I have to admit I do not get the current fascination with Zombies, but my kids talk about them as if they were real. Do they know something I don't know?
Today the four of us went to watch the film "World War Z." Three of us covered our eyes at the scariest moments; for some reason my 18-year-old can handle that kind of thing without freaking out.
I cannot say it was a great movie, although the actors, including Brad Pitt, played their parts well.
It occurs to me with global climate change looming, which is not an imaginary but a real threat to human survival, that the imaginary threats posed by zombies in novels and movies are somehow more comforting "enemies" for a generation that will see the effects of a warming planet during their extended lives.
Our young ones will probably live to over 100 years, thanks to medical advances. By then, human life on this planet will be in serious peril, according to the best science.
Compared to that threat, zombies don't seem all that bad. So my theory is that the fixation on zombies is a metaphor for battling the awful challenge of climate change.
Either way, I hope the human race wins, and survives. It is incomprehensible that certain political factions continue to resist scientific truths and deny the horrifying implications of climate change, but that's the reality we live in here in America -- in the midst of a culture deeply in denial.
It is very much as if we were on the decks of the Titanic, sailing toward that iceberg. Only in this case there will be no more icebergs. Just a rising ocean, a heated planet, species extermination and migration, and precious few options for the human race to survive.
What kind of monsters play politics over that?
Zombies, at least metaphorically. If so, they are already among us.
You can call them Republicans, if you prefer.
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