The zombies are coming. The zombies are coming.
It seems that everywhere you look on television channels there is a series about zombies or movie trailers advertising the latest zombie movie.
I still haven’t quite figured out what people find so fascinating about mutated, human flesh eating people.
It’s not like I’ve ever dwelt on the subject or even had light conversations about it, but in recent weeks I’ve started to formulate a theory on why otherwise “normal” folks have supported the series “The Walking Dead” for nine years.
CBR.com states, “AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ has been one of TV’s biggest franchises to date, turning the Image Comics title into a ratings juggernaut.”
I think maybe people watch these programs and movies as a way to prove to themselves they are not actually slipping into zombie-dom.
You know, by contrast, if you want everyone to think you’re tall, you stand next to the shortest person in the room.
If you want to appear thin, you hang out with people who are larger than you, and if you don’t want to appear zombie-like, you watch and describe the gruesome behavior of fictional characters as a contrast to your own behavior.
Far out? Maybe, but I have noticed many behaviors and actions in the last few months that have consolidated some formally random thoughts into a hypothesis that sort of fits.
Politics
Many politicians in particular and many fervent political followers have reached a new low in their seemingly mindless and vicious attempts to destroy those that disagree with them.
In a July 2018 news story reported by Martha Teichner on CBS titled “Will politics be the death of civility?” Teichner asks, “Just how rude has today’s life become? And just how much is the tone of our politics to blame?”
“Does it sometimes feel as if our politics has us all backed into our ideological corners? Does it seem as if insults and name-calling have taken the place of civil dialogue — that incivility has gone viral?”
In a word I would have to say the answer is yes. I have friends who tell me they don’t want to talk about politics because the discussion always seems to get out of hand. I lean that way myself.
Hmm, no civility, desire to hurt others, no respect for the opinions of others; those sound like very good zombie traits to me.
Social behavior
Has anyone else noticed a decline in social courtesy lately?
Simple things like not being aware of the people around you as you stand in the middle of the walkway or sidewalk blocking the pathway.
How about following someone toward a doorway and because you’re three steps behind they let the door go right in your face. I guess they are just too busy to wait a half second.
I was recently at a men’s breakfast where two of the gentlemen at my table proceeded to lay their cell phones on the table during the presentation.
Yep, you guessed it, through out the breakfast the phones continued to distract with their buzzing and beeping.
Seriously? You can’t turn your phone off for an hour?
It makes me wonder if this behavior is the result of arrogance (my phone calls are more important than anything else), or just ignorance of common courtesy to others.
Cellphones
Speaking of cellphones, how is it that Americans survived more than 375 years without cellphones and yet now people can’t even go to the bathroom without taking their cellphone?
I was recently on the phone with a work contact when all of a sudden there was a horrendously loud noise in my ear. When I asked what happened, they responded, “Oh sorry, I just flushed the toilet.”
The image that popped into my mind at that moment I will not describe here. How rude!
How about this for social behavior? Four people sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, a father and tweenage son sitting next to each other looking at an elderly woman across from them and texting each other and then laughing and chuckling after each text.
This went on for several minutes; look at her, text and laugh, then repeat. Zombielike behavior? I think yes.
Be forewarned; I have gotten to the point that if I’m in a conversation with you and you exhibit total disrespect by taking a phone call, I will walk away. Conversation over.
I don’t care if it’s your best client, they can wait 10 minutes for your return call.
I actually had an associate get upset with me because I didn’t return their text within their timeline. I had to explain that I don’t carry my phone with me all the time.
I do have a life to live, and I don’t sit around waiting for calls from zombies.
So far my examples have been focused on adults who are already in mid-mutation phase.
What are our children being taught? Why in the world does an 8- or 9-year-old need a cellphone? And pleeease! Don’t give me the “So I can keep track of them” routine.
My kids didn’t get phones until they were 18, and we knew where they were all the time, just like parents for the last 375-plus years.
I’m at a point where I think cellphones have become part of the identity of young people today. They think they have the answer to everything because they read or saw it on their phone.
Many have become rude, arrogant, self-indulgent brats who have no respect for adults or authority. New-age zombies?
I do know that not everyone has fallen into the techno trap, but there are many who have.
Parents who would rather be “best friends” (buy a new cellphone) with their children are not doing themselves or their kids a favor.
Having a world full of know-it-all children with little to no social skills is not a bright future for our communities or the nation.
I do have a myriad of additional examples I could use, but I don’t believe this is the forum to submit a non-fiction novel.
So, for now I will simply repeat, “The Zombies are Coming,” and maybe some are already here.