Why People Like Zombies

Why People Like Zombies

By Kristin Kinsey

Introduction – What’s up with the apocalypse?

The words “apocalypse” and “end of the world” have been ever-present in our culture in the past few years, showing up in movies, novels, and television shows. Particularly popular have been those involving zombies. What is the appeal of this popular zombie apocalypse? Why are people obsessed with shows like “The Walking Dead” that depict a desolated world inhabited by the undead and a few survivors? The answer to these questions is simple, but the implications of how they relate to life are extensive.

The zombie apocalypse is appealing because of the appearance of freedom. People like the idea that they decide their fates; that they will survive if they fight hard enough, and that they can rid the world of the influence of the undead. People also like the idea that there are no laws except their own, that they can kill without consequences, and that they can rule the world. In a zombie apocalypse, people have something they can actively fight, which is why an asteroid, a killer plague, or an ice age are not as popular causes of the world’s end.

Why are people drawn to fighting zombies? I believe it is because they want to be actively involved in their own salvation. The zombie apocalypse is a horrific, real-world analogy for the spiritual battles we fight on our way to heaven. Much like the goal of a apocalypse survivor is “don’t become a zombie,” the goal of a good person is “don’t become evil.”

Are zombies free? (The nature of appetite, the proprium, and freedom)

In this analogy, zombies are our propriums. As Arcana Coelestia says, “All the will side of the human proprium is evil” (AC 10035). In other words, what we want from ourselves is evil. Later, the same passage goes on to say, “Flesh means…in the contrary sense the will side of the human proprium, which consists in the evil of [self] love” and earlier the Arcana says, “’to feed with flesh’ means to be gorged with their own evil” (AC 8409). How perfect is that for this analogy? The sole goal of a zombie’s existence is the pursuit of human flesh to devoir – the sole goal of our propriums is to fulfill the appetite of self-love.

The appetite of self-love is evil. It refers to serving oneself over others and not recognizing the importance of being good. Animals and people are similar in that they share this appetite. However, animals and people differ in that people “have the faculty of raising their understanding into…wisdom and…of raising the will into…heavenly love” (CL 230). Unlike animals, we can learn truth, or wisdom, and by means of it, rise above the natural appetites of our propriums. Furthermore, “no human being is ever deprived of these faculties” – no person ever loses the ability to learn truth and love good (CL 230). This is a kind of freedom that the Lord gave everyone and it is the mechanism by which we can choose heaven or hell. In other words, we don’t have to be zombies if we don’t want to be.

Why do zombie-fighters appear free? (The nature of appearances and two kinds of freedom)

But what draws people to the zombie apocalypse is not the freedom of being a zombie. It is the freedom of fighting zombies. Fighting zombies, though less obviously so, is actually still the pursuit of something evil.

There are two kinds of freedom, heavenly and infernal freedom. The first has already been described; it comes from the Lord. When people are in a love of good and want to do the right thing, they perceive heavenly freedom as freedom itself. However, “those who are in a love of evil have no other perception than that infernal freedom is freedom itself” (DP 43). Infernal freedom is not real freedom. It is the appearance of freedom that arises from satisfying the appetite of self-love. The more people are in the love of evil and the pursuit of self-love, which are infernal freedom, the less heavenly freedom they possess.

Zombie fighters are after infernal freedom. They want to kill without consequences, live by no one’s rules but their own, and ultimately take over the world. This, in general, is more appealing than the alternative. But the more they, or we, indulge in infernal freedom, the less heavenly freedom they have. This is why there is an alternative role in the zombie apocalypse – the people who holes up and help others. These people are in heavenly freedom, but also in temptation.

So how do we fight zombies? (Temptation, combat, and more freedom)

“Holing up and helping people? But I want to fight!” Few people want to be the character that sits at home and cooks or bandages the wounded while others are out defending themselves and killing zombies. We want to be actively involved in our salvation, after all! These two types of people are examples of two belief systems when it comes to fighting evil. The second, who goes out and fights zombies himself, is believing that we, lowly, natural people have the ability to take on evils of every kind. This is valuing prudence over the Lord, and believing that we alone are more powerful than our propriums. Holing up and helping people like the first character does, while less glamorous, is the belief that the Lord fights evil and without Him, we become zombies.

Additionally, if we are out fighting zombies by ourselves, having adopted the belief that we can take on all of hell, we run a huge risk of becoming the zombies we are fighting. If we are in close proximity to zombies, we will inevitably become infected. If we think we can fight evil alone, we become evil ourselves because we deny the Lord’s power and role in our salvation.

Evils plague us in the form of temptations, “a combat between the internal…man and the external…man, thus between the delights of the internal man and those of the external man” (AC Index 20). Temptation is the battle between zombies and survivors, between the proprium and truth, and between evil and good. Luckily, “in every temptation there is freedom, although it does not appear so” (NJHD 200). This freedom is heavenly freedom from the Lord; therefore our ability to fight temptation comes from the Lord. We do none of it except that we allow His truth to fight through us. This is like the passage in Arcana Coelestia that says:

            When a person practices self-compulsion and sets himself against the evil and falsity that are implanted and prompted by evil spirits, more freedom is present than there would be in any state outside those times of temptation, though the person cannot comprehend it (1937).

The freedom described here, heavenly freedom, produces in us the “will to subdue evil” which is so much stronger than every evil because it comes from the Lord. This will, the will of the Lord, takes the place of the evil will in our propriums – in this way it appears that freedom comes from us, but in actuality, it comes from the Lord. This is how it makes sense that “the Lord alone combats for man in temptations, and man does not combat at all from himself” (NJHD 200). “Himself” is his proprium. The only way to fight the proprium and the ensuing temptation is by letting the Lord fight through us.

How does fighting zombies relate to salvation? (Dead churches, judgments, and even more freedom)

As we know, churches are composed of people. When people try to fight zombies and end up becoming them, so does the church they comprise. “When a church is without good and consequently without truth of faith (that is, when it has been vastated) it is said to be ‘dead’” (AC 3900). This occurs when the Lord and His truth is no longer acknowledged (AC 3652). Trying to fight temptation for ourselves is denying the Lord, so when the people within a church are trying to do this, the church dies as do its people: “Those within a vastated church…have externals, but no internals.” In other words, they become zombies.

There is a difference, however, between a dead church and undead people. A dead church no longer has anything in it that will help people get to heaven. People, on the other hand, no matter how evil, have a chance at heaven until they die.

Among the zombies of a dying church there is a remnant, the people who holed up and didn’t get zombified. This is demonstrated in the Arcana when it says, “’But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved’ signifies the salvation of those who are in charity…who do not succumb to temptation” (AC 3487). Even in a dead church there are a few survivors. Those survivors are still in charity, even when all else is, quite literally, going to hell. These survivors, if they allow the Lord to fight temptation and “flee to the hills” (Matt. 24:16), become the foundation for a new church after a judgment takes place.

So why does a judgment take place? Once again, the answer is freedom. Temptation only happens when a person practices self-compulsion, adopts good and truth in his life, and sets himself against evil and falsity. It is in this state that freedom increases. So if a person is not in temptation because he has accepted evil and falsity in place of good and truth, his freedom decreases. Churches fall when the people in them either develop “the love of having dominion over all things of the church and of heaven…[or] the separation of faith from charity” (AE 741). These things come from accepting evil and falsity and subsequently snuffing out freedom. The Lord values freedom above all else, which is why the real reason judgments occur is to preserve it, even when the church would rather have the appearance of freedom, infernal freedom, over heavenly freedom.

Why would anyone prefer infernal freedom over heavenly freedom? While this could be a paper unto itself, I think the simple answer is that it is easier to be a zombie than a survivor. It is easier to give in to the proprium than to give in to the Lord. Even among the survivors, it is usually more appealing to go out and fight, which will inevitably lead to becoming a zombie, than to sit at home and help others. But no one ever said getting into heaven was easy.

Conclusion – So…what’s up with the apocalypse?

How we view the apocalypse and our role in it determines how we live our lives and where we go when we die. In the zombie-apocalypse scenario, there are three options: zombie, fighter, or helper. One is totally evil, one is on his way to becoming evil, and the last is saved. We know it is wrong to be evil, to value and follow our appetite of self-love over the truth – no one wants to be a zombie. The alternative seems to be a fighter. Zombies are bad so we fight them. Our propriums are evil so we fight them. This gives us an appearance of freedom, of control in our salvation, but in fact is infernal freedom which will lead to hell. This is because “falsity…is induced from the fallacies of the senses and external appearances” (AC 3901). What appears to be total freedom is a fallacy, a falsity. So in order to get to heaven, we need to go with the third option, the helper. Being a helper is the only way to have real, heavenly freedom, to be totally safe when the zombies attack and become the remnant and foundation of a new church. Our job in the zombie apocalypse of salvation should be to hole up - resist temptation, help others, and let the Lord and His truth do the fighting.