Thread: Western Cultures Fixation with Zombies

And that's why you're gonna die first.

Because Americans are stupid and a sucker to be marketed to. Vampires, zombies, dumb shit like that -- they eat it all up. All the morons.

Originally Posted by tommo

And that's why you're gonna die first.

If you think about it, dying first isn't such a bad thing. I'll be dead and happy while everyone else is in their shelters, fearing for their lives.

I disagree with Darkmatters on his interpretation of zombies as representing decay and old age. The psychological fear of zombies in my opinion stems from a loss of control over oneself, the idea of becoming the enemy that you are trying to combat, and the hopelessness of an unrelenting foe that only grows as your own numbers decline. Zombies represent a mindless physical manifestation of death that has no morals, no consideration and no discrimination. It is related to old age and dying in that way but doesn't specifically stem from death in terms of growing old. Death comes in many forms and a zombie death is specifically related to a premature end of life. In the west in particular, we have a fear of death as being right around the corner, stalking us. A zombie is the slow but relentless pursuit of death that will follow us forever. You can run, but you can't hide. It will not stop, it will not feel sorry for you. It might be lurking right down that dark alley. It is not the typical version of death in a dark cloak that is intelligent and may be bargained with or beat in intellectual gamesmanship. It is a force of nature that will eventually consume everything in its path and turn you into an agent of its own will. It is a loss of individualism at its core.

My personal theory on people's obsession with zombies is that it has to do with our a few fears deeply rooted in our society fear of not being able to control our minds, not being in control of our actions,and ultimately not being human. Think about a zombie as this: It's almost like a corrupted human. It has no control over itself and furthermore it is cannibalistic and eats other humans. I think eating other humans comes from fear of not being human; eating another of your own kind is something only beasts or savages would do, which might be why we link this trait to zombies. I could go on for hours about fears and how they look like they might link to the characteristics of zombies. Everything I just said is highly speculative, but that's the way I look at it.

Summary
I believe zombies are a common fear because they represent society's fear of losing control returning to an animal like state.