Mindful: Attentive, Aware, Conscious, Thoughtful, Alert.
Miscellany: A collection of various items, parts, or ingredients, especially one composed of diverse literary works.
Welcome to A Mindful Miscellany, a newsletter dedicated to Sense-making and Story-telling in the Turbulent Twenties. If you this piece resonates with you, please click the heart at the bottom, leave a comment, and/or share it with a friend. Thank you for your attention.
Two weeks ago I tried to frame out the case for why the 2020s might be a more, shall we say, vigorous period of time than others in recent history, using “big history” type analysis from Ray Dalio, George Friedman, Neil Howe, and Peter Turchin.
One possible driver of the turbulence is what some term the “Meaning Crisis.” This phrase refers to increases in anxiety disorders, depression, despair, and suicide rates mainly in North America and parts of Europe. Many link these trends to a loss of meaning.
Zombies might not seem to be related to this at first blush, but Vervaeke, Mastropietro, and Miscevic explore the possibility in their book Zombies in Western Culture. Here’s a pdf version if you are so inclined, but please support the authors and buy a physical copy.1
Here’s the blurb:
“Why has the zombie become such a pervasive figure in twenty-first-century popular culture? John Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro, and Filip Miscevic seek to answer this question by arguing that particular aspects of the zombie, common to a variety of media forms, reflect a crisis in modern Western culture.
The authors examine the essential features of the zombie, including mindlessness, ugliness, and homelessness, and argue that these reflect the outlook of the contemporary West and its attendant zeitgeists of anxiety, alienation, disconnection, and disenfranchisement.
They trace the relationship between zombies and the theme of secular apocalypse, demonstrating that the zombie draws its power from being a perversion of the Christian mythos of death and resurrection. Symbolic of a lost Christian worldview, the zombie represents a world that can no longer explain itself, nor provide us with instructions for how to live within it.
The concept of domicide or the “destruction of home” is developed to describe the modern crisis of meaning that the zombie both represents and reflects. This is illustrated using case studies including the relocation of the Anishinaabe of the Grassy Narrows First Nation, and the upheaval of population displacement in the Hellenistic period.
Finally, the authors invoke and reformulate symbols of the four horsemen of the apocalypse as rhetorical analogs to frame those aspects of contemporary collapse that elucidate the horror of the zombie.
This book ties into Vervaeke’s other work with the Meaning Crisis, and the Religion of No Religion. Here’s how the authors relate the characteristics of Zombies to present day confusions:
1. Zombies don’t talk. They have no language and nothing to say. They are unintelligible to humans, as the modern world seems to some.
2. Zombies are communal. They move in packs, but there is nothing connecting them, other than a mindless pursuit of brains (or flesh, depending on the story). They are near each other, but alone. They have no common culture.
3. Zombies are homeless. Unlike the Vampire, Zombies have no lairs, drifting from place to place. They lack a home.
4. Zombies eat brains. The appetite of a zombie is insatiable. They cannot be satisfied, much like Claire Dunphy in Modern Family. In a twist, many stories relate that destroying the brain of a Zombie is the best way to end their existence. This is explored in great detail in the book, the idea that the source of our mindlessness is in our minds themselves.
5. Zombies are ugly. This is a major differentiator between the zombie and other popular horror monsters, who have a sort of dark charisma. Zombies are something inhuman in human form―not just ugly, but ugly in the image of person.
6. Zombies are not evil. Because they have no minds to think, their agency is reduced to a simple craving to satisfy an instinct, no more evil than a rabid animal.
7. Zombies are heedless. They give no thought to defending themselves against harm. They don’t have a survival instinct. In pursuit of consumption, they will destroy themselves.
8. Zombies are untouchable. Their ugliness is contagious. If you come into contact with a zombie, infection follows inevitably. This forces us to keep our distance, which leads to becoming “out of touch”, or losing our grip on reality.
I think the authors are on to something. The popularity of Zombies in the Zeitgeist (In the industry, we call this “the Z in the Z” 😉) is an interesting example of how art communicates sentiments from the numinous that our conscious, rational minds just can’t articulate. Not well, anyway.
My takeaway is:
We need to find new and deeper ways to connect with ourselves, our loved ones, and the larger collective.
We need to orient to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.
We need to attune ourselves to the race that is uniquely ours to run, to paraphrase my old man.
On that note, have a great week, everyone!
Just as your Moloch post defined a certain state of man, or a tendency to go to the dark side, this "Z in the Z" describes a similiar drift. And you describe it well. The cause is left out of the equation however.
At the risk of upchucking the 1960's once again, i would reference a song by Country Joe McDonald called "Zombies in a House of Madness" on his "Paris Sessions" album, which was with a mostly 'all girl' band, but not quite. This was after his famous Fish group and somewhat infamous Woodstock appearance. That 1972 album also contains, "Movieola", which is a withering denounciation of the 'hero's journey' as depicted in standard Hollywood film.
As you've referenced the turbulent 2020s echo some of the same themes as 1968, and perhaps even the 1920's. A loss of faith in mans' abilities to create a meaningful purpose for himself and the entire human race typified all three of those eras. If you want to include the post-renassaince era of Rococo Art, i won't complain.