Zombieland USA
The hysteria surrounding the Park 51 Community Center reminded me of a video Bruce M. Hood posted a couple of year ago.
I've been wondering if the prevalence of Zombies in popular culture today is a reflection of Americans feeling surrounded by brainless servants of an evil Voodoo Priest. There are countless video games about Zombies, several Zombie movies come out every year, and The Zombie Survival Guide, written by Mel Brook's son, has sold over a million copies and has spun off merchandise. Velvet read it on the plane.
In my mind, only someone totally brain dead would believe that Park 51 is more likely to be a potential hotbed of terrorist activity than the actual mosque where the congregation has been meeting since about the time the World Trade Center was built. Or my house for that matter. Or yours. Extending this phenomenon to Zombies, Newt Gingrich or Bill O'Reilly, for example, would be the Evil Voodoo Priest, and the people who believe him would be his army of Zombie followers who, in one of life's little ironies, believe Muslims are as great of threat as the zombies in the George W video.
Certainly, the people who lost loved ones back on September 11 carry grief today that is as strong as ever. While I respect that grief and hope that I never experience anything remotely similar, I don't see how that respect translates into Real Estate, especially in a free market where people's feelings are totally fucking irrelevant. According to Teabagger and AquaBuddah Rand Paul, the government has no business interfering with anybody. Ergo: Anything that's okay for BP is okay for Park 51.
The people who are opposed to Park 51 should boycott the community center just like folks have been boycotting BP ever since their rig cracked open the ocean floor. If they feel compelled to protest, they can get a permit just like Code Pink got a permit when they demonstrated, half naked, outside BP's Houston Headquarters to Expose the Greed (Houston Chronicle, 5.14.2010).
If BP is seriously considering drilling again in the Gulf, with the blessing of Fox News and Sarah Palin, despite the passionate feelings of thousands who grieve for the Gulf - then some Trade Center Widow's feelings have no bearing on the Park 51 project. And let's not forget that BP facilitated the release of a Lockerbie Bomber (The Sunday Times, August 30, 2009). Grief from 911 does not trump grief from Lockerbie. Further, if we as a nation really respected the individuals who suffered as a result of 9-11, then the House would have approved the Zadroga Bill and provided additional health care for WTC First Responders.
The World Wide Bullshit swirling around this Community Center - and it's a community center just like a YMCA or JCC - can only be explained as political mileage for people like Newt Gingrich. Looking at Newt's marital relations, we see that he has the Sensitivity and Need To Feed as a Zombie. Newt is one of the primary leaders of a Zombie Army. Fox personalities do not count as leaders since they are handed scripts from their bosses - one of whom has ties to the Bin Ladens, according to Jon Stewart.
The voice of reason in this clip is provided by NRA spokesman Charleton Heston. Jon Stewart reminds us that back in 1999, many people were passionately opposed to the NRA's decision to hold a convention in Denver shortly after the Columbine killings because it was insensitive to local grief. Blaming all Muslims for 911 is like blaming all gun owners for the Columbine killings.
The only logical explanation for this swirling shitstorm is that America has been taken over by Zombies. The prevalence of Contemporary American Nonthinkers suggests that Zombies are not simply a horror show fiction. They have taken over the suburbs, for sure.
Some merry pranksters in Austin, Texas hacked into a traffic sign in January, 2009. At the time, I thought it was a charming joke. Now, I'm not so sure. Thirty years earlier, also in Austin, Texas, a band called Terminal Mind sang a song called Zombieland. Killed by Death records has the mp3.
http://www.kbdrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/04-terminal-mind-zombieland-1979-usa.mp3
It was before Youtube was invented. Practically before MTV was invented - and the lyrics are startlingly appropriate today:
Are you walking talking without knowing what you're saying?
Are you making music but you don't know what you're playing?
You were going nowhere cause there's nowhere left to go
You didn't have a choice, you wouldn't even KNOW
Zombieland USA
Zombieland America
Such a wonderful place
Living in negative space
Wandering in circles you're on automatic pilot
You have got a program but you don't know where to file it
If you're into business then you've got to lock a head (?)
If you earn a living, you could wind up dead
It's more fun when you listen, all the way through the instrumental (and I use the term loosely since this was 1978 and Punk Rock Texas style) when the cops start saying:
This is the last warning you will receive
There is no escape . . .
Zombieland USA
I've been wondering if the prevalence of Zombies in popular culture today is a reflection of Americans feeling surrounded by brainless servants of an evil Voodoo Priest. There are countless video games about Zombies, several Zombie movies come out every year, and The Zombie Survival Guide, written by Mel Brook's son, has sold over a million copies and has spun off merchandise. Velvet read it on the plane.
In my mind, only someone totally brain dead would believe that Park 51 is more likely to be a potential hotbed of terrorist activity than the actual mosque where the congregation has been meeting since about the time the World Trade Center was built. Or my house for that matter. Or yours. Extending this phenomenon to Zombies, Newt Gingrich or Bill O'Reilly, for example, would be the Evil Voodoo Priest, and the people who believe him would be his army of Zombie followers who, in one of life's little ironies, believe Muslims are as great of threat as the zombies in the George W video.Certainly, the people who lost loved ones back on September 11 carry grief today that is as strong as ever. While I respect that grief and hope that I never experience anything remotely similar, I don't see how that respect translates into Real Estate, especially in a free market where people's feelings are totally fucking irrelevant. According to Teabagger and AquaBuddah Rand Paul, the government has no business interfering with anybody. Ergo: Anything that's okay for BP is okay for Park 51.
The people who are opposed to Park 51 should boycott the community center just like folks have been boycotting BP ever since their rig cracked open the ocean floor. If they feel compelled to protest, they can get a permit just like Code Pink got a permit when they demonstrated, half naked, outside BP's Houston Headquarters to Expose the Greed (Houston Chronicle, 5.14.2010).
If BP is seriously considering drilling again in the Gulf, with the blessing of Fox News and Sarah Palin, despite the passionate feelings of thousands who grieve for the Gulf - then some Trade Center Widow's feelings have no bearing on the Park 51 project. And let's not forget that BP facilitated the release of a Lockerbie Bomber (The Sunday Times, August 30, 2009). Grief from 911 does not trump grief from Lockerbie. Further, if we as a nation really respected the individuals who suffered as a result of 9-11, then the House would have approved the Zadroga Bill and provided additional health care for WTC First Responders.The World Wide Bullshit swirling around this Community Center - and it's a community center just like a YMCA or JCC - can only be explained as political mileage for people like Newt Gingrich. Looking at Newt's marital relations, we see that he has the Sensitivity and Need To Feed as a Zombie. Newt is one of the primary leaders of a Zombie Army. Fox personalities do not count as leaders since they are handed scripts from their bosses - one of whom has ties to the Bin Ladens, according to Jon Stewart.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Extremist Makeover - Homeland Edition | ||||
| ||||
The voice of reason in this clip is provided by NRA spokesman Charleton Heston. Jon Stewart reminds us that back in 1999, many people were passionately opposed to the NRA's decision to hold a convention in Denver shortly after the Columbine killings because it was insensitive to local grief. Blaming all Muslims for 911 is like blaming all gun owners for the Columbine killings.
The only logical explanation for this swirling shitstorm is that America has been taken over by Zombies. The prevalence of Contemporary American Nonthinkers suggests that Zombies are not simply a horror show fiction. They have taken over the suburbs, for sure.
Some merry pranksters in Austin, Texas hacked into a traffic sign in January, 2009. At the time, I thought it was a charming joke. Now, I'm not so sure. Thirty years earlier, also in Austin, Texas, a band called Terminal Mind sang a song called Zombieland. Killed by Death records has the mp3.http://www.kbdrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/04-terminal-mind-zombieland-1979-usa.mp3
It was before Youtube was invented. Practically before MTV was invented - and the lyrics are startlingly appropriate today:
Are you walking talking without knowing what you're saying?
Are you making music but you don't know what you're playing?
You were going nowhere cause there's nowhere left to go
You didn't have a choice, you wouldn't even KNOW
Zombieland USA
Zombieland America
Such a wonderful place
Living in negative space
Wandering in circles you're on automatic pilot
You have got a program but you don't know where to file it
If you're into business then you've got to lock a head (?)
If you earn a living, you could wind up dead
It's more fun when you listen, all the way through the instrumental (and I use the term loosely since this was 1978 and Punk Rock Texas style) when the cops start saying:
This is the last warning you will receive
There is no escape . . .
Zombieland USA
posted by PENolan at
8:22 AM
13 Comments:
HI TRISH-
Dolan would be giving a standing ovation for this post. He and I just had a little debate about this issue and I need to re-visit it this morning because for some reason he said I was a 'bigot'. I am quite offended. I was expressing that I understood some people's feelings about the mosque. That opened up a can of ugly words. ANyway, great post.
Love you Texas
Gail
peace and hope.....
Bravo!
Thank you, Doctor!
Gail - there's a good article in Newsweek comparing the opinions of two moms who lost their sons at 911.
War Over Ground Zero
It's easy to read and clarified some salient points. I totally appreciate their feelings, but that doesn't make all of lower Manhattan a graveyard.
Everyone, especially the VooDoo leaders of the Zombies should read William Shakespeare's "Much ado about nothing".
Wait a minute.......maybe they have.
Max Brooks also wrote "World War Z, an Oral History of the Zombie War."
Its seriously rocks, and yes I believe in zombies, I live amongst may of them right now. You have to believe in the undead to vote for Joe "You Lie" Wilson, the man's intelligence is on par with that of an amoeba.
I saw that clip of Jon Stewart last night and LOVED it! Why is it that the most intelligent commentary and in-depth investigative reporting is done by a comedy show?
V.V.: Says a lot about mainstream media that he's the most trusted man in news today, just like Walter Cronkite.
MRMcrum, tnlib and you are on exactly the same page. She used that quote to title her post about this same issue.
Beach, Velvet bought that book at the airport bookstore. We're all over Zombies at my place. He observed, however, that Americans are more like The Borg since they all get "news and information" fed directly into their brains from twitter pundits.
It's much more comfy to be a zombie than it is to think a critical thought. Evil Voodoo Priests know this.
Great post pal!
I read somewhere that zombie movies and popularity increase when Republicans are in charge. Obviously some statistics are imaginary. ;-)
Actually, this seems more like an Idiocracy coming into being.
"Contemporary American Nonthinkers" ... Oh, dear, is this the current iteration of "Yes, We CAN"?
You might want to dip into Susan Jacobi's book, *The Age of American Unreason" (revised ed.) ... On the very first page of the introduction, Jacobi writes:
"During the past four decades, America's endemic anti-intellectual tendencies have been grievously exacerbated by a new species of semiconscious anti-rationalism, feeding on and fed by an ignorance popular culture of video images and unremitting noise that leaves no room for contemplation or logic. [It is] at odds not only with the nation's heritage of eighteenth-century Enlightenment reason but with modern scientific knowledge ..."
P.S. I've just found some e-cards that you might want to send out in, um ... commemoration of the Zombie State ...
;-D
I stumbled across your blog here. This is really good shit :-)
I'll be stopping back by.
mac, Welcome! Come back any time ;)
Jaliya - I love it when exemplary grad students write to each other with footnotes. Zombie cards sound like just the ticket. Contemporary American Nonthinkers is a term I learned years ago when my parents hung out with Radical Christian Hippies dedicated to making the world a better place. These days, they are based in Canada and are called The Institute of Cultural Affairs
It's also where I learned the phrase, "Each One Teach One"
Amazing people.
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