Zombieland

Dispassionate or apathetic coping skills?

Nerd guy uses boyscout type rules to survive the zombies. He critically analyzes each situation and applies the appropriate rule, then continues his search for a zombieless place. He is the reluctant warrior.

Tough guy kills zombies as catharsis. He's angry and he takes it out on the zombies. Nerd guy realizes that he must let tough guy vent (another addition to his list of rules), or he'll get it aimed at him. I still say he's dispassionate or apathetic about the zombies. He seems to care less about them, he's just using them as opportunities to vent.

Pretty girl long ago realized that anything is permitted in her independent quest for her sister's and her own survival. Instead of destroying things, she leaves them behind.

Little sister is along for the ride and trusts big sister. Sort of like nerd guy.

All are searching for a zombieless place when they meet. The developing relationships between them are worth the gore.

But if tough guy needs something to violently vent at, what would he do if he found a zombieless place? I suppose he would seek a more positive thing to replace that which made him upset in the first place. If he didn't have the zombies though, would he have gotten over the loss and been able to move on?

Nerd guy, with his seeming calm, had previously been immersed in a video game, so his calm could be attributed to the catharsis of virtually killing things in World of War Craft.

Catharsis is set up to be that which enables a person to purge the effects of negative things in their lives. Depression seems to be what happens when those negative effects are kept inside. Healing is seen to take place when a person is able to verbalize their pain, but sometimes a physical action is seen to be helpful too. Is it relative? I have heard that watching Saving Private Ryan was cathartic to veterans of WWII who had never told anyone of the horrors of war. They had kept it in their whole lives. Having the story told by someone else made them cry. Perhaps they took the nobler course. The course of those who patiently wait and then relief comes finally from another source.

But is it possible to be affect-less when painful things are inside? I believe there is a problem of rage and depression in the WWII generation. This has had a cultural effect that could explain the baby boomers of the '60's and my generation, generation X. Not to be too reductionist, but I believe that many of these men, not just the veterans but the ones who were a bit older and younger than they, took out their rage at home, and many of the women superficially dealt with it by denying it which caused them not to relate realistically to others, including their kids. There are other extenuating circumstances, but in talking to my peers, I have noticed similar dysfunction in their families, and one psychologist has written a book about the family dynamics of that generation. I haven't read this book, but a client of his told me some basic things, not all of the nature that I related above.

But if one is killing things virtually, in video games and in stories, isn't one participating in the act to some extent? Plato seems to believe this, and that it contributes to unhealthy passion in one's own life. He concedes though that since there is an innate charm to stories, that it's okay if one doesn't let ones self validate the vicarious experience. I take this to mean that one should not wish revenge and destruction to be had on any real people or things. Perhaps then one can be relieved at the cessation of the causes of pain by attributing the cause to spiritual forces such as demons. It is easy to imagine that the zombies are demons, and that the person they took over is essentially gone. And are we not to be ruthless with demons? The nerd guy even says to one of the newly turned zombies that he realizes that they are sick and that their zombie insatiable cannibalistic behavior is not something that they would normally do. Yet they have to be stopped. The question of self-preservation is brought up, and based on the premise in the movie, it is pointless to sacrifice ones self for the zombie because that person has ceased to exist and if they have their way with you now, you will be forced to become a zombie yourself and perpetuate the illness. Resistance is the only option.

This raises the question of giving up on people. If we look to history, it seems that certain people had to be stopped and that they were not going to repent but continue on a path that would destroy all in their wake. The people who have stopped these destructive people are considered heroes. There are also instances where people have been vilified and destroyed wrongfully. Nowadays people are questioning who were the villains and who were the heroes and coming up with conflicting answers. I suppose people have always disagreed on this, but there is a consensus about Hitler especially that dominates thinking. All of us have to choose what we will allow near our lives and those of the ones we love. These choices are often painful. And what about if someone else has drawn a line between you? Then what to do with the pain? Nice people don't want to hurt others, so do they sock a pillow, go shopping, eat a tub of ice cream, pelt someone in an online forum debate, watch Zombieland, take it out on family members or gossip in a way that makes them temporarily feel better? Is it really possible to hold it in without one of these or another choice of outlets? I think we all engage in these from time to time. This probably makes up a lot of the content of our guilt and confessions to our priest.

Another choice is to escape it all in beautiful things. But we can't seem to escape for very long. Still, I think it is important to get away from the cycle and look at something beautiful in silence or in peace.

But it is likely we will also watch or read something where catharsis is taking place. Perhaps we can grieve and have compassion on the pain of our times that tempts us, if that is how we are going to categorize the reaction, to participate in it. Lord have mercy.