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Friday, January 17, 2014

Vampires vs. zombies

Vampire movies and television are a guilty pleasure of mine. I like them because I think there are fun parallels to my own life. I watch zombie movies or television because I think there are fun parallels to the way everyone else lives their lives. That's why I enjoyed this article in the New York Times so much, "My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead."
A lot of modern life is exactly like slaughtering zombies.

IF THERE’S ONE THING we all understand about zombie killing, it’s that the act is uncomplicated: you blast one in the brain from point-blank range (preferably with a shotgun). That’s Step 1. Step 2 is doing the same thing to the next zombie that takes its place. Step 3 is identical to Step 2, and Step 4 isn’t any different from Step 3. Repeat this process until (a) you perish, or (b) you run out of zombies. That’s really the only viable strategy.

Every zombie war is a war of attrition. It’s always a numbers game. And it’s more repetitive than complex. In other words, zombie killing is philosophically similar to reading and deleting 400 work e-mails on a Monday morning or filling out paperwork that only generates more paperwork, or following Twitter gossip out of obligation, or performing tedious tasks in which the only true risk is being consumed by the avalanche. The principal downside to any zombie attack is that the zombies will never stop coming; the principal downside to life is that you will be never be finished with whatever it is you do.
***
This is our collective fear projection: that we will be consumed. Zombies are like the Internet and the media and every conversation we don’t want to have. All of it comes at us endlessly (and thoughtlessly), and — if we surrender — we will be overtaken and absorbed. Yet this war is manageable, if not necessarily winnable. As long we keep deleting whatever’s directly in front of us, we survive. We live to eliminate the zombies of tomorrow. We are able to remain human, at least for the time being. Our enemy is relentless and colossal, but also uncreative and stupid.

Battling zombies is like battling anything ... or everything.

“I know this is supposed to be scary,” [a friend] said. “But I’m pretty confident about my ability to deal with a zombie apocalypse. I feel strangely informed about what to do in this kind of scenario.”

I could not disagree. At this point who isn’t? We all know how this goes: If you awake from a coma, and you don’t immediately see a member of the hospital staff, assume a zombie takeover has transpired during your incapacitation. Don’t travel at night and keep your drapes closed. Don’t let zombies spit on you. If you knock a zombie down, direct a second bullet into its brain stem. But above all, do not assume that the war is over, because it never is. The zombies you kill today will merely be replaced by the zombies of tomorrow. But you can do this, my friend. It’s disenchanting, but it’s not difficult. Keep your finger on the trigger. Continue the termination. Don’t stop believing. Don’t stop deleting. Return your voice mails and nod your agreements. This is the zombies’ world, and we just live in it. But we can live better.
I say that this is how everyone else lives their lives, but my life is remarkably similar. Someone asked me recently why do I seduce people, why do I play games, what's the point? I guess I wasn't aware there was some other choice for how to live your life other than find things that keep you engaged and entertained. But yes, empaths play one version of this game, and I guess we play another, and you can say that one is about love or emotions and that is somehow better than having it be about power and winning, but is it? Seems like a matter of personal preference.

73 comments:

  1. FIRST!!!!



    (lol at my youtube homage people, go on, lol!)

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  2. Where are the interesting posts about assaults and serial killers and shit?

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  3. why are you posting twice in a row when you can post once?

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  4. What do you guys think of my childhood pictures? :P

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  5. Do I smell Eu de Necromancy?

    When I summoned Nietzsche's spirit to appear, and reveal a possible answer to your question, he muttered thus:

    "[Anything which] is a living and not a dying body... will have to be an incarnate will to power, it will strive to grow, spread, seize, become predominant - not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power... 'Exploitation'... belongs to the essence of what lives, as a basic organic function; it is a consequence of the will to power, which is after all the will to life."

    Oh, and:

    "My idea is that every specific body strives to become master over all space and to extend its force (- its will to power:) and to thrust back all that resists its extension. But it continually encounters similar efforts on the part of other bodies and ends by coming to an arrangement ("union") with those of them that are sufficiently related to it: thus they then conspire together for power. And the process goes on."

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    1. huh?? smoke some more doobage Sea Neitzsche.

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    2. Sounds like Politics...
      As for this kid asking for violence and opinions of his pics; learn to google.
      Sounds like a plea for attention from a teenager.

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  6. Glen-

    There is a menu to the right of the blog. "Labels". You may click on "violence" and "criminality". Perhaps the things you seek are there.

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  7. Someone asked me recently why do I seduce people, why do I play games, what's the point? I guess I wasn't aware there was some other choice.

    I couldn't have said it better myself. Even after I realized there was an alternative, it's my default MO.

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  8. ME, the title is vampires vs zombies, and not a word about vampires. I suggest the title be changed to Queens, Vampires and Zombies so that there are two unrelated words in the title as opposed to one. Duhhh?

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  9. Clearly ME's insomnia is fucking with him.

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  10. Clearly ME's insomnia is fucking with him.

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  11. really, what is the difference if empaths "shoot zombies" because they feel they have a moral imperative to do so while socios "shoot zombies" because they want to?

    if the end result is the same, the end result is the same. it's not as if normals are that much less power driven. the justifications are just more ornate.

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  12. Anon, you imbecile, the normals ARE the zombies! Another fervent vocabulary wastes it's time. How uncommon.~

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  13. Not it's but its. Don't start me. We see the zombies, lol, where are the vampires?

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  14. I think M.E.'s trying to subtly tell us that he secretly enjoys running around his home with a cape and plastic teeth.

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    1. The normies may actually remain separate from the zombies for a while, but eventually there's a fork in the road. Either they become a complete socio zombie killer as a result of desensitization, or they get bitten and become a zombie themselves because their emotions wear them down and they become too weak to fight anymore.

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  15. The vampires are included in the post. Everyone knows that socios are parasitic vampires. The zombies are the walking dead they leave behind once they've sucked the life out of them. Buy a clue people.~

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  16. Ironic you see normals as zombies and socio's remind me of food without taste or color blind.
    While my crayon box has 8 colors yours seems to only have 3.

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  17. Yeah but we got the best three... Besides you can make all colours out of the three primaries.

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  18. Thats true and exactly what I was thinking.
    Well even if you are food without taste, you definitely spice up other's lives.

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  19. That makes no sense but ok.

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  20. Zombies and food and crayons, oh my!

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  21. I'm bored. What time is it where you guys are?

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  22. empaths play one version of this game, and I guess we play another, and you can say that one is about love or emotions and that is somehow better than having it be about power and winning, but is it? Seems like a matter of personal preference.


    Kind of getting sick of your bullshit blogs M:E.
    You put to much feeling into them.

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  23. *too much feeling (t-o-o)

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    1. Must be getting boring. The spelling Natzis have arrived. The grammar Natzis are sure to be close behind,

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  24. Humans, socio or not, are creatures of habit. It's not a matter of objective preference with life approaches, ME, but a matter of habit over decades. You learn a way to live, and how to play the game of life and master it. Why bother playing the other side of the table when everyone else is at the top of their game?

    You can change your perspective, you can change your attitude, but you can't change your Default settings, no matter how much you try to deviate from them. They'll always be there, hard coded.

    Emotions are not some magical elixir that normals folks get to indulge in. People from all walks of life, PDs, no PDs, whatever, deal with the same bullshit as everyone else, day in and day out. So what if we're usually more clever than the average Joe? So what if we have darker tendencies due to lack of conscience?

    That doesn't make use Vampires among Zombies, and frankly I find the parallel to be narcissistic beyond consideration. Everyone has blind spots, strengths, and weaknesses. We're not gods among men. We're just men among men with an extra chip on our shoulder and the ambition to go with it, rightly deserved or not.

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  25. coming on this blog to read the comments is like comedy hour.

    but seriously, i like psychology and thought i would gain more insight on a type of psychological disorder but now i have more questions than answers. at the end of the day, human beings are untrustworthy, i really believe everyone has a sociopath "tendency" if you will.

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  26. you should try 'Nazi Zombies' on Call of Duty.

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  27. There's an FAQ section, as well as a themed section to view blogs on a pertinent subject.

    Instead of wasting your time at comedy, take a little perseverance.

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  28. O.K. who pissed in the notable path's corn flakes today?

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  29. Wow, a smart anon. Things are changing. I agree with you anonymous. I think when the chips are down empathetic people are like animals. All the civilized facade goes out the window. That's why I like post apocalyptic films. It shows that once we lose everything we are out for saving our own skins. Charity and compassion are a privilidge.

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    1. I agree. The civilized brain overlies the primitive brain. Some of us do better than others. Most every one has a breaking point. Every one I've ever known has a breaking point, and I include myself, most definitely.

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  30. Charity and compassion are commodities.

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  31. Anon- You have to look at it as information, not answers. And I'm not sure that anyone is trustworthy all the time. Most generally solid people will do things that are against their basic sense of what's right if they are put in a tough enough position.

    Many folks will skimp on things if they feel inconvenienced by them. That is humanity. We are all flawed and we are all weak at times. Many of us can have a sociopathic moment if the situation boils down to a cost/benefit analysis. Or if our warm and fuzzy emotions for someone have withered. Personally, I'm with TNP, I'm hardwired to be a certain way, and as UKan put it last night-- you have to assess what you are, and play to your strengths. And choose very carefully how you link that to others.

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  32. *too much feeling (t-o-o)


    lol

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  33. I honestly read this post and felt less like it described an empath but rather just life in general as seen through the eyes of a useless 40 something year old man whose life didn't turn out like he planned.

    We get it things are monotonous and you have to do them all the time, don't like it? Tough. Maybe I am reading this too simplistic but it seems to me to be a bit whiny.

    I dunno I could just be suffering from one of those "episodes" where no one is around to manipulate so I feel lonely and depressed.

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  34. I think my favorite post-apocalyptic movie in terms of "realism" was The Road. It was a very powerful film, and the only parts I didn't enjoy were the lame flashbacks.

    If you've ever lived on the streets, or dealt with the type on a somewhat regular basis, you'd know that most people, normal for their standards, can drop into savagery at the drop of the hat. When the chips are down and such, as UKan put it. You just don't usually get that opportunity to see it with middle/upper class folks unless you're deep in their circle. They taught me a few good pointers on social cruelty.

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  35. They taught me a few good pointers on social cruelty.



    Such as?????

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  36. I'm rarely in a position where I have to fight tooth and nail to survive. I enjoy my own comforts too much to let things get that way. But on more than one occasion I have been pegged as someone who would be an asset in the event of an apocalypse. I thought it was kind of amusing, but a friend said "Oh, I know you'd turn into my chicken pluckin' grandma in no time if the shit hit the fan." My will to survive is very strong and I'm aces in a crisis, though can't be bothered with a lot of mundane chores. I think his assessment was astute.

    Being generous and compassionate indeed are things that I can only afford because I take good care of myself first. No question. You'd have to really be at the top of the list of people for me to share with you to my detriment. And it would have to benefit us as a surviving unit to share.

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  37. upper class folks have their own brand of savagery, IME.

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  38. Thanks for that TNP...lol

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  39. anything and everything would seem like a zombie apocalypse to someone who is chronically depressed. it's easy to turn life into a story of monotony, but it all boils down to your perception of it. think of the box of chocolates simile. yes, no matter what you take you will get a piece of candy to put in your mouth. but they each have a different shape or flavor to experience and enjoy if you are receptive to it. each email you delete, every event you react to, has its own flavor that can tickle your mind if you know how to savor it. and there's nothing forcing you to keep picking the same chocolate every single time. life is more like an infinite and bottomless box of chocolates. you can choose whatever you want at any time. the only things binding a person into a life of drudgery are their own laziness and their interpretations of events. do you keep picking the same chocolate endlessly? if you choose other chocolates, do you see them as just another chocolate or as caramel coconut and red raving raspberry? if life is a zombie apocalypse to you, then you are the zombie, not the world around you. your life experiences and your perceptions of them are merely a reflection of yourself.

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  40. Well, I actually see things a little differently. I've never been willing to play the endless deletion game. I quit when it get to that point, and there're usually always a lot of people who are only too happy to do it for me.

    I also think this is probably what ... psychopaths, if not sociopaths ... do. It's probably also one of the reasons that they often end up in jail or living on the street (in someone else's home).

    Not being stuck with this kind of repetitious game means more to me than to always have the last new fashionable lawnmower and a white picket fence.

    I don't think ME's analogy of vampires and zombies is so off the spot.

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  41. I forgot to add, that this is probably also the reason why I've never really liked zombie movies. I find them BORING.

    But vampire movies is a whole different story. Always loved those.

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  42. I wouldn't say we do play another version of the game. We play a different game. Seeking out different thrills and excitement, things that most others don't seem to need. Isn't it the monotonous boring day to day life repetition that we try to avoid? Having said that, perhaps it's just that we find day to day life boring and others don't?

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  43. Apologies, I'm not sure how much sense that made. Drink is my friend XD

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  44. Its like watching seagulls feed on the beach......

    But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry In what I further shall intend to do, By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs: The time and my intents are savage-wild, More fierce and more inexorable far Than empty tigers or the roaring sea....

    Sun Under

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  45. Vampires are absolutely fabulous, they glitter like diamond fairies.

    Vampires are completely ruined for me.

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    1. The whole "glittery" bit is such a turnoff. Why on earth would they do that, it's beyond me; a pity.

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  46. M.E. get on with it! A run for the presidency perhaps?

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  47. Fiction horror is fiction. Underworld zodiac sign such as Scorpio & Virgo are real, they walk the Earth. Closest thing to fang-folks and undead critters there are. But virgoans often are cute & friendly in a shy way? Things may appear that way, yes. This is the exterior they many times find the most rewarding. Things move so smooth that way..

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    1. Dont bring that superstitious crap in here, this is about people who were mysteriously born as sociopaths!

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    2. Sorry to disrupt all "psycho-science", but scorps also happen to be born cruel and without mercy. Hollow folks mostly are crackpots, disturbed mentally. Scorps are stable beings, natures own "custom-made" half-psychos, not some "accident in the factory". Surely that is an interesting topic?

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    3. My best friend is a scorp. She places auties aspies and other developmentally disabled people in the workforce. Dominant, down to earth lady.

      Yes yes, real straight up psycho.

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  48. Zombie movies as we know know them owe much to Romero who used the zombie genre to make social and political points. The shadow of Vietnam and Watergate hangs over his early zombie flicks. But the current plethora of Zombie related movies seems a case point in diminishing returns. As for the vampire-am I alone in thinking the vampire may have its origins in psychopathology? Where folk medicine and myth held sway (and the Church being uber myth, natch!) they would characterize such characters as your local neighborhood psychopath as being werewolf, vampire or even changeling ('Hes away with the fairies...' etc.). But the underlying idea that life is a war-zone of sorts seems accurate-and the best we can aspire to is a form of mutually beneficent attrition-as our position seems not to include a setting for defeat-but the zombie idea seems a good notion for the basis of a creative psychopathy-which might functional and put to use-after all there are some very dark corners ion the modern day psyche that those on the spectrum and almost perfectly suited for-(For example police officers who work in traumatic areas are forced every so often to take leave to maintain their psychological well being-the psycho-pathological would seem perfectly suited for such occupations or jobs where the emotional has to be over come or is a disadvantage to getting something achieved.)

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    1. A modern day Jekyl and Hyde. Is there one in your neighborhood?

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    2. Well I did a basic psychological profile on my 'self', lets just say the results where rather unsettling...

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    3. "For example police officers who work in traumatic areas are forced every so often to take leave to maintain their psychological well being-the psycho-pathological would seem perfectly suited for such occupations or jobs where the emotional has to be over come or is a disadvantage to getting something achieved." Agreed.

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    4. @ Psykopath-l-logical
      I completely agree with you on the vampire thing. The whole Twilight phenomenon makes me think we romanticize toxic relationships in a way that's really confusing to young women (men too, but the series seems to be targeted mostly at girls)

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  49. personal preference, or how you where born? i think it's how you were born, no choice was involved. born that way.

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  50. I like the analogy to every day life. Deleting emails, returning voice messages, etc. It's important to have some boundaries with this modern world. I for one only check email,facebook,websites, from home. (unless on vacation, then only a couple times while I'm gone.) You won't find me in line at the grocery store or at starbucks scrolling on my phone.(don't even have an iphone, refuse to get one! I won't be controlled like that.) This is how I manage the zombies coming at me. I control my time, I am not controlled by a cell phone or computer. I do appreciate their uses, but I use them, they don't use me.

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  51. Well, that was pretty horrible, but it did make me laugh. Score.

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  52. There are erratically documented sociopath humans who acted consistently with the legends of vampires and zombies. Just as with religion, truth and legends weave in and out of human life. "Vlad the Impaler" was a real life Balkan warlord known for his brutality. During wars with the Ottoman Turks, he proudly reported, "We killed 23,884 Turks (most probably Tatars) without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers.." (A little historical context for the current head chopping sprees going on in Syria.) Then there was the Romanian countess Elizabeth Bathory. As she began to notice age lines, drooping boobs, and the like, she came to the conclusion that bathing in the blood of virgins (whom she plucked from her servants) would rejuvenate her. As it was considered kind of "disrespectful" to wipe out a member of the aristocracy as if she was a commoner, she was walled up in her castle.

    Jeffrey Dahmer was real (among other similar real figures) and until they start actually crawling up out of the ground, he will do well enough for a zombie, don't you think?

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  53. I found this interesting because the author and many of the commenters remind me of the "real" vampire community: constantly presenting themselves as operating on a plane above the norms/empaths/zombies through the delusion of a power fantasy. I'm not trying to suggest you aren't a sociopath. I'm not qualified to make that determination, barring the fact that it's a somewhat unscientific term. I'm just saying that your life, your relationships and your BS are just as banal and insipid as everyone else's. You feed a psychological need to feel special and to groom an ubermensch mentality. Most people with antisocial personality disorder are actually underachievers with an inflated sense of self-worth compared to what they've managed to achieve. The author may indeed be a successful attorney, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of successful attorneys. I don't think you can attribute her success to these traits. I see them more as a handicap she's managed to overcome than an advantage she's been able to exploit.

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