ZOMBIES

I have future plans in the works to collaborate with two great minds and spectacular writers that I want to get more shine on through Substack but also in our community, Karen Horwitz and Lacey S Love. They are both worthy writers and people I feel have topics that have needed the right audience and support to move them forward. They are both far greater writers than I and have the articles and research to back up everything they write. Today’s article, however, is not about them. Today’s article is about us.

I have been looking at America in a broad view lately, under a lens magnified in and out as if the view I have is distorted. I realize why my view of this country has become distorted and it’s because the country itself matches my view of it. When did that happen? It probably happened when we became Zombies!

America has had a fascination with the fictional characters as they have been written in pop culture and horror stories. The idea started before our obsession with them. Although having different names across different cultures, the undead or walking dead have been spoken about since biblical times. While I have been trying to fix my view of this world and America, I realized today what changed. When I recognized we have taken on this persona of the living dead, I decided I would write about it and see if anyone could not only agree but visualize it. It shouldn’t be all that hard to make the same connection but just to be sure I’m going to help you connect the dots.

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In horror lore there are many different kinds of zombie and I don’t want to turn this into a fiction piece so I will just use simple comparisons to share my point. Zombies in most stories are cannibalistic in nature. While they walk they lack life. I want to focus on that specific detail because I think this detail is the true connection to what has been spoken about since the first discussion of the topic.

It is impossible to walk without life. The story of Frankenstein had a lot to do with scientific research that found that a body could move for 10 seconds without a head attached. This is the time it takes for blood to cease pumping and for the body to realize nothing is regulating blood flow from the heart to the rest of the body. Many studies have successfully reanimated limbs and body parts and has been the way we developed the knowledge and ability to successfully transplant. In all these cases the ability for these organs, body parts, etc to continue functioning fully is limited. This is not the case of a zombie. The living dead are decayed with limited ability to think and connect to normal human life but have a single urge that makes for their connection to the mortal realm. Their only urge is to feed on the living. In some cases that connection is built specifically on the feeding on human brains but in modern lore simply feasting on human flesh is enough to satiate their hunger.

I’m sure some of you still haven’t made the connection, while others are already ahead of the game. To help you get the relevance, I will start connecting dots. The average human being spends 6 - 7 hours looking at screens and I honestly believe it’s more but that’s just the average. I know at work I use a computer for almost 5 hours of my work day and the other 3 hours and 30 minutes is walking from department to department and eating lunch. Once I get home, the TV is on for noise and I look at my phone for news or if my laptop is working I may use it for another 3 - 5 hours. You’re talking about 10 - 14 hours and then sleep for 4 - 6 hours because I’m a light sleeper and I really don’t enjoy sleeping in my old age. Other than the +3 hours of walking I do at work and the few hours of exercise and sleep I have at home, I spend my life watching the lives or work of others. Even outside of the technological world we have people who spend most of their lives grinding at work or farming but NOT living it. For those few of us who love our work we have the best of both worlds but we still, on average, waste a lot of time just wandering through our day and eventually our lives.

On any corner of the globe but especially here in America, you can find people in a near lifeless state of existence simply from burnout. Burnout can come from a myriad of sources but it’s people who find themselves in that state who snap most often. A lot of burnout is physical but it’s the mental or spiritual burnout that creates zombies. Remember zombies are cannibals and only feast on the living. This is where empty souls and minds become violent.

America’s largest money making movies, from the 90’s to early 2 thousands, usually had zombies or living dead creatures in them. Why do you think that is? Could it be the escape from reality or the desire to watch the lifeless reanimated in explosive freedom? Who really knows? What is known, is there are almost NO zombie movies without violence. Let’s connect these dots again, together. Soulless, lifeless, creatures that are dead inside yet walk the Earth consuming the lives of the living.

Now, since I have given imagery of the walking dead, I want to give imagery of “the living.” I mentioned some of us enjoy our work and that helps keep the fire in our eyes that is missing from so many people across the world and in America. There are vast few who are actually not wasting their lives 6 - 14 hours of screen time or grinding on jobs they hate. Those few are “living” life. They are out in nature enjoying the planet. They are in hospitals saving lives. They are in schools shaping minds and promoting safety among their students. They are at nurseries, nursing homes, churches, volunteer shelters helping to enrich lives not tear them apart.

Why are the numbers so few of people who are living and those who are just animated without any fire in their lives? Simple answer, everything in our lives is monetized. Land, water and very soon air. Electricity is monetized and that has replaced the fourth element of fire that we need to keep warm in life. We pay for ¾ of what we need to live and the price keeps getting higher while the top zombies who took control of these elements pay us less for our work in order to create more zombies. The term “it’s a dog eat dog world” is only said because stating the facts that it’s a “human eats human” world sounds dark.

I have always been a person who is just too literal. I hate lies because it makes me feel spineless. I rather speak the truth, speak honesty because then I can breathe and stand tall without anxiety, hiding what’s on my mind. Cowards do that. We have a world of cowards, now. We have the lifeless billionaires who you would think could have everything but they’re grinding out of greed and not living life. For their grind they have violently recruited their own avatars. Lawless Enforcers who are also grinding to feast on the living.

They only live to feed on our flesh and to create more zombies like themselves. Dry bones with no life in them. They have no value for nature so they cut down trees, kill animals, pollute the ocean, create waste to make an environment that is conducive to their undead way of life. They want to breed death into this world. They don’t care how they do it but they are working overtime just so they can. Soulless beings who have only one urge, to create other soulless beings through violence.

If they get their way when, they are done with our country, it will be an empty playground for all their vices. A land of dry bones just as bare as their souls. The only way to reverse that is to fill your neighborhoods and communities with life and love. This isn’t some hippie trip and even if it is, GOOD! Hippies gave more to this country than government ever has.

I want to share community with neighbors who are alive. Not just walking but living. I want to see Dads outside playing with their kids again. Since I have moved back to the US, I haven’t seen that not in two different states over 8 years of being back home. We can’t let our jobs, our country, our fatigue take away our love and our life. We can’t leave things this way for our children. When I was a teacher as strict and military like I was in the classroom, outside with my students I ran and played right along side them until complete exhaustion because kids are crazy and never get tired when they’re having fun. THAT’S LIVING!

LETS GET BACK TO BUILDING AN AMERICA, A WORLD 🌎 WHERE OUR KIDS CAN HAVE FUN AND ENJOY NATURE WITHOUT VIOLENCE AND ZOMBIES TRYING TO FEAST ON THEIR LIVES OR THEIR JOY!!!✊