 Zombies are at once stupified and stupify themselves they are victims while being byproducts of their own, “moral stupidity.” Zombies cannot help but “engage in forms of rapacious behavior that destroy.” These zombies cannot help but hold consumptive natures and thus seek the easiest victims to consume the youth. Where would be a better place to find a confluence of the youth than within the structures of the educational system? Here we do not ask who the zombies were before they turned, but simply who the zombies have become and in what manner they go about their consumption. Foremost, the zombie is inhuman lacking any care for family ties only sharing a bodily shell with humanity. The zombie is not interested in humanity as an interconnected and interdependent species, but rather only sees humans as a child sees an Oreo. Zombies due to their inability to communicate and go about interdependent action are hyper-individualistic. We may point to a “zombie language, with its appeal to the living dead,” yet this is an internalized language with no means of mutual communicability. Ultimately the zombie only can and only wants to communicate the self, selfishness, or individuality. The zombie is motivated to teach in terms of self, selfishness, egoism, and individuality so they may isolate their victim for consumption. It does not matter that zombies roam around in hoards, each zombie is looking to get their meal for themselves and so happens to share a space with other zombies. Yet, this shows that “zombie language is more than Orwellian,” it is perhaps a form of triple speak where only individuals jointly alone can raise themselves through a communal education system. Zombies are those who wish to individuate humans at the expense of humanity as a whole, “zombie language and its accompanying practices and policies are nourished by the egocentric politics of a rabid individualism…and the harsh logic of privatization in which all problems are now shifted onto the shoulders of individuals.” This “using individualism in its extreme,” shifts schools toward the tyrannical into, “becoming more and more undemocratic,” via producing an endless series of tyrants. Yet, zombies cannot just jump straight into a tyrannical dividing and conquering of children within the education system. No, zombies must justify their division and consumption lest they be overrun by humans in collaboration against them. The public is first convinced that the children are unruly, violent, undisciplined, and just overall need correction. Since it is the state in the form of public education that in the majority of cases spends the most time with children as opposed to their caregivers, it is this very public education system that has the most influence upon children. As states and their school focus more on individualization in education they acquire, “zombie-like governance based on the crudest forms of disciplinary control,” such as corporal punishment. In Oklahoma for example, “hitting, slapping, paddling, or any other means of inflicting physical pain” are allowed to be used by Oklahoma school employees. Only when humanity is beaten out of a human can the zombie begin their consumption. Still, what motivates the zombie “that celebrates death over life.” It is hard to be certain about the origins of a parasitic infection. So instead of concerning ourselves with how or why zombies emerged, we must instead deal with them as a social reality without certainty of their origin point. This zombie plague has spread throughout the public and has most greatly harmed the young. The youth are being taught to fend for themselves from the very monsters tearing away their social fabric. Once, the zombie takes hold of a youth they teach said youth on matters of illiteracy. The zombies know they can defeat humanity by swarming the young first, there is a “zombie-like war being waged against young people.” The zombies are propagandizing against collective action, discussion, mutual aid, and anything that is group-oriented. The zombie teaches only of individual success, the pulling of bootstraps, and great man theories of history. This zombie education is not simply limiting but is damaging. Zombie education emerges in contexts where “the social state has been hollowed out and largely stripped of its welfare functions, [where] youth are no longer provided with the economic, social, and cultural supports that offer them dignity, prosperity, and the promise of a better future.” In these sorts of situations, the youths are not only taught to fend for themselves but exist in a context where they must fend for themselves. As an example, “Project 2025 does not propose eliminating free school lunches. However, it does call for narrowing the program’s eligibility requirements so that fewer students would receive free or low-cost lunches through it.” Zombie education does not teach youth how to acquire literacy for themselves but instead hampers illiteracies toward the passing of standardized tests. Of course, “illiteracy is not the cause of our problems,” in a zombie educational system. Rather, it is the ethical egoistic framework behind zombie education that is so limiting and damaging to the young. The zombies are not teachers but preachers of individual self-interest and freedom from constraints. Ironically, however, zombie education creates a collective identity, a zombie hoard of sorts. Zombie education is built to churn out egoists if successful and narcissists at second best. Zombie education does not wish to create individuals who will seek collective goodness as this directly clashes with the zombie’s individualistic nature and desires. In the American context, a zombie wants nothing more than to consume others to acquire material possessions, but it is to be noted that this is just “a kind of zombie state.” In different contexts, zombies will always be consumptive of others yet may be consumptive toward differing selfish ends. An ill-educated mass is easier to consume than a collectively educated mass. So oxymoronically the zombies work alone together to promote individuality at all costs. The zombie is merely concerned with its hunger and is somewhat satisfied as long as it gets its fill time after time. Zombie education cannot simply have students stupified for a temporary period. The zombie needs a life source to drain akin to its mythic counterpart the vampire. However, the vampires are the old aristocratic guard that plagued society, zombies are the new myth and their kind can come from anywhere. Zombie education seeks not only to find those who can be ever victimized but also those who will perpetuate the doctrine of ethical egoism. Most likely the new zombies will come from the aristocracy, however, unlike vampires, zombies are not solely dependent on drawing from their guard. A zombie, in theory, can come from any class, race, ethnicity, orientation, and so on of the sort. A zombie must simply present an effective willingness and ability to preach the doctrines of egoism. It is not a bug, zombie education “has as one of its distinctive features the violence it wages against young people.” Only via violence can such individualistic educational doctrines maintain themselves, in all, “public schools in 22 states reported using physical discipline on students during the 2017-18 academic year.” Individuality is forced upon students by a zombie hoard that seeks to devour them once said student is individualized enough. To stop the consumption, especially of our global youth, we must bring about forms of collective education. Whether these collective forms of education are resurrected hyper-dead collectivist ideas of education or new collectivist educational ideas, collectivist education would improve the quality of life for students in comparison to any form of zombie education. Until then the zombie educational system will only become ever more efficient at isolating the youth and devouring them one by one because as it goes with zombies their numbers grow exponentially. AuthorAnthony David Vernon is an adjunct professor of philosophy at St. Thomas University Miami Gardens and Miami-Dade College. He is also a regularly published literary writer and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Archives September 2024
2 Comments
steven t johnson
9/9/2024 07:16:04 am
Got lost at the beginning. The teachers are the zombies, right?
Anthony David Vernon
9/20/2024 01:54:52 pm
Thanks for pointing out the word usage mistake, should not have been one that I made but this stuff happens. Leave a Reply. |
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