Zach Hoag Is Uncategorized
Escape Plans and the Zombie Apocalypse
Living in Los Angeles, a common fear is that “The Big One” could strike at any moment. In Southern California, “The Big One” is shorthand for a massive earthquake that would (will?) devastate our cities and our life together. In addition to earthquakes, our proximity to Hollywood means we like to write, create, watch, and talk about the Zombie Apocalypse that could (will?) wreak havoc on life as we know it.
Whether Zombie Apocalypse, a global climate crisis, “The Big One,” economic collapse, or a combination of all four, end of the world scenarios are popular fodder for movies, books, television shows, internet conspiracies, and lunchtime conversations.
I was recently in such a conversation where bunker hideouts, resource stashes, and escape plans were discussed. (We were talking specifically about global collapse as a result of climate change, not Zombie Apocalypse (though I do not deny those things could be linked).) Some creative and elaborate ideas were suggested involving desert meetup spots, secret permaculture gardens, and tips and tricks for living off (what’s left of) the land.
Cormac McCarthy, Nuclear Winter, and the Abandonment of Ethics
One of the most powerful novels I’ve read is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road where, in the aftermath of a nuclear winter, a father and young son struggle for survival amidst a devastated post-apocalyptic world. Scarcity has broken down any hope, trust, and good-will. There are no neighbors; there are only Others.
Were you to walk along The Road, there would be no one you could trust, only those you would consider killing in hopes of finding a few breadcrumbs. There would be no guiding morals for this societyless-society except Kill or Be Killed, Eat or Be Eaten. There would be no hope for an ends that could ever justify the means yet the means continue, and brutally so. Lost with hope is any sense of what once was regarded as kinsman, child, neighbor, or friend.
The world of The Road is devastating, disgusting, and terrifying, and the road to that world is the abandonment of ethics. The forsaking of neighbor and neighborhood in search of self-preservation. The willingness to kill or be killed. The justification of hoarding for oneself while others starve.
What surprises me most, when having or overhearing conversations about apocalyptic scenarios, is how many people would abandon the ethical principles they proclaim in times of peace – pursuit of the common good, love of neighbor – to instead chase after survival for “them and theirs.”
When “The Big One” shakes, when the Zombie Apocalypse is upon us, when global collapse strikes, when you walk The Road, will you abandon your ethics?
One of my favorite passages in the Christian Scriptures is a call to maintain and persevere on the path of peace, written after John’s revelation of a post-apocalyptic world:
Whoever has ears, let them hear.
If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.
Revelation 13:9-10
This is a call for patient endurance when chaos descends upon the world.
This is a call for faithfulness when vows and family ties are being broken.
This is a call to hunker down in the place you’ve made a life in the best of times as well as the worst of times.
This is a call for wise and generous stewardship of resources for your own sake and for the sake of others.
This is a call for the perseverance of ethics even as the world burns and all hope is lost.
Whoever has ears, let them hear.
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