Zombie Apocalypse (Will You Be Able To Survive with Zombies?) Part 3

So a final perspective of what we would be like in a world of well, zombies...It got me thinking, aside from soul-less individuals marching along investment banks and profiteering firms, or fighting distorted beings from God knows where, I thought, what if we were immortal? (Like the vampires in Twilight who stopped aging the moment they reached a peak?) The idea of everlasting youth and immortality has always been of perpetual interest to many, especially scientists, healthcare professionals and now, Hollywood. Zombies as immortal beings? Hmmm...

Sure, the notion of living forever is an infectious one. Who doesn't want to live forever (assuming perfect living conditions, that is)? In the film, Snow White and the Huntsman, a modern take and remake of the classic fairy tale which depicted Charlize Theron as the evil queen looking to be the fairest in the land, and Kristen Stewart to be Snow White, we got a rough picture of how this pursuit would look like. It was set in a context that you couldn't simply 'live forever', but you had to fight for it. The queen was seeking to kill Snow White to obtain her heart, as only then would she remain young and beautiful forever. 

Now applying that concept into the modern context of our society, you would realize that we've actually been subscribing to this ideology for quite a while. Hollywood has been an epitome of this postulation, where our beloved celebrities are virtually ageless. 

Think about it, except for maybe maybe Olivia Newton John, everyone has stagnated at a certain physical age for the longest time! 

The likes of Madonna, Cher, Kylie Minogue...even Jane Fonda, Tina Turner and of course, Jennifer Lopez, have all shown the traits of defying the effects of the clock and in actuality, reversing them. It comes as no surprise why you hear people saying 'Oh, Madonna's a zombie, or zombie arms...Cher's coffin is made of her body parts material'. 

But hey! We still love them don't we? We're still paying hundreds of dollars out of our hard-earned salary to see the Queen of Pop prance around from platform to platform clad in Jean Paul Gaultier, and watching the beloved actresses like Meryl and Helen perform their best on set.

She's like close to 70 now...

Look at her! Is her face made of porcelain now?!

You can tell JLo has actually been becoming more beautiful with age, but it's quite clear Courtney's face has been frozen...Is this process then known as 'zombification'? Is our endless pursuit of youth actually a bane? Should we stop this inherently pernicious process and age gracefully as nature intended, or simply all become 'zombies' who stay at a certain age with frozen facial muscles? 

I would presume a balance should be struck. Be conscious and look after your health and well being, and a natural glow and flow of energy will soon ensue. I'd say the more artificial material we input (toxins if you like) into our systems, the more our bodies will actually react negatively, only to bring about a counter-productive state of being. Cheers to a natural path to 'zombification'.

Zombie Apocalypse (Will You be Able to Survive with Zombies?) Part 2

Well another perspective commonly undertaken when the requirement of analyzing our society in a world of 'zombies' arises happens to be well, actual zombies like those depicted by our all time favorite Resident Evil!

I had some Eureka moment when I caught the sequel Resident Evil: Retribution, last week on HBO. Whilst licking Nutella and peanut butter straight out from their jars and coupling them with walnuts, I saw how the creative directors of the show placed Alice (Milla Jovovich), the protagonist clad in a tight leather suit with fabulous heels to match (satirically deemed as an S&M outfit by another female character in the show), in an environment where the 'Red Queen' a computerized villain arranged a mass lock down and an entire plan to hunt her down. It was intriguing because you never thought zombie personnel could be so...well technologically advanced.

Remember in the old days when we thought they would just rise from graveyards and scare the hell out of citizens walking on the streets? Well as Google advances with Facebook, apparently so does their population. 

With reference to the 'Red Queen' villain in the show, it kinda got me thinking, what if our world really does end up in a situation, except that our 'Red Queen' happens to be our communist/dictator/fascist government leaders? I mean, if you don't subscribe to any of their 'prized philosophies', then you become an 'Alice' and will be hunted down by various massacre trails. What if  sovereign funds, funds that you actually contribute to via essential taxes and other forms of COMPULSORY SAVINGS, are actually covertly invested in some form of software that will build an entire faculty of 'Red Queens'?

Is it at all conceivable that we are digging our own graves simply by doing so? I'd imagine...a world, when plagued with issues like food shortages and natural disasters, when resources fall to an all time low, that the remaining sane number of us (probably a very low level) will have to, like how Alice's team of alliances, stick together as one last fighting unit to confer resistance to an evil that appears somehow unstoppable. It is when our human instincts of support in times of extreme scarcity come in most handy. It is when, like Alice, we have to believe that it is still possible to save a life when the timer is totally not in your favor.

Would you have such a tenacity in times of need? .

Zombie Apocalypse (Will You Be Able To Survive with Zombies?)

You know, with all the talk on 'The Apocalypse' or a time in which we are surrounded by a slew of unfortunate and devastating events such as natural disasters, wars and total intolerance, it has led some of us think, what would happen to us humans? The term 'zombies' was thus coined and we have seen several blockbusters trying to define what it could actually mean. From the likes of Resident Evil to The Walking Dead, it really gets us thinking sometimes, what would we actually be like, during the end times?

My first interpretation is in the form of, well, emotionless beings who have no room for soul or compassion. Why so? Think about it, with so much emphasis on material success and using that as a quantifiable measure of how well we are in life, it is no wonder we have people from all walks of life striving - sometimes a little too hard - to climb an academic or corporate ladder. This results in the relentless paper chase and pursuit of the Franklin, at the expense of the very intangible. 

In fact, there might not be so much a requirement of an imagination, since we are actually nearly there. But for entertainment sake, just imagine a social environment, where everyone's eyes are simply glued on to Bloomberg and Wall Street with perpetual trepidation and worry; or a constant scanning of theoretical materials that might only translate into well, zero application in society - like say a review on Constitutional Law? Ok, perhaps that's pushing the boundaries a bit too far, but hey, you really think Human Rights lawyers make as much as their corporate counterparts? (I guess it's something everyone knows but is afraid to say. So let's say the un-sayable)

So every corner you turn, it's Singapore vs Australia. You have people not greeting you and in fact giving you a xenophobic stare. You have kids reading up on advanced calculus at the tender age of 5. You have teens attempting to boost their physical attractiveness (and perhaps other aspects) to be in line with the Darwinian theory of evolution; to 'ensure the continuity of their species'. And you have university undergrads killing each other in lecture theaters and pitching tents at the college library. 

Need we go into the workplace? Well i guess that's where the atmosphere reaches its peak doesn't it? I'm not too sure whether the Registry of Marriages might face a severe shortfall in clients, since, if everyone man fends only for himself, then the juxtaposition of that with the aforementioned Darwinian theory warrants only the biological process of intercourse, and marriage is derogated to a mere signing of a contract (a theory in which I personally subscribe to).

Sounds harsh huh? But I guess this version of the 'Apocalypse' is what we might, as a society, be heading towards. If there's going to be any change, it best start with us...