The
Walking Dead has become a cross over phenomenon, making the very
difficult transition from popular comic book to popular television
show. The success of both can be found in good writing that tears at
the heart of the human person. It is Lord of the Flies writ
large.
For
those unfamiliar, The Walking Dead follows Georgia Sheriff
Rick Grimes as he tries to lead a small band of survivors through the
remains of a world ravaged by a zombie apocalypse. The story is not
actually about zombies. The undead are merely the Sitz
im Leben of
the characters who scramble for survival. The story is instead about
the very real human drama and is about what human
beings become when society collapses.
METAPHYSICS
The
world of The Walking Dead appears to be one of random chaos.
At this point in both the television show and in the comics, no
overall governing force, be it God or fate or karma, has a hand in
the events of the story. This is particularly felt in the way the
show approaches death. Often when someone dies it is unexpected,
violent, and senseless leading to now greater good. When Obi-Wan
dies in Star Wars, we see it as a necessary step for him to become a
hero. When (SPOILER ALERT) Dumbledore dies, we can see how that was
a necessary step in the chain of events that bring about a greater
good.
But
there never appears to be a greater good in The Walking Dead.
Things go from bad to worse with short pitstops in “not getting
worse at the moment.” God is silent. There is no karmic justice,
only the scramble for continuing life as horrible as it is.
Everything that happens in the story is random and meaningless. The
characters change, but they do not grow. This is impossible because
there is nothing for them to grow into.
ANTHROPOLOGY
This
is the biggest focus of the entire series. What is man? At our
core, who are we? Particularly, when the chips are down, how do we
act. The Joker in The Dark Knight said that people are only
as good as society allows them to be, but if it came down to it, they
would eat each other. In The Walking Dead that is literally what
happens.
It
is of particular note that the story is not about the zombie outbreak
per se. Any cataclysm would suffice, be it natural disaster, alien
invasion, wrath of God, or what have you. Rick wakes up after the
initial onset of the problem and is left to cope with the aftermath.
What he finds are survivors riddled with fear who feel forced to do
horrible things. The point that the series is trying to make is that
man, left to his own devices, is pretty evil.
This
is purely the anthropology of Thomas Hobbes. He believe that the
human condition is one of selfishness and savagery. In his book, the
Leviathan, he said, “In
such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit
thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no
navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea;
no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such
things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth;
no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is
worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the
life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
— "Chapter
XIII.: Of the Natural Condition of Mankind As Concerning Their
Felicity, and Misery.",
Leviathan
What
he is trying to say is that we all want the satisfaction of our
desires. We want to kill, dominate, steal, and indulge in any
bestial vice we can imagine. The only reason why we do not is
because of society. Hobbes described what he called “social
contract theory.” In this case, even though I want bash in my
neighbor's house and steal his car, I agree not to. In exchange he
agrees not to do the same to me and my comic book collection. We all
have collective guns to our heads, and if anyone breaks the contract,
we come down hard on them with punishment. Thus, we do not need to
live in constant fear that anyone anywhere is a potential marauder
But
in The Walking Dead, the contract is null and void because
society has collapsed. Human society consists of either nomadic
tribes or tiny fiefdoms In this brave new world, it is survival of
the most violent. We watch Rick's slow decent to brute, dictator,
avenger, and killer (even to the point of ripping out someone's
throat with his own teeth). And all of this fits with this mad world
the writers of the series have created. To be sure, the characters
strive to be more than mere survivalists. But they fail again and
again and again. Man is a beast. We are live as long as we can and
then die. Or as Rick so pointedly put it: “WE are the Walking
Dead.”
EPISTEMOLOGY
Admittedly,
there is very little to go on here. And I believe that is part of
the point. No one knows anything. No one knows how the apocalypse
started. No one knows how to cure it. No one knows how to survive
in this world. Science, religion, philosophy, government, family,
reason, intuition... none of these can guide you. There is no expert
in this place, only people who haven't yet died.
ETHICS
With
the Hobbesian view of anthropology comes a Hobbesian ethics. Strong
governance is needed for peace. But there can be no strong
governance with the world in shatters.
In
the world of The Walking Dead, there are no moral heroes.
There are no saints. When the characters are confronted with a moral
question, the result is usually the breaking of another commandment
and the slow killing of their consciences.
Take
the storyline from the television show when the survivors save the
life of one of their attackers. Zombies come to get him and our main
characters do the decent thing and save him. But coming to realize
that he is a potential security threat, many of them decide to kill
him. Only one person, Dale, tries to convince everyone that murder
is wrong. But almost everyone is too far gone to see that. You can
feel Dale's exasperation as he clings desperately to his humanity but
cannot help see it slip away.
In
The Walking Dead there is no right and wrong. There is only
alive and dead. One of the only reason we continue to stay with the
main characters is because the world is too full of people more
savage. Particularly the Governor leaves an indelibly mark of
sadistic power gone mad. Rick and his followers stay together
because the designs of people like the Governor are less likely to
fall on them if they stick together. But the odds are not in their
favor. The clock ticks. And the inevitability of death awaits.
CONCLUSION
I
have to be fair and say that with a series that is not complete,
there is a chance I have misread some of its philosophy. There is
still time to turn the story around. If JK Rowling had stopped
writing Deathly Hallows after Harry goes into the forbidden forrest,
the philosophy of the Potter books would be quite different.
But
I think that after 100 issues and 2 seasons, we have a fairly good
handle on its themes.
This
is not to say that this is a bad show or comic. Like the greatest
book I have ever read, The Lord of the Flies, The Walking
Dead forces you to answer a question: under what circumstances
could you become a monster? That question has haunted me most of my
life. I hope that I would be brave and be a moral hero.
But
in the world of The Walking Dead, the only saints are martyrs.
I like your analysis and think it is quite thoughtful. I have only watched the first season and played episode 1 and 2 of the game (which Kirkman has input on) but I get a different read on what I have seen. The world seems hobbesian but the main characters themselves are never reduced to Hobbes brutish "war against all" state. Because the main characters remain civil despite the lack of civilization, it almost appears to be dialogue about the nature of man between Hobbes and Locke, with Hobbes representing the world but the characters (who the story is really about) representing Locke's anthropology. Again, I have yet to read the comic or see season 2 of the show so I may be working off of too little data. Just one person's thoughts
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is how they start. But as the story progresses in the comic and soon to be seen in the show, I think you will see what I did too.
ReplyDelete