Why does everyone seem to be obsessed with zombies these days?
Everyone sometimes wishes a drastic change in their life, an apocalypse, one that it is relatively possible to fight back against has its appeal.
A dramatic change in your lifestyle, no more chains to stop you from doing whatever you want to do and a lifetime worth of extreme adventure. (adventures can be horribly swift, but ofc that happens only to other people)
What do they say about the world we live in?
Possibly that a large portion of our civilisation feels oppressed, enslaved and locked into the cycle of everyday life. People are simply not as happy with things as they used to be.
How are they connected with geopolitics and the modern zeitgeist specifically?
I do not think they're connected to geopolitics, however I do see that the majority of people who are into zombies are from "western countries". I noticed they're a lot less common a topic amongst my gaming buddies from countries that do not fit that criteria. I think i answered the time ghost a bit with the previous question though so I will just refer to that as my answer and that perhaps some difference between our societies causes us to feel more attracted to apocalyptic scenarios that would force one to break the cycle of everyday life.
Can they be categorized as an archetype springing out of the collective unconscious? Are they satire, a warning, or merely scary fun?
No, zombies and the resurrected dead is a theme that has long been a popular theme. I think minds dwelled there first as people tried to one up each other with creepy campfire stories to scare each other of someone ate the wrong shrooms or whatever and it began to become a popular theme of the somewhat darker topics.
Also why is The Walking Dead so popular?
I think it is because all these characters have their own pre-TWD stories. they used to be regular people who suddenly were forced to find a way to survive in extraordinary circumstances. This makes them heroes of a sort and the theme of an ordinary person becoming a hero is a rather appealing concept to most minds as can be proven by the overwhelming amount of superhero stuff. TWD kinda has a similar appeal. You get to see ordinary people, put into a situation, they have to survive through it and their attempt at doing so makes that ordinary person a bit of a hero. And perhaps we all kinda want to be a bit of a hero ourselves.
lastly, do you like zombies, or are you getting a little tired of them as I am?
Oh they creep me out, but I love zombie movies. Possibly for the reasons I mentioned before, no more obligations, just surviving the here and now. No more worries about how you'll end up in life etc.
Like 28 days later? Could that really happen? Fast zombie people?
Perhaps a little bit differently, I think dead will truly mean dead. But let's say someone manages to make something that affects the brains and causes extreme homicidal aggression, suppresses rational thought and has an extreme infection rate. Would that not be what defines most zombies ? In that case, does it not sound relatively easy to make a plague that does this ? Perhaps though if it is not it is because all known things that cause these things are incompatible. But we all know that sooner or later someone finds out how to do what we deemed impossible. So it might then become possible at some point to cross vectors that were previously incompatible, and as luck would have it, these days people can make their own pathogens in their basements if they have the know how.
