Zombie movies! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!
1. Shaun of the Dead
2. 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later
3. Zombieland
4. Dawn of the Dead Series
(not in any particular order...love 'em all)
As World War Z comes out, I recently started wondering where the fascination for zombies started for me. It could be that my family temple was in Penn Hills, PA and each visit always was followed by a trip to the Monroeville Mall. That's where the Dawn of the Dead movie was filmed. Or perhaps it goes back to my fascination with Ancient Egyptian Mummys and all the scary movies where they come back to life and escape the museum exhibits.
Or perhaps, it's something inherent in human culture.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
In many ways, they are "India's Hawaii". The group of islands are only 93 miles from Indonesia, but have been a part of Indian culture since time immemorial. Both the ancient Tamil Chola kings and the Marathas of medieval India used the site as a naval base. Today, two-thirds of the population consist of Bengalis, Tamils, and Telegus...all ethnic groups that have migrated from mainland India.
However, although the islands have become part of the mainstream Indian culture through migration, assimilation, and acculturation, there are two significant groups of natives that to this day have resisted any contact with the outside world: The Sentinelese and the Jarawa.
In 2006, two outside fishermen who were fishing illegally within range of protected islands were killed by the Sentinelese. The archers from the tribe drove off the helicopter that came to retrieve the bodies. The Indian Supreme Court, protecting the right of the indigenous population, ordered no force to be used and the bodies of the fishermen were never recovered.
That sort of fear...that sort of rejection of others that seem human...that sort of aggression against fellow men...
Are we the Sentinelese's zombies?
Or are the Sentinelese really that different from the rest of us? Don't we have thousands of examples in our history of people
who have feared "humans" that have supposedly ceased to be "human"? Or that are
"human-like", but different from us, and therefore to be feared?
I remember learning a word first from a 7th grade social studies teacher who discussed how the fall of the Roman Empire impacted various groups throughout the land. The fall of a centralized government was a "Zombie-apocalypse" in their time. But the "zombies" were simply other ethnic groups vying for the others lands. Their fear of zombies had another term...
Xenophobia: The fear of others. After the Western Roman Empire collapsed, various groups unified in their fear of everything else. I am not saying this is a "Western European" mindset. I'm stating that, perhaps, this is the status quo with which we see anything that is slightly different.
Because what else would drive the fury behind the Salem Witch Trials or the Inquisition? Or the horror behind the destruction of the native populations of the Americas? The social-purity laws of the Hindu caste system that killed and undermined millions? The decimation of the Greek populations of Asia minor? The horrors faced by Jews during the Holocaust? The discrimination faced by South African aboriginals, Palestinians, and the Ainu? The reason that the French Constitution to this day disenfranchises persons who speak a language that is not "French".
Side-point: The name "French" comes from "Frankish" or the language spoken by the Franks/French. This, in turn, means the language spoken by the "Freemen". To disenfranchise come from the same root words. It means to deprive a "Freeman"
of a legal right or of some privilege or immunity. So what actually happens when the French government decides to "disenfranchise", their own French citizens who speak Alsatian, Breton, Basque, Provencal, the various Langue D'oil, Picard, Occitan, etc....because they're not speak "Francais". How much fucking wood could a woodchuck chuck, if he disliked other woodchucks who could wood chuck like he could...with a lot of irony?
Anyway, I describe this hatred and disgust of others to be a "Zombie-affect". I call that whenever any group of people experiences a hatred, fear, or anger towards another group of people because they see the others as "formerly-human" or "human-like".
I had a Hindu Guru in my hometown who told me about Hindu-Muslim riots when he was young. He told me about an incident when he was young when his family heard loud noises on their street, right outside their home. A Hindu mob was going to burn down the home and bakery of a local Muslim family. His brother marched out into the street.
The Muslim family cowered in a corner of a street, terrified for their lives. My Guru's brother said: "Before you burn this bakery. You must burn me."
There were catcalls and angry voices. There were scoldings that he was not a Muslim, but a Hindu and he should step aside. My Guru's brother never moved an inch. In time, the gang dispersed and everything was left unharmed.
My Guru's brother saw things differently from the mobsters: We are all humans. We are all deserving of life, freedom, respect, and love.
But we can also choose to live a life where every interaction with someone different from us is a "Zombie Movie". That they are people to be feared or reviled.
In the Hindu story of creation, like most religions, Man is created from both earth and divine inspiration. And as humans, we are born with a choice of which set of eyes we will choose to the world.
We can either choose to see things at face-value and fear what we do not recognize. Or we can choose to see things with divine eyes. We can choose to see the spirit that moves us all.
If we choose the former, we will always be plagued by zombies. Gays, Lesbians, Christians, Atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics, Blacks, Whites, Asians, Hispanics, etc.
Perhaps until we get over our own zombies...we have no reason to expect anything but fear from the Sentinelese and the Jarawa.
For how can we prove to a people that there is nothing to fear, if we are our own zombies?
Appa: It's wrong to turn away people who have come searching out your home, especially those who have your best intentions. Veedu thedi vandhuvangakku oru pacha thanni kodu tharulana, namallukku miringukku yenna vidyaasam? If we don't give even a cup of water to someone who seeks out our home, what difference does it make between us and animals?
Appa: We are all free to live as we choose as long as we cause no harm and share love. God is love personified, no? That love is why, whether they are a missionary or not, I always welcome a well-intentioned stranger into my home.
