The shock of the zombie hordes certainly wears off after a couple of hours; by the third episode, the blue-fleshed, sunken-eyed extras evoked what they really were – enthusiastic participants in a high end “zombie walk,” one of those currently popular public gatherings where horror fans and fad-crazed youth dress up as brain-hungry wandering corpses, in what looks like an attempt to reclaim Halloween for irony-drenched adults. (…)
In Toronto recently, a populist, “conservative” candidate from the suburbs won a mayoral race against a gay former cabinet minister from the provincial Liberal government, an outcome that was apparently shocking to downtown voters, even more so when poll breakdowns revealed considerable support for the winner even in downtown wards. There was a great outpouring of dismay, as liberal voters realized that their neighbours, parents of their childrens’ schoolmates, perhaps even co-workers and friends, voted for a candidate they regarded as ridiculous, even dangerous. The zombies, it seemed, were among them.
More than the casual gore, this aspect of the zombie craze is even more dangerous, since the crude metaphor helps dehumanize your political opponents – hardly a healthy outcome.
***
I’m serious:
If there’s another Zombie Walk in Toronto, I want to do a simultaneous Zombie Shoot.
While I’d love to bring my real shotgun, I’ll gladly buy a orange tipped, VERY CLEARLY FAKE gun at Canadian Tire, if other people will bring along their paintball/airguns/waterpistols, and we’ll follow them around downtown (ideally by pickup truck) and “shoot” them.
This is not a joke. I will do this if you will.
