Well, I can’t go and spring for cable, but I do have Netflix, so I watched the first two episodes of The Walking Dead.
My first thought: this is a deconstruction of the American Dream. When we see monsters in cinema, they represent realities we are unable or unwilling to acknowledge.
The essence of all apocalyptic visions is failure: a failure of the dream.
Historically, Americans believed in our ideals. They were taught genuine Liberalism, which depends on mutual trust, hard work, common decency, and in no small measure dreams about how the world should be.
We want peace. We want prosperity. We want true, deep, social harmony, connection, and love.
All of these things are achievable, but NOT ON THE PATH WE ARE ON. We know this. It is in every gut, even when the brains overrule them.
We have lost the faith, lost the ability to believe in notions like Good and Evil, right and wrong.
And I want to be clear that I don’t want to be the one to say what is right and wrong; nor do I want to relinquish that role to anyone else. What I want to say is that we all judge OF NECESSITY, and that failing to judge means to fail to form as a person, as a character; extended, it means failure to form communities, tribes, thriving social webs which nurture and support and instruct.
As I have said often enough, proper moral judgments are local, imperfect, and necessary.
It seems so easy to embrace visions in which all confusions of our present sort fall away in the exigencies of survival. It seems simpler, at least watching it from a comfortable couch in a comfortable home in a safe neighborhood.
That’s all for now. I’m rambling.