The zombie fad we've had for the past few years...an expression of unconscious anxiety?

[lagomorph777]

I've often wondered how all this zombie drivel became so popular the past few years. It occurs to me now that we were all aware there would be a pandemic here sometime soon. We had plenty of warning, both from experts and from observation: ebola, MERS, SARS, H1N1, etc. But we individually couldn't do much about it . So we pushed it down into our subconscious, where Hollywood and book publishers found it and ran with it.

What do you think?

[pnwest]

1. I read a really interesting article some years back, about how current monster and superhero fads

relfect just what you're suggesting in your post. I wish I could find it but I wouldn't even know where to start. I'm paraphrasing badly, but the fads of monsters, aliens, vampires, zombies - all relfected what society was worrying about at the time. And the types of superheroes we were into, represented the type of savior we were looking for. It was quite interesting. I kind of take the current zombie phase as a reflection of the blind stupidity of the current population stumbling about with no brain.

[lagomorph777]

2. "the type of savior we were looking for" ... "stumbling about with no brain"

I know I'm conflating here, but those two pieces suddenly clicked together for me. We have 40% stumbling about with no brain, and they have chosen the same thing to be their "superhero."

[get the red out]

4. And that 40%

is probably my subconscious fear, the Zombies conjured by decades of RW media Voodoo.

[lagomorph777]

7. Hmm, interesting angle. I can see that.

[mathematic]

3. No, zombies came back 20 years ago, hit it big 15 years ago, and have been old for at least 5 nt

[OhZone]

5. I was chatting with the friend I used to carpool with -

And he was saying he thought that this WAS a kind of zombie virus. Ha

Just a very subtle one.

Apparently the virus can affect the brain. I does have neurological effects.

He thinks the desire for some to have contact with others might be driven by some mechanism like the way that cat / mouse parasite makes mice less fearful of cats.

Sounds a little crazy to me.

But these are crazy times!

Ha

[Aristus]

6. The original 1968 Night Of The Living Dead was seen by some as anxiety about

Communism.

1978's Dawn Of the Dead has been viewed as a poke at mindless consumerism.

So it wouldn't surprise me...