The Pop Culture Media Apocalypse

Hello dear readers and people who stumbled across this by accident. Today I want to discuss a very severe issue that is going to affect the lives of everybody in the world at some point. It is a serious concern and must be dealt with the utmost care and attention. I am, of course, talking about zombies.

Night of the Living Dead. Dawn of the Dead. Day of the Dead. Land of the Dead. Resident Evil. Shaun of the Dead. Planet Terror. Zombieland. The Evil Dead. 28 Days Later. The Walking Dead. Alien Zombies. Zombie Strippers.

We as a society are not unfamiliar with the concept of zombies. They are the reanimated corpses of those near and dear to us. And they want to eat you. They want to rip you to pieces and feast on your brains. They want you to join them. Because of all the aforementioned pieces of cinema, video games and literature, we believe ourselves to be prepared for this pending disaster. But are we really?

What would you say to a person who walked up to you on the street and said they were from the future? Or that they had just been abducted by aliens? Or that they were the reincarnated Jesus Christ? You would probably say something to the affect of "get lost you crazy bastard!" Why would you say that? Two words: Pop Culture! We have become jaded by the Hollywood elite. We are no longer mystified and intrigued by the bizarre and unexplained. Hollywood has done every concept 12 times over. Two hundred years ago Joseph Smith created a religion of loyal followers based on the simple statement that he had spoken to God and Jesus. If he were to have said that today he would have been tossed in jail for public intoxication or possibly fitted for a straight jacket. We as a society are no longer impressed by anything. The same can be said for fear. We have real fears now. Terrorism. Cancer. Another Transformers movie. We as a society can no longer concern ourselves with irrational fears that have been popularized by the media. This, of course, brings me back to the issue at hand: ZOMBIES!!!

For 60 years zombies have been a mainstay in cinema and literature. What began as a little known vodou belief of reanimating the dead for labor. This, of course, evolved into the dead coming back to life to feast on the living. Movies like "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" would tell you that they just came back to life. Nobody knew how or why. It just happened. Later, more detailed origins would tell you it was a virus. "House of the Dead" and "Resident Evil" are two very popular video game franchises that tell of a zombie apocalypse due to a genetically engineered virus being let out into the general public. Now, with movies like "28 Days Later", "I Am Legend" and "Zombieland" the zombies aren't even dead. They are live people infected with a virus or disease and are completely incapable of controlling their actions and are forced to their most basic of beastly instincts.

Zombies are a popular topic in the media. They sell movie tickets and people can never wait for the next big video game epic where they can chop up and shoot their way through a zombie horde. But one idea slips most people's observation. People out there strongly believe that the zombie apocalypse is nigh. This is, of course, not unlikely due to the idea that zombies rise as a result of a biochemical weapon or virus. However, prepared as you may think you are thanks to the media, are you really ready to face what may be at hand?

Facebook and MySpace are littered with quizzes that rate your chances of survival in the event of a zombie outbreak. And most, if not all, begin with the question: "What will you be doing when the zombie outbreak begins?" Most people tend you answer along the lines of: "sitting at home watching the news broadcast" or "out with my friends, so I don't know". But what if you're that first person who sets eyes on a zombie. What if he approaches you all slow like a hobo begging for change? Or even worse, what if he sprints down the street and tackles you like you have the football in the Super Bowl? How are you going to react? Will survival instincts kick in? Or will rationality take hold and make you say something like "Sorry I don't have any change" and then get eaten?

For crying out loud we have zombie bar crawls. People walk through malls dressed as zombies. People go trick-or-treating as zombies. Sometimes people go out on a random Saturday as zombies because they think it's fun. How, in this day and age, are you going to know that a real zombie infected with a creepy biochemical virus or an aggressive strain of swine flu isn't about to tackle you down and chew out your jugular? Will you allow yourself to be eaten? Or will you risk going to jail for murder because you thought a guy in costume was really about to eat you?

If you choose the latter, please know that I am by no means endorsing that we kill all potential zombies. It is, currently, more likely that any zombie you see is in fact a person in costume. What this blog is meant to be is an observation of our chances of survival in the event of a zombie outbreak. Frankly, I don't think they are that good. Watch all the movies you want and kill all the zombies you can in Resident Evil 27, but at the end of the day, are you ready and willing to one day kill a real zombie? Prepare yourself. Check out The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.