Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, March 7, 2013

NASTY, BRUTISH, AND SHORT. DO ZOMBIES NEED GOVERNMENT? MIDTERM REPORT 14-4

 Walkers, flesh monsters, crawlers, sprinters. These are some of the surnames of that flesh crawling word; Zombies. Who doesn't like loved ones dying and coming back to feast on our fresh and warm bodies?? Everyone thinks of the end of the world in some shape or fashion. Terrible natural disaster strikes with sickly force; no central government. Money dwindles down to only be worth the air I can grab; no central government. A terrible virus breaks out and infects every living body bag and rotten corpse and drags humankind to the brink of extinction. Life without a central government like Thomas Hobbs would eloquently while shortly put it, would be " short, brutish, and short." Every time we have no central government, life seems to get thrown abruptly into a chaotic nature. Ever heard the sayings like "It's a dog eat dog world", "Every man for himself", or one of my favorites "The world as we knew it is gone". As some would know, Hobbs believed we should have a central government. I ask you the awesome reader to answer the question, Do we truly need a central government? I want to draw your attention to my favorite show The Walking Dead.


As I love to quote, "This isn't a democracy anymore." The Walking Dead is a t.v. series about deputy sheriff, Rick Grimes that is wounded severely early on in the first episode. Rick quickly goes into shock, going in and out then a coma. When Rick comes back to life from being in a comatose state, he finds his previous life in a empty, destroyed and deadly world. Later on when Rick comes to find a group, he is thrown into situation after situation where he must step up and be a leader. People need some sort of governing in life. As a Christian, I seek God to stable me. We as a nation rely on the three branches of government to calm society down. Cities lean on the people with authority to guide our foots as we walk the streets. Some people might not believe in God, while others think our government is a crooked thief, and then there are the people who defy authority. There will always be people in groups like these. Rick has to take chances and risks like never before. He has to decide which way the people should walk. If Rick makes a mistake, it could cost the life of someone.   

We may not agree with what higher authorities say, but we need to stop and listen. Some of the things that are being said may be lies and deceit, but others might be truthful and compassionate. We need a force to keep people in line. Like Augustine said, it all started with the Original Sin. We had it good, if you believe in the Bible and its teachings. Everything was just fine until The Fall when Adam and Eve sinned for the first time. The human race carried this Sin into each new generation being born. When the zombie apocalypse occurs, the government will be gone. There will be no money, no t.v. with politicians arguing; life would cease to exists. People need a center to center them. Going off a little bit here, in the movie Inception, the characters need to have a totem that helps them tell the difference between reality and a dream.
 Like the movie and The Walking Dead, we need some kind of center to bring ourselves back. We need some medium in our life, some kind of ground work, a hard surface to stable ourselves. When the world ends, where would our center for life go? We as humans can only guess where it would go; others may think of a dark place where the sun doesn't shine that it can go. Regardless of the feelings of some kind of government, we need leadership. Rick in The Walking Dead is the leadership that is needed for this type of new world. Zombie plans were not thought of in this show like it is in the time we live in. Zombies, the living dead doesn't care who is the leader; they care about the meat off of the leader. Rick has to lead the group to safety. The new world they live in provides very little safety for them, so they need guidence to lead them to a better tomorrow. Leaders have to make tough decisions, but with Rick, he has to make tougher choices that will effect the group as a whole. When Rick decides to go back to Atlanta to retrive Merel, Darly's older, viscious and rasict redneck brother, the group has it's doubts of this plan being a good idea. On one hand, they go back to a unexpected surprise.
When Rick and the smaller group goes back to camp, they are met with the consquence of Rick's actions.
Both of these instances are pretty gruesome and very 'nasty' to say the least, but what can you expect? When zombies are just freely roaming around, it's a dog eat dog kind of world.   Like before, the quote I pulled into your already warped mind, "Every man for himself". Like Charles Darwin would say, it's the survival of the fittest. Only the strong survive. Have you ever been so hungry that you would steal or even kill to get something to settle your groaning stomach? Most of us have been "so hungry that you can eat a cow", but have you been to the brink of stravation? Most of American would claim not to. If you look in a third world country, you can find people that are hungry enough to steal and kill for any scrape of food. When valuables are thrown into the equation, people will do some very barbaric things. You hear the news reports claiming people are trampled on Black Friday, some customer was killed over a new game coming out, a fight breaks out over some fried chicken. Yes, fried chicken is delicious, but would you cut someone's throat for it? How far would you go to get something you need? Wants in life come and go; you want those Beats, you could want that new Playstation 4 (I myself cannot wait to get the new system), people want to be rich. These are all common, but the question always boils down to what do you need? I need to pass all my classes, I need to breathe, I need to finish this Midterm blog post.We as humans will always have needs. We were designed to have needs. I believe that we need Jesus. A different person may think they need that cup of coffee before they teach that class.
Nevertheless, we have needs as humans. When a disaster strikes, people go into survival mode. They don't apply laws, rules, and morals in their reasoning. They go after what they need. There is a special on Bio called Monstresses where mistresses kill another woman to have the man the woman was involved with. I remembered seeing an episode where one mistress planned the killing of her lover's wife and then tried to kill her friend whom she told could be with the same lover as well. We do crazy things when we want something, but in their minds, they need whatever it may be (i.e. The mistress needs the already taken lover). If one could think of history, you would think about the famous Vikings. They invaded towns, stole food, raped the women, and killed the men. Now we can think, they didn't need to steal food, rape the women or kill the men. They could have made a garden and hunted to get food. They could marry and never worry about lust as much. They think that they need these things though; they need to take something that they need, they need to see the blood rush out of that victim's face. Sick as it may be, they were needy. It's cold, not just regular cold but your foot has been frostbitten, you lost your spouse and newborn. You haven't eaten in days that are now a jumbled mass. Your spouse is there, rotting away, slowly but surely. You still have three more children left, all on the fingertips of Death's grasp. What do you do? Stick with your morals and the norm of society or eat your spouse to save the lives of your children? Members in the Donner Party had these decisions to make. Many people know the results of their choice. Your spouse was delicious, Bob. Life regardless of if we eat other people or kill them is brutally lived and enjoyed. The Walking Dead group members know that their lives will probably end in a brutish fashion. 


The terrible tragedy with Newton shocked the world. The main problem we had to face was the fact that the victim's lives were cut short. Life is short, so you might as well enjoy it while you can is a known phrase. Nothing is for certain but death and taxes. All in all, life is short. Drake the famous actor turned rapper was in a rap with Lil Wayne (Another famous rapper) titled The Motto. The Motto was spelled out with the the acronymm Y.O.L.O. No this doesn't mean You Obviously Love Oreos. It stands for You Only Live Once. As broad as the statement has been used for, the meaning is still there; you only live one time. Rick has a different situation on his hands. People can and cannot live more than once. People can live more than once by coming back to life like zombies usually do; people cannot live more than once because zombies are technically not alive. Now we can talk all day about certain zombies that are alive and not dead, but that is not the point I am making. The point I am making is that Rick knows that the lives of each individual is numbered. They could have been laughing, talking and being a family, then all of a sudden that person is ripped to shreds but a horde of walkers. Even with life you have to enjoy the small things in life.
Rick has to steer the group away from danger, enjoy the company and good times they have and still have to remain in husband and daddy mode. Life is tough in the zombie new reigned world. Without the leadership of Rick, the group's life would probably be a lot shorter than it is already. The group needs a leader, they need some sort of governing in their shortened lives. Rick knows their lives are on a countdown and will not take anymore bull from anyone.

To sum it all up, as people we will always need a higher power to keep everyone, good or bad, in order. Thomas Hobbs agrees with this theory. He knows that humans are animalistic in nature. We need some control in our lives. Laws, rules, and morals are counted on in the world. Thomas fully explains in this memorable quote,  

"Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."

The Walking Dead gave Rick Grimes the responsibility of taking care of people, providing for them and protecting them. His word is the law. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks or says, but he will deal with unruly members of the group or world like a government usually does; with sweet, sweet violence and gore.
 

3 comments:

  1. "Walkers" - ? But I'm a walker...

    Well... every time someone writes a Zombie paper for me I hope it will be the one that finally explains to me why there's so much popular fascination with these fictitious monsters. I still don't get it.

    But I do get that if there were Zombies, Leviathan would be needed to suppress them.

    P.S. "Stable" is not a verb, and it's "Hobbes" (with an "e")... but thanks for quoting the full "nasty brutish short" passage, it provides helpful context. "No arts, no letters"... that's really scary!

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  2. Zombies are factual creatures sir. It can be caused by a certain posionous plant, nano bugs and even mad cow diease. I thought I spelled Hobbes right but spell check thinks everything is wrong.

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  3. 1. Your post is great, Monique.
    2. Your "Zombies are factual creatures, sir." comment will have me smiling all day.
    And 3. Just bravo!

    I know there are a lot of people who do not understand my fascination with zombies, and even when I meet a fellow enthusiast, we do find it difficult to explain correctly. You see, for me, the idea of a zombie apocalypse is just as terrifying as the next person. But I do see it as a possibility. I have spent so many years in the medical field learning about diseases and genetically modified vaccines that it doesn't take a lot of imagination to think of a way that a vaccine or drug could mutate and attack the brain, causing horrible damage. Because without reason, are we still human? There are countless studies of how damage to the pre-frontal cortex causes a drastic change in behavior leading people to be more violent and less rational. And in today's world where pharmaceutical companies are only concerned with the payout so they push the newest drug onto the market without fully testing the side effects, well to me, connecting the dots is plain to see. I think humanity as a race has gotten complacent, comfortable, lazy, and selfish. I think we take so many things for granted. I am currently reading a book for another class where the author compiled the more vicious accounts of what happened to the people of Europe during and after WWII. In the aftermath, everyone wanted to focus on the heroes and rebuilding because moral needed to be boosted, but there was so much depravity and darkness that happened and people just pushed it to the side. I think that is what society tries to do a lot. Push the bad things to the side instead of facing them. I guess the allure of zombies to me is that it would be something you would have to face. You can't exactly ignore someone trying to eat your face. It would be something terrible, and yes, the structure of the government and the world we know would undoubtedly fall, but in that aftermath every person would be forced to come face to face with their own character. They would have to discover if they had the strength to fight and appreciate their own lives, or would they sit down and whine about the "easier times". I just think I was more suited to be born in a time where people were more appreciative for what they have because it was harder to come by. Not everyone could live in a world where the central structure, such as government, economy, Walmarts, were a thing of the past, but those that did live would value every single day they had.

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