It’s funny how social scientists can create a pop industry out of a single idea. They take a widely recognized problem, come up with a way to frame or otherwise encompass the problem and make that into a product, which they then sell as books, op-ed pieces and interviews to a resonant audience. Funny that they rarely ever have a solution to the problem; the ultimate goal is intellectual entertainment, right?
I’m thinking here about University of Virginia social psychologist and TED darling, Jon Haidt and his take on why politics has gotten so contentious and uncivil. Haidt says that the reason is the sacralization of political goals, the reduction of all disputes to a sort of good vs. evil cosmic struggle. As we parse ourselves off into opposing camps, there can no longer be compromise or even conversation with the forces of darkness closing in. I think Haidt has a decent argument but I think it applies to a much more sinister spectator sport than politics. I think he’s really talking about . . . zombies.
Is it a coincidence that this Manichaean tribalism peaks at the same time that the season finale of AMC’s uneven hit series, The Walking Dead, gets the highest rating in the network history? That’s about as implausible as all of the major characters surviving the zombie attack on Hershel’s farm. It’s posited by many, most eloquently Chuck Klosterman in the NY Times, that the walking dead symbolize the relentless deluge of modern day life. “Battling zombies is like battling anything ... or everything.” That’s a good interpretation but it doesn’t really slap the brain stem of our shambling subject. See, zombies don’t just want us . . . they want our entire tribe.
The Walking Dead, much like most zombie movies, established an us-vs-them dynamic, the minute Rick Grimes and his wife Lori gathered on the side of Interstate 75 and careened south. Haidt’s argument is that we are demonizing our political opponents so thoroughly that we can’t compromise with them. There is no common ground with the army of Satan. Right, you don’t argue with zombies. All through the interminable second season, Shane is accusing Rick of putting his people at risk. In the end of the second season finale, Hershel is shown ‘standing his ground,’ blasting zombies with a shotgun. And now, Dale, the voice of reason and compassion, irritating though it was, is gone. It’s only gonna get worse.
And wither the national course? Will the ghost of common sense ever rise from its grave and return to occupy the Dirksen Senate Office Building? Not likely. Whoever is President in a year should expect just as much anger and gridlock from the opposing tribe. Like the zombie plague, it seems the virus of self-righteous anger will have to run its course, awaiting the evolution of some super bug that can consume the last reptile brain.
Evolution takes a very . . . long . . . time.