Ethics in an Apocalypse

By BARCODE 2x

You can talk about disaster preparedness. Our research here at a2ethics.org has revealed our government's basic response to that: you're on your own. In the event of a major disaster, you will have to fend for yourself. There are so few resources to even deal with the minor disasters. If millions of Americans cannot even receive health care, how are we going to deal with tidal waves, earthquakes, meteors, sunflares, and other untold horrors?

The coming film season is dominated by ultra-disaster films such as Zombieland, 2012, The Road, and others. We'll look at those three for starters.

The Zombie Apocalypse scenario is the least plausible, but the most metaphorical and eerie. Films such as Night of the Living Dead and Shawn of the Dead seem to suggest that our world is already in a Zombie Apocalypse.The idea is that we are kind of dead already. Spiritually, or philosophically dead. Our jobs, our culture, have all numbed us to the point that we are walking around, and our lives are meaningless.  The  films depict regular people sleepwalking through their day, and no one really even notices them until they begin attacking people with brutal, if sloppy, force.

The genre has turned itself towards more serious topics as well, as in the excellent 28 Days Later. This zombie/vampire scenario creates an imaginary epidemic of rage, which infects Europe and lays its citizens to waste. The Vampire genre suggests another kind of apocalypse, one where the rich and powerful dominate us, corrupt us and control us. Those stories tend to be more intimate, though we shall see what emerges. Vampire films suggest plagues, AIDS, rampant disease, and its costly cures.

In Zombieland, a film which we are not actually scheduled to review here, Woody Harrelson leads a group of teens on a quest to stop the living dead who roam the country. In the film, television has exploited the event, showcasing "Zombie Kill of the Week." As in Shawn of the Dead, the zombies become the ultimate lowest-class citizen, and are exploited on television, made into slaves and put on display as circus freaks, after the epidemic is more or less contained. This is the most plausible aspect of the Zombie Apocalypse scenario, and points to the main problem, in my mind: the exploitation.

If the end of the world is coming, then so be it. What worries me more is the panic that could ensue when various corporate, government, media and religious organizations join in to exploit the disaster. Corporations will sell us lifejackets and survival kits. Government will fail us, as we have seen with Hurricane Katrina and other major disasters. The media loves things like this, and Hollywood has really gone wild marketing this season of ultra-disaster. Religious groups will no doubt cash in like sharks in a frenzy. Fear is a great marketing tool and cash cow.

This has been a tough time for organized religion. I personally have never seen so many signs and junk mail advertising for new churches. I never saw church as a thing that needed to advertise. I suppose the economy has hit everyone. Fortunately, there is the end of the world coming, and people will be flocking back to church again.

The big-budget and small-budget films that look to make the biggest impact are Roland Emerich's 2012 and The Road, based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-Winning novel. 2012 creates a terrifying predicament where survivors of the end of days are selected to go onto an Ark. This illustrates one of the big issues our government will throw at us. Fairness is the big issue, and who will get the preferential treatment? Our 2008 panel discussion on disaster preparedness revealed that our government has a priority list for who gets the aid first.

The list is perhaps not an actual document that is passed out at the mayor's office. Government workers do not have the secret list. Rather, it is in their job training.In the event of a disaster, the police and emergency workers will handle certain people first. This is the most terrifying element of the scenario. When it comes, many of us will be betrayed by the government agencies we pay for.

In The Road, a more intimate story is told. After an unnamed disaster scorches the earth, survivors roam the streets and highways on foot, scrounging for leftovers. There is no nature left. The air is toxic and nothing can grow. Many people turn to cannibalism, and a father and son struggle to keep their morals intact as they make their way into warmer climates. The bleak, moving novel leaves a lasting impression, and makes us think that the most merciful thing that could happen would be to die in whatever disaster awaits us. Survival is not necessarily the desired end. Comfort is desirable in the end of days. But perhaps survival itself is not the priority in the coming years.

These are just films. But they prey on our fears, and use some elements of actual science to make their case, and make us buy tickets. This cultural phenomenon is born out of our fears over the environment, certainly. But the 2012 Mayan end-of-days prophesy is faith-based. The planets are scheduled to align. This happens from time to time. One big fear is that deadly sun flares will occur, and scorch our planet. Meteors are another concern.

Fear is powerful enough to lead us to economic trouble over the 2012 event. The markets will quake. Industries will tumble. A disaster will come, but more likely in the form of layoffs and outsourcing. The end of days is scheduled right before Christmas. This will surely affect holiday sales.

I would look to our own recent past. We should remember the Y2K scare, just 10 years ago. This man-made disaster prompted people to empty their bank accounts, buy canned goods and bottled water. It tied in with cult mass-suicides and many, many conspiracy theories. The apocalyptic fears of the 1990s still linger. But we used Y2K as our fire drill. It was training for how to react in the face of a disaster.

Most of us just used the event as an excuse to party. That is the other major cultural response, and perhaps the least harmful. Churches will prosper. But so will the clubs and bars. Forget 1999. 2012 is the party of our times.