Binary Thinking Is At The Heart of Today's Zombieland Chaos
A few years ago I was fascinated by all things zombie – movies, books, graphic novels, and TV series – I consumed them all. But the more I became enthralled by this peculiar genre, the more I came to realize that the primary allure was not the adrenaline pumping gore and violence, nor the excitement of survival in a post apocalyptic world free of the soul-crushing constraints of modern society. Rather, it was the simple, binary nature of their internal dynamics and the decisions made by their protagonists—fight or flight, kill or be killed, survive or perish, etc. And, as in most other American media, particularly within the horror genre, most characters were clearly either evil (Zombies and gangs) or good (typically the protagonist survivors) even when they were at times internally conflicted. It struck me, then, that this simple binary world view is so alluring to our media-consuming culture because it has been the one that has driven all humans, our social interactions, and our soc