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The majority of zombie narratives paint a post-apocalyptic world wrought with chaos. Aside from Spoiler and Shaun of the Dead, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of returning to social order following a zombie outbreak.  It’s the ultimate form of anarchy, where the social contract ceases to govern the actions of man, all sociopolitical institutions are eradicated, and we find ourselves left in a state of nature. I think that is what I find so interesting about the zombie genre. Unlike other horror films that paint a relative degree of coexistence between the monster and man (yes, I do acknowledge that this generalization does not apply to all horror films across time and space), the zombie epidemic results in the ultimate struggle for mankind to sustain or regain civilization. While Underworld gives me hope that we can live in harmony with vampires or werewolves (sorry, lycans), this is not a possibility in the zombie narrative.
Given the widely accepted construction of the zombie, there is no reasoning with one because it does not have the capacity for reason. Following the outbreak and ultimate spread of the zombie “virus,” chaos and the complete break down of social order would ensue. In this state of nature anything and everything goes, it’s “nasty, brutish, and short” (the only thing I’ll ever remember from Hobbes). I’m always left wondering whether we would even be able to return to some degree of normalcy following such an epidemic. In the state of nature there are no rules or laws governing our actions. There is no grand authority or ultimate truth guiding us. Instead, we are left to our own devices, relying on nothing but our own moral compasses to point us in the right direction. It’s not the zombies that scare me most in this scenario; it’s the other humans. 

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