Saturday, April 6, 2013

Blessed are the vigilant for they shall survive a zombie attack.


As the ruling council of the Muir survivors we think a shared belief system is vital for group unity and moral. Finding shared ground is not going to be simple like in the pre-apocalyptic world whether one does or does not believe in God will vary. People who believed in God before the apocalypse might have a crisis of faith and stop believing and those that had no belief in God prior to the apocalypse might take the zombie's as proof of God's existence. Predicting people's religious response to apocalypse is difficult if not impossible. For this reason we that a unifying  belief system most probably not involve God at all. We think that this will be more of a philosophical system than a religious one, beliefs that neither support nor refute the existence of God. We see a shift in the values we have now to an emphasis on values that are important in a post apocalyptic world. A set of guidelines similar to the 10 Commandments but with an emphasis on safety and human survival.  Maybe Thou shalt only steal what you need to survive and Thou shalt only covet thy neighbors wife if you are 100% sure your neighbor is dead. Rather than standard Bible parables or Aesop's fables children will be taught life  lessons through modified stories like "Boy Who Cried Horde" and "The Prodigal Zombie" We think that their will be a definite emphasis on hard work and community survival. The people who will be the most revered in this belief system are the people with the most valuable skills Farming, hunting, medical training etc.  The goal of this system should be to give people common ground and to instruct people on  how best to stay alive.

1 comment:

  1. First of all, awesome visual - Jesus AS the last supper, rather than just in it. Brutal. As a zombie, I don't think I personally can say that I'd be subscribing to such a belief system as the one you outline here. I do think, however, that from the perspective of ruling council, you've laid out some really nice, really practical ideas. Naturally you are going to see a nose-dive in religious belief following something like a world-wide zombie catastrophe; but whether it's religion taken in the more traditional, theological sense, some new form of nationalism, or an entirely different ideological configuration altogether, you are going to need to find or construct a new dominant ideology to link people together, to establish rapport, foster docility, bolster productivity, and maintain control. Belief in a common *something* is essential to the functioning of community, whether that something is god, the nation, the village, the people, or something else. I think your approach recognizes a lot of the important communal functions that something that a belief system like a shared religion serves for keeping people in line without resorting to explicitly totalitarian means while also recognizing that the content of that overarching belief system is contingent, and can be (re)adjusted based on particular needs.

    ReplyDelete