The Economic Zombie ApocalypseGary Gibson According to Clemson University professor Sarah Lauro in a recent AP article: We are more interested in the zombie at times when as a culture we feel disempowered. And the facts are there that, when we are experiencing economic crises, the vast population is feeling disempowered. Either playing dead themselves or watching a show like Walking Dead provides a great variety of outlets for people. If you were to ask the participants, I dont think that all of them are very cognizant of what theyre saying when they put on the zombie makeup and participate. To me, its such an obvious allegory. We feel like, in one way, were dead. The growing popularity of the genre, along with the popularity of these zombie crawls, may reflect something deeper about people in general. Sure, the average brainwashed Westerner doesnt understand liberty or economics. But they sense something is amiss. They may not know enough to blame the state and its violent interference for their economic condition. But many people probably sense that they are economically the walking dead. But its not just debt weighing these people down. Whats possibly worse is that they also have no clue how to generate wealth on their own. They may be able to take orders, but starting new ventures, figuring out market demand and profiting from filling it? Fat chance. They have varying degrees of dependence on either the government or on an employer the government is trying to snuff out under mountains of new regulations and taxes. Or theyre employed by bigger corporate zombie beasts. Zombie apocalyptic fiction reflects our fear that our neighbors will en masse turn into hordes of mindless collectivist devourers capable only of tearing civilization apart. Zombies just arent scary as individuals or in a small group. Sure they are sad and depressing, wandering around as murderous, dim-witted shadows of their former selves. But they just arent that dangerous unless they vastly outnumber the local population of living humans. Thus the most effective zombie fiction always takes the apocalyptic route in which for every still-living human, there are at least a hundred times as many ravenous undead. And thats precisely where we are today. If you are productive and forward-thinking, you are being surrounded by growing numbers of those who want to eat you. Take steps to inoculate yourself against the infection and the infected here. Gary Gibson, The Dollar Vigilantes Editor, cut his teeth writing for liberty and profit as the managing editor of the now-defunct Whiskey Gunpowder financial newsletter. He now writes for and edits The Dollar Vigilante. In his capacity as managing editor of TDVs monthly subscription letter TDV Homegrown, Gary insists on playing Russian Roulette by basing himself in the USSA heartland. He braves arctic blasts and black helicopters so he can round up content on how the TDV readers stuck in the USSA can best survive and profit in the increasingly turbulent times in the morally and financially bankrupt empire. linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 