The difference between humans and zombies
 

This was my recent blog entry on AF. I thought I'd share it here.


Zombies. A classic horror tradition - humanity eating itself away into the end of the world. Lifeless men, walking around without thought or sense, eating brains, and slowly dying as the world burns. It's a great plot for a cheap horror flick. But is there something more to these mindless wanderers? Do they represent something more than a scare tactic?

Couldn't you say zombies are a parrallel to modern society? I mean, aside from eating people's brains, couldn't you say all the things above about mankind? In today's society, we do as zombies do. We breathe, but we're far from life. We walk around aimless. We do things without thought, becuase that's just what we do. We live without more purpose than to consume. We consume ourselves to death, and the death of the planet. Consume. Consume. Consume. Buy this, and buy that, a while the world slowly dies away. This is the end of the world. We are the zombies, and we cause our own apocalypse.

Of course, it's not that simple. Our society isn't all about consuming. It may seem that way sometimes. Society may seem lifeless and zombie-like, but we are not zombies. We are human. The difference: humans feel, zombies do not.

So, if humans are alive, and zombies are (pretty much) not living, and the difference between the two is humans feel, then we can assume living is feeling.

Living is Feeling

Have you ever said or thought: I feel so alive! Most likely, you were running around during a thunderstorm, reaching the summit of a tall mountain, climbing out of cold water, doing something like that. Feeling these things, that's how you know you're alive.I mean, have you ever got up and thought "I feel so alive!" after a few hours of watching tv? No. But you did when you were feeling something. A zombie wouldn't feel the satisfaction of taking the last step on the summit of a mountain. A zombie wouldn't feel refreshed after jumping into a cool lake. And it doesn't have to be physicall. Love, anger, sorrow, joy, they're all things we can feel. A zombie doesn't have this sensation - life. But us humans, we do, because us humans, we can feel.

Moral of the story: Feel. Go out there and feel the breeze, feel the sun bake on your face. Feel love. Feel something, because if you stop feeling, you stop living. You become one of them - a zombie. And trust me, you don't want to be a zombie. They're nasty. But if you keep feeling, you keep living. You can start by feeling enlightened. Thanks for reading.

CMVN

I agree with you... I've thought about this before as well... I love the zombie genre... movies, books... but yea I think of modern society as 'zombies' because of the reasons you gave. Good insight. It's really quite sad. I guess you could say I was kind of like that. Just mindlessly floating through life... waiting for the fun things of the future to just come to me. Now I'm not :D

Hmmm an interesting take on zombies, especially with the comparison with humankind..
Personally I'd compare humankind with that of our closest relative the chimpanzee.
Both are constrained by the dominant pack which makes up a society, driven by desires and impulses and are the only animals capable of inflicting violence on each other for little reason..
The main difference between zombies and humans in my eyes is the degeneration of the frontal lobe of the zombie which renders cognition and emotion response inpossible..Humans have free will to an extent, zombies are driven by their desire to consume..(much like what you said caveman ;))