Mistaken Identities: Merican Zombie
by Rev. Dr. Derek Davis –
Risking a gross exaggeration, there seems to exist today an obsession with zombies held by Generation X. The evidence for this observation, though not scientifically obtained by any means, is supported in part by the popularity amongst the Xers of shows such as “Game of Thrones”, “The Walking Dead” and “Fear of the Walking Dead”, along with various presentations of a variety of “Z” nation/world movies. There is a 2012 film titled: “Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies”, as if the Civil War wasn’t enough to worry the man!
Generation X, while not so clearly defined as my generation, can loosely be presented as the generation immediately following the Baby Boomers. I am the father of four Xers, three who have survived, growing into fine persons ages 31 – 38. And while this essay is far from an exacting poll of their generation concerning the topic of zombies, my observation regarding an obsession with the same has been confirmed by all three. This leads to the question: Why?
Why should my three children, raised in the Roman Catholic faith, baptized and confirmed in the same system of belief, why should these three “good Catholic kids” now espouse a belief in Zombies, if not literally, most certainly figuratively? Have I somehow failed to instill the “proper” religious values while raising them? After much discernment and no small amount of anguish, I have concluded that “No, neither I nor the local church has let them down. And in a roundabout way, the three of them confirm this conclusion.
My oldest son, aged 38, is a professionally trained chef, living and working in Florida. My daughter, age 32, mother of my two granddaughters, is married and works in the administrative side of healthcare. My youngest son, 31, is a sales representative for a national home and construction heating and plumbing supply company. All three are intelligent, educated and successful.
My oldest son states: “People talk all the time about the coming Zombie Apocalypse: I know some who are actually preparing for it, hoarding supplies in their basements as though if it were to really happen they would survive! They don’t get that it is an analogy for what is going on today; the Zombie Apocalypse is happening right now—they are living through it!”
My daughter, seemingly with more to lose, views zombies a little differently than her elder sibling. “To me they symbolize the daily monotony of life, slowly but surely grinding you down until there is nothing left; get up, drive to work, do the same thing over and over, drive home (she has an hour commute), make dinner, get kids to bed, go to bed yourself and get up the next day: repeat. It’s soul sucking.”
My youngest child, number two son, states: “It’s about the whole world going to hell in a hand basket. And we all, all of us, not just the Xers, we all know we’re going down this path into a pit of doom of our own making! I mean, it’s hopeless!” But is it? Is it really hopeless? Or is something else going on here that none of my children have yet figured out. Wisdom comes from experience: hopefully!
There are several definitions of the word “zombie”, initially referring to a West African deity manifested as a snake. Two meanings appropriate for use in this discussion are: a soulless person revived from death by supernatural forces; a dull person, lacking in attributes of the heart/mind such as compassion, imagination and empathy, to mention but a few. The current popular presentation of zombies emphasizes an appetite for living human beings. This symbolism is rampant finding expression throughout cultures around the globe: zombies consume. They are possessed of a ferocious, vociferous desire to consume human flesh and organs. The only way to completely destroy them is removal of their head/brain although this is open to further speculation. Suffice it to say that separation of the heart and brain disposes of the zombie, further evidence of a deeper meaning attached to the phenomena of the Zombie.
My Zombie hypothesis is this: the success of “the Greatest Generation”, the eradication of their own zombies in the guise of defeated fascism, added to their subsequent financial gains enabled their offspring, the Baby Boomers, to explore the freedoms consequent of their parents’ sacrifice and victory. The boomers in turn experienced their own zombies; the United States becoming the wealthiest power the world has yet witnessed, excess became the fashion. Symbolized benevolently in the summer of 1969 by the abundant love and peace at Max Yasgur’s farm, the excess concluded later that same year at Altamont Speedway with the gunplay and resultant death by stabbing at the hands of Hell’s Angels, even as Mick Jagger tried to calm the very crowd he and the Stones had just stoked in song preforming “Sympathy for The Devil.” Four people died at the free concert at Altamont Speedway; the same number five months later at Kent state; 58,220 American fatalities in Viet Nam; assassinations, murders, lynchings, violence painfully replicated from generations past. Certainly the Boomers experienced Zombies, most easily identified with delusional thinking.
So, is it any wonder Xers have discovered their own zombies in the guise of, well of zombies? The heroic generation of WWII didn’t quite wipe out fascism, did they? The peace and love of the boomers is as empty as the churches, faith communities who failed to resurrect their two thousand year old message meant to inspire beyond the 13th century literal interpretation it is now stuck in. The Xers just now coming into their own can remember the government’s reaction to 9/11, 2001; a week after the attack, Americans were told “go about your business…go shopping more…”. In other words, consume. It makes perfect sense to believe in an apocalypse when every where you are told your worth is best expressed, at least figuratively as the zombie behavior best exemplified by endless consumption.
But, do the Xers really believe their salvation is to be found only “in a pit of doom”? After all, in these shows the zombie is decimated; humans continue to experience “being”. And yet, there is a fascination with the zombie’s destruction; the watcher can’t turn away from viewing. What is going on here? The next part of the Zombie hypothesis offers a suggestion.
The fascination with zombies is an expression of the Xers’ spirituality, laid dormant in the failure of previous generations to share in their own experience of the shadow, previously addressed in the rites of the church such as confession, but now corrupted beyond original intent and lost wisdom. Spirituality can best be described as the expression of the principle of universal regeneration evident as that vital principle animating in all creation including most especially human “beings”. It is the expression of the “I AM-ness” of living, literally, the breath of life. Zombies are the spirit denied, the shadow of repression, denial of selfhood, denial of “being” manifested quite often as neurotic symptoms, obsessions, fears, anxieties and sickness.
Generation X intuitively recognizes in the denial of life expressed by the soullessness of the zombie culture that is consumption at all cost, the loss of their own souls. And not just for themselves; this fear of a soul-crushing existence is recognized as threatening all of humanity. Because in denying “being” which includes the recognition of one’s own shadow, one’s own failings, weaknesses and imperfections, one creates a demi-god of self who in turn creates zombies of other ethnicities, cultures and individuals, most especially immigrants.
This preoccupation with, fascination of, whatever it is that Generation X is experiencing relative to zombie-ism is a healthy expression of their whole true nature, their “I AM-ness”. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French Philosopher and Jesuit Priest stated in his masterpiece “Phenomenon of Man”, ”You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience…We are one, after all, you and I. Together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other.”
The zombie represents the shadow experience of the human being. At times in our experiences of this manifestation of spirit, of creation, each one of us must recognize the inner zombie, the soulless, selfish, and yes, dangerous creature bent on gluttony, lust, anger, violence; all the “attributes” of our shadow being. With experience comes wisdom. In this incarnation of Sophia, the manifestation of wisdom, may each of us recognize our true self and not be taken in by the Mistaken Identity that is the ‘Merican Zombie.