Dr. Manny Alvarez, Fox News in-house physician and frequent medical expert for the gab fest called Fox News, thinks that Walking Dead, the AMC hit series, is actually bad for you. Yup, those deteriorated, puss-festering, voracious flesh eating walkers are hurting culture right now. Hey, if some undead creature was coming to eat me, I'd be alarmed too. But doctor, doctor...
Oh, please. For years, Zombies and undead have been part of literature, films and folklore. It goes back hundreds of years, and I think it's safe to say, the number of sightings of real undead creatures is limited. And the number of attacks on humans is even less. Maybe even zero.
So why the alarm? Well, the good -- or sell-out Dr. Manny Alvarez -- wrote in a Fox News column that with American society's obsession with "The Walking Dead" and the inevitable zombie apocalypse, our focus is being pulled away from "music, education, science or the classics."
I see. Music, education, science and the classics are imperiled. That's a worthy alarm bell to ring. But where's the nexus between Zombies and the imminent harm our American society is facing?
Music: The Zombies are an English rock band, formed in 1962. The group scored British and American hits in 1964 with "She's Not There." Hmm. 1962 is only 50 years ago. We didn't seem to be harmed by them or their song. And just two years ago, Creepshow gave us this music classic:
Education: Dr. Mayim Biyali, (yes Blossom on TV but now a real life PhD in neuroscience) works with a group called STEM: science, technology, engineering, and math. They teach middle school and high school students. WIRED reports:
The program uses models of zombie outbreaks loaded onto TI graphing calculators, computers, or iPads to demonstrate everything from brain damage (natch) to the patterns in which disease spreads. It’s brilliant, really. Students, inundated by walkers from World War Z to The Walking Dead, already understand the basics of zombie behavior, which provides a gruesome yet entertaining mnemonic device for understanding much more complex ideas.
Science: "Zombie science is a reality. Huffpo reported on it back in February of this year:
Researchers in New Mexico say they've created zombie cells -- near-perfect replicas of mammalian cells that can perform many of the same functions despite the fact that they're not actually alive. But instead of pursuing and eating people as sci-fi zombies often do, these experimental cells may someday do our bidding -- finding use in commercial applications ranging from sensors to catalysts to fuel cells.
The Classics: Well, we have so many to chose from. Authors through the years including Mary Shelly, H.P. Lovecraft, S.D. Perry, Stephen King. Where would we be without film classics like Dawn of the Dead or the shining jewel, Night of the Living Dead.
Bottom line, Dr. Outoftouch Alvarez, the undead have been with us for centuries and they will be for many more to come. Their "existance" whether real or imagined is not hurting society. If anything, it's giving us and our imaginations ways to imagine how we can make a better life for those of us who are still living. Care to join us?
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