“Let the dead bury the dead,” Jesus Christ says in the New
Testament. So, there, you see: Jesus DOES believe in zombies!
In fact, we are surrounded by zombies. That’s what the craze
in zombie movies is trying to tell us. The living dead are all around us. But
who, where, how?
Seven billion people now share this earth, we are told. Most
people sleep walk, going about their daily tasks with minds preoccupied with
petty details, thoughts of the past, daydreams, anxieties, fears, being in love
and all the thoughts and mechanical actions we are prone to.
Though we are awake (relative to our sleep state at night)
during day, we are only relatively conscious. Think of some stereotype: I think
of the proverbial “red-neck” personality. I can’t possibly define the term but
let me say that someone who is a white racist, uneducated, uncouth in personal
habits, uncreative, and living more or less just a tad above the level of an
animal. Perhaps such a one never has an abstract thought in his life. If there
is a such a person, and popular stereotypes suggest we are invested in their
being a reality, surely this would be an example of a zombie living amongst us.
Unreflective, lacking in self-awareness, humorless (unless at the expense of
others), cruel and pig-like in personal habits.
This description, I grant you, is a bit extreme. But even
mild-mannered people can live day to day, moment to moment, with very little self-awareness,
even if they offend no one. Think of how much time is spent gossiping, judging,
decrying this or that piece of news, shopping aimlessly, almost hypnotically,
roaming the internet, Face book, reading trashy novels, playing video games,
watching television, cartoon, soaps, reality shows and on and on and on.
So, yes, you see what I mean: the world IS filled with
zombies! This is how an entire nation of otherwise good or at least so-called “normal”
people, can embrace or accept the misdeeds of their leaders, even on a grand
scale such as Nazi Germany, Rwanda, and countless other examples. This would
include the grand misdeeds of large corporations.
The consciousness of our planet is like a silk worm
struggling to break out of its cocoon to become a butterfly and fly away.
Millions have awakened to feel a connection with the global reality in which we
live. They have awakened with sympathy and understanding and harboring hope for
a better world. They desire an end to war, plagues, injustice and exploitation.
Whether their hopes are justified or will ever be realized
isn’t even my real point. It’s the consciousness that such a hope and desire even
exists that is revolutionary. We really do have in front of us a war with the
zombies. But even zombies have leaders, intellectuals, and captains and
lieutenants whose embrace of their fear and greed based tribalism is creative,
willful, even courageous, and, in its own way, conscious.
Thus, as it must needs be to keep this world going round,
good and evil vie forever for the upper hand. It’s not a new war but takes new
forms in every generation and in every age. In our age we could call it
tribalism versus universality. It is the conflict between the seeming
differences in outer appearance versus the recognition of an underlying unity.
In a dynamic and conscious way, it began with the American
revolution and the Age of Enlightenment. At this time, the concept of being an
individual began the cultural breakdown of self-identity that was tribal
(national, etc.). As the generations moved along we’ve had struggles for racial
and gender equality, religious freedom, economic freedom and so many other
similar struggles. The famous post-World War II Nuremburg trials highlighted
the issue of personal responsibility for one’s actions and the moral limits of
authority and obedience.
This war of the zombies could also be described as a
conflict between competition and cooperation; domination and equality; conquest
and harmony.
It is important that we have realistic goals in life, lest
we fail and consequently fall into disillusionment or bitterness. From the
macrocosmic view of the God’s eye, it is wise to understand that these battles
never end but are necessarily relative victories and relative defeats. But not
to struggle to wake up from being a zombie is the duty imposed or offered to us
by our own higher awareness.
On a microcosmic level we struggle day to day from falling
into subconscious or addictive habits whose enticement and pleasure is but
short-lived and, long-term, ultimately destructive of our health and happiness.
That piece of cake invites another. That doughnut invites repeating; that
cigarette invites a pack or a carton. Gossip attracts more gossip. And so on.
The war of the zombies is, therefore, more real than we
might know. Rather than “fight” anyone, however, the secret is to wake
ourselves up. The more awake and strong we are in the realization that we are
part of a greater reality, the better and more lasting an effect we have on the
zombie within us and the zombies around us. You can never kill them all, don’t
you see? We need only to avoid being one ourselves. That’s the drama of this
play we call life.
