Z-Day (Or, “Was that a bang?” “Naw. More like a whimper.”)
Just so you know, Romero was right.
If you’re one of those chuckleheads waiting for the Zombie Apocalypse so you can show off how tough you are? You’d better cowboy up right now.
The zombies are here. I think they call them, “Sheeple” these days on this Internet thing, and the gray matter they eat is rational thinking.
Over the past few months I’ve watched fast moving zombies and slow moving zombies spew party lines from every sector, and to tell you the truth, I’m scared to death.
I’ve looked at my children and wanted to apologize to them for launching them into this meltdown. They didn’t ask to be here, and all we can do as parents is give them the strength to handle what might come next.
What that will be? I don’t know. I have my suspicions, and many of them are formed on what went down in Germany in 1933.
See, history always repeats itself. I believe the exact phrase is, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
And people just never learn.
The self-righteous folk spew hate (and I’m looking at all of them here, not just the “Religious Right”), and the apathetic sit by thinking that none of it could be dangerous, because they’re “just words,” and in the end the loudest ones with the best speech writers won’t even have to launch a single weapon.
The hordes are shuffling along behind them unable to think for themselves anymore. They let the folks with the biggest financial wangs tell them how to vote, what to think, and how to feel (which, in case you’re not paying attention, is panicked), and what I’m seeing is the kind of fear that allows for the most charismatic to mold otherwise good people into massive automatons.
The kind that might not march on Poland but will certainly trample those they once called neighbors.
My stockpile will not be canned goods and weapons. My stockpile will be books and willpower. My defense will be my refusal to accept without facts, and I will be teaching that to my children. I will be teaching them how to say, “No, this isn’t right.” I will be teaching them to reach their hand out to their “enemies” to help them up. To stand as a human being, if that even means anything anymore.
I will be teaching them not to bend over and grab ankles for anyone. I will be showing them how to brace themselves for the wave of irrationality to come.
I will be teaching them The Golden Rule and hoping they spread the word.
I will show them how to think for themselves, even if that ultimately means we disagree.
So, to those who spread fear, I have to say it’s working on many levels right now. But I do have a message for you.
“We” are rational. “We” don’t blindly accept everything we hear. “We” educate ourselves.
And “We” won’t fall.
9 Responses to “Z-Day (Or, “Was that a bang?” “Naw. More like a whimper.”)”
Are You Gonna Eat That? by Julie Summerell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Unfortunately, the people you’re talking about say the exact same thing about us, ha-ha.
Too true.
I think courses in Critical Thinking should be every bit as required as Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic when it comes to educating our kids. As if that could ever happen.
I absolutely agree.
Well said Julie! I wish I could harness my rage enough to write something constructive and thoughtful on the situation but alas, my anger overtakes any rational thought and I fear becoming just like ‘them’. The use of ‘them’ to describe any group of people is exactly the kind of behavior and language I would like to avoid but I find myself so confused and flabbergasted that I throw my hands in the air shouting “I don’t understand what ‘they’ are thinking!”
And I don’t. I won’t.
I used to be able to see at least some rationale for opinions that countered my own. Especially ones based in fact. When an argument is based on imagination and fantasy its hard to respond with facts to sway anyone’s opinion. I’m left angry, confused, and thinking that there is nothing that I can do to help.
My wife complains that I’m a fixer. I’m unable to simply listen to her problems, I’m always wanting to “fix” them. Sometimes she doesn’t want a fixer. She just wants someone to listen. I find that when I read the paper or (god forbid) internet commenters I have this desire to “fix” them. To let them know the facts of the situation don’t support their opinions. Why bother?
I think you’ve got it right. Forget about this generation. Its lost. I’ve got a baby at home now and my only responsibility is him. All I can do is prepare him for this world, as terrifying as that has become.
My mother agrees that this generation is lost, and I’m starting to.
I think each generation has figured they’d be the ones to change the world for the better, but what seems to happen is that the good, kind people aren’t loud enough. It’s just not in their nature.
I’m a “fixer” too, so my frustration has been sky high.
wonderful post julie… i am so disappointed in things here in NY right now… i just don’t get it, but maybe i do get it and it terrifies me.
ozzie learned a very intense lesson last year… that it is worse to stand by and watch someone be bullied, than to actually BE the bully. he totally gets that. he knows how hard it is. and he knows it is the only way to be, no matter what.
i just hope that i am producing 2 more people who will do the right thing. live by the golden rule. and change others around them.
The golden rule would solve everything if everyone applied it. It’s perfectly simple, and absolutely perfect.
Oh man, do I ever hear you, Julie. My husband and I live in Texas and let’s just say we don’t fit in well here. We get so frustrated with the general population here. Frustrated to the point we plan on getting the hell out of Texas as soon as we can.
I’m with Eric in that it’s difficult to even talk about this without my blood pressure shooting through the roof. All I can say is that I wish people would apply a little more logic to some of their views. At least then we could attempt to start a rational conversation.