught are safe and true, something somewhere in the mind wants to be free. Knows that things are not as good as they could be and wants to push back against the corporations and societal norms that demand everyone stays in-line and accepts this is as good as it gets. Zombies represent freedom from society. The freedom to do as you please and only be responsible for the people and things that you choose to be responsible for. Zombies are all the wild west of the future. A Class 4 outbreak would bring about a world where each man's moral compass was his law and his skills and abilities meant more then his cheque book. This sort of anarchy where every family and group has to survive on their own is a world many people secretly desire. To let go of the stress of money and a job is a very common desire and a more politically correct then wishing for the end of the world. Also consider at one point or another everyone has expressed to some extent the desire to just hurt something or the world would be better without certain jerks: the undead are a perfect outlet for this kind of thinking. Not only will most people die off anyway but the lack of law enforcement allows for aggression to be freely taken out on the undead who are, in all fairness, trying to eat you. It also will inevitably lead to bandits and certain unsavory types surviving as well, that instead of putting up with their crimes and physical attacks; survivors will finally be able to fight back and properly protect themselves without fearing consequences from law enforcement or lawyers or the joke that is insurance. Most importantly will be the freedom from money, from having to have a job and a boss, to be able to spend time in whatever manner we choose and to know that every moment of survival is a moment of victory. This is a freedom and a sense of accomplishment everyone wishes to have, and we search for it in escapism, movies, theatre, TV, games, books etc. And few things present this strange desire for freedom by any means necessary -even the end of civilization- as a zombie apocalypse.
Stay in touch, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.
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