What then, do zombies represent? You could argue that they’re manifestations of the fear of Western civilization ending. And that’s fair. It also explains why the zombie apocalypse was the first ubiquitous entertainment sensation after Cultural Ground Zero. People sensed that our artistic capital was used up, so the only thing people could come together over was the mutual observation that everything was falling apart.

But that’s a major symptom, not the root cause. The zombies might have been stand-ins for third-world invaders, collapsing social trust, and younger generations’ rejection of tradition. But then what was the underlying ritual/chemical/virus?

[Photos of a vandalized statue, a drag queen talking to a child, and a woman expressing happiness at being vaccinated]

It was a force that encompassed all dyscivic outcomes, so it is the sum of all errors and the sum of all fears. The answer is Modernism and its disastrous consequences. Stop to think about it, and you’ll see that the zombie is the perfect avatar of the Modernist. Succumbing to the apocalypse vector frees him to indulge forbidden urges, but at the cost of his humanity.

For decades, Modernist heretics promised us that a bright, sexy utopia was just around the corner. All we had to do was change one little part of the Church’s Tradition. Then another. And another …

Cultural Ground Zero was when people started to realize that there would be no shiny earthly paradise. Instead, they’d sold their inheritance for antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis and hobo camps. Of course the real zombie outbreak would take the form of a heresy. It’s right there in the “apocalypse” keyword. “Apocalypse” means “unveiling”. A lot of folks saw their true selves in those movies and despaired. But there’s always time to turn back and embrace the Traditions the West abandoned in our hubris.

It’s tricky, though. Because Christ will forgive any sin but despair, because despair is the refusal to accept that mercy is possible.