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It Takes a Village to Slaughter a Mob of Zombies
The wifey and I just finished the last season of The Walking Dead that is available on Netflix. (I’m far too cheap to go out and buy the DVDs or pay for cable). It’s a helluva show, filled with all the things good zombie shows have to offer: ethical choices, dissected human relationships, and, of course, the evisceration of scores of the undead.
The most fascinating thing about the show to me, though, is how it depicts the behavior of people in the absence of the state. In the world of The Walking Dead, moral authority within a group is achieved by proving that you have value to those around you via your actions and personal traits. Will you carry your own weight? Check! Will you be kind to the other members of the group? Check! Are you willing to occasionally cleave a former neighbor’s skull to protect our newly-minted society? Check! Are you willing to do all of this voluntarily, with no coercion from the group as a whole or any individual? Check! You’re in, buddy! Give that man a machete!
This societal structure, based upon the idea that free individuals will voluntarily cooperate for their mutual self-interest, not only makes stronger groups, it also makes people better human beings. Case in point: when we first meet Darryl, he’s a racist, sexist, jackass. As time goes by, he learns to cooperate with people, to get along with them because, as he says to his outcast brother in season 3, “You can’t go it alone anymore, we need each other.” The group does not own you; you do not stay because you have to. You stay because it is in your best interest to stay. They want you in their group because it is in their best interest that you stay. The Walking Dead serves as an example that capitalism still exists in the absence of hard currency — it’s just that the capital is a little harder to define.
This is the village that the Hillary Clintons of the world can’t stand. She wants a world where standards are sent from on high to the plebeians below, where wise philosopher-kings dictate what you should value and why. The idea that a culture’s values can (and should) be derived through mutual cooperation and self-interest is abhorrent to her because it proves how unneeded she and her kind really are.
If you want to find Hillary’s village in The Walking Dead, you don’t have to look very hard. They’re the ones that have a built-in motivation determined not by free will, but by a single group motive they cannot control. They are the ones moving lockstep toward one goal with no idea why they’re going there. They’re the ones at the gate, mouths agape, ready to feed.
Where’s my machete?
Published in General
There is a reason this show is the number one show on TV, and it’s not because of the gore and violence.
Great post. You earned a follower.
MBG, who is your favorite character, and why? I realize this post isn’t about the show, but what it represents. So why in this context is that person your favorite?
I love Daryl, and not just because he’s astonishingly efficient with the crossbow. He shows us that people can change, that we can be a better person tomorrow than we are today. I’ve been doing a lot of reading recently over the idea that we are broken vessels, and we must accept our brokenness if we are going to move forward.
You’ll note that Daryl is neither a perfect man nor an evil man. What’s more, he’s also not a morally clouded or ambiguous. He is good and he is bad, a human being trying to make the best of himself.
Is season 4 on Netflix yet? Or just 1 through 3?
The Wifey Chimes In:
I would say that the Rick group is the conservative group and the Governors group is the liberal group. Rick’s group: each individual fends for themselves and that is how they protect the whole. Gov group: relies on the protection of a few anointed individuals and blindly accepts what they are told. Rick’s group: everyone except Lil’ Ass Kicker carries their own weapon; men, women, and children. Even the disabled carry their own weight and weapons. Gov Group: hands over the weapons whenever the Gov says so, allows militants to be the only armed members. I could go on and on but who wants to read all that. The zombies aren’t a political affiliate, they are the state of society. A gaping mouth willing to consume everything in their path with no thought or consideration to what they consume, who they consume, and how things will be replenished. Man is the currency quickly becoming outweighed by those taking. Not a difficult analogy to draw, and yet probably lost upon most of the zombie viewing crowd.
My favorite character is Glenn, for similar reasons. He is probably the other side of Daryl.
I feel the Mayor gets a bum rap because he was a crazy sociopath. His society was actually better than Rick’s little band. It contained more people and effectively protected them until Rick’s commandos wrecked the barricade and let the zombies in and killed half the guards. Frankly Rick’s group is tight and mobile but they are not the foundation of a new human civilization. How long can they keep up their nomad ways? The Mayor had the right idea. Gather people up divide them into groups specializing at tasks and offer a clear structure. Where the mayor went wrong was in being crazy vengeful and keeping a zombie daughter. Yet, he was the only one so far, smart enough to have someone actually devoted to studying the darn zombies in a dedicated way. Everyone else is flying blind the Mayor had a plan. For that we should salute him.
Seconded.
Typically, we give crazy sociopaths a bum rap because they do, you know, crazy, sociopathic things. Seriously, though, it’s worth examining his society because they did have relative peace and prosperity and, as you pointed out, they were doing “science stuff” on the zombies.
I would posit, though, that the water was smooth on the surface, but currents were beginning to swell underneath–even before Rick’s group arrived to shake things up.
Their experiments on the undead were going nowhere. In fact, Rick’s group new more about the cognitive ability of walkers from one look at an MRI in Atlanta than the Gov’s group knew in months of study. Also note that their science was aimed at fulfilling the promise of the Gov’s obsession with his undead daughter, not actually solving the very real problems of the hoards of undead at the gates. Their top down approach to science is very much like government run science; it’s solves problems that don’t exist and ignores ones that do exist.
Valiuth, I refuse to accept that you really believe that the Gov’s society is better. What are you really thinking?
The Govenor?
I would add that the Governor kept his group distracted with Biter-fights and barbecues. Bread and circuses anyone?
Yes sorry my mistake.
Just 1-3
Oh, the sadness.