Thursday, April 09, 2009

Is this how the end begins?

I was sitting around the other night with MizBubs, talking about the state of the world, everything and nothing in particular. I told her something's been on my mind recently, and I can't shake it.

There have been at least 9 or 10 mass shootings in the news since March (hat tip to Jesus' General who has a summary of the incidents). Unlike the general, I don't blame guns--I believe there is a deeper sickness at work, and that's what brings me to my point.

What's been bothering me, and I'm reluctant to even say this out loud, is this nagging question:

What if this is how the beginning of the end looks? If we were, all of us, living in a horror film about some impending nightmarish apocalypse, are these shootings the random news items that would be playing in the background, the foreshadowing unnoticed by the main characters?

Think about the opening of the Dawn of the Dead remake, or the Larry Cohen film from the 70's, God Told Me To.



Should we be looking at these shootings as the first outbreaks of a contagion that is only going to spread and become worse?

So, I'm managing to tamp down my near-galloping paranoia this morning, and then Splotchy sends me this:

Metairie man says stranger chewed, swallowed after taking bite out of his arm

A news item about a possible zombie attack!

The alleged attacker, 48 year old Mario Vargas, is currently being held in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. I hope for their sake that they have Vargas isolated...as well as his victim.

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

16 comments:

jin said...

JDC told me about the arm thing late last night as I was falling asleep... I remember muttering, "Where in Wisconsin did this happen?"

Colour me shocked! Not WI!

Mnmom said...

Not Wisconsin? That IS a shock!
I had to laugh that the ad right next to the article was for White Castle burgers.

The disease has been with us a long time: extreme right-wing-nuttery.

Mnmom said...

And the comments to the article are even funnier!

Coaster Punchman said...

And just the other day, as PG and I were unpacking the garden tools that he moved from NY, I picked up the claw-looking digging tool and said "this always reminds me of 'Night of the Living Dead.'"

"Oh, I love that little girl!" was PG's cheerful rejoinder, not suprisingly.

Yes, I too fear zombies may be walking among us....

SkylersDad said...

I can't seem to shake this nagging fear that we are on the brink of something big and serious. I am a worrier at heart I guess...

Doc said...

I'm glad to see that I am not the only one who is paranoid. I just keep looking at my little girls and wondering what the world will have in store for them.

I suppose it's about time to teach them how to shoot.

Doc

Cormac Brown said...

As a coworker was showing me the Florida gunrange mother offing her kid (on a laptop in front of the public, I won't be surprised if I get a counseling for merely just responding to "come here"), I explained to him that people have been killing themselves for centuries. The only difference is that they are taking everybody with them.

Of course, televisions raising children in lieu of parenting, Glen Beck and Michelle Bachman do not help the psycho stew.

lisahgolden said...

That's it. I'm not coming out from under my bed. Wait - I'm afraid of what's under my bed. Dang it.

Utah Savage said...

This is precisely why I live in a bunker guarded by big dogs and behind locked gates. The only thing I'm missing is a shotgun.

Mnmom said...

PS - my vote FINALLY worked!

Gifted Typist said...

One never feels weird as long as I, Splotchy is around.

But yes Bubs, we are living in discomforting times.

Anonymous said...

So, we'll all meet at the Winchester, then?

Barbara Bruederlin said...

And here I have been wasting my time working about peak oil when I should have been focussing on zombies.

Wren said...

Well, the Mayans (I think it was the Mayans, but maybe it was the Aztecs?) said the world would end in 2012. I don't believe it. But all these shootings are tragic and terrible. And that bite-out-of-the-arm thing ---Ewwwww.

Freida Bee said...

I certainly think that the state of the world, environmentally, mentally, economically, and this included are symptoms of systemic problems that humans will have to overcome to survive as a species, which will doubtfully be indefinitely. That being said, I just wish we could live peacefully, but we all have angst- some more than others, I guess.

That person's behavior was extremely zombiesque!

Anonymous said...

If you'd like to know some Zombie Contingency Plans, here's a link:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/whats-your-zombie-contingency-plan-11-practical-strategies/