I’ll admit it. I love The Walking Dead. I even have some bobble heads of the characters that I picked up from Barnes and Noble. But, what is the fascination with the goo-oozing zombies, the apocalyptic US South, the certainty of doom and miserable, painful death haunting each character, every single show?
I finally figured it out!
The Walking Dead IS a metaphor of the Western fiat currency scheme, and the similarities make it a perfect propaganda tool to control the masses and show the futility of resisting one’s certain, doomed, fate.
Let’s peel back some layers!
The Collapse Scenario
One of the protagonists, Rick, is a local police officer. He, along with his partner Shane, are introduced as typical law enforcement officers, in a sleepy, small town setting in the rural country side outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
One day on patrol, Rick and Shane encounter some bad guys. Rick gets shot, and ends up in a coma at the local hospital.
While in the coma, the region is under siege by a strange outbreak, afflicting thousands with fever, then death. However, upon death, the person turns into a zombie–not really dead, and not really alive. These zombies exist by consuming flesh of the living. They are driven by primal instincts. We learn later that the zombie infliction is something that every human being carries, that becomes activated upon a scratch or bite from a zombie. We also learn that the zombie condition is caused by basic, core brain waves of a primal nature, driving the zombies to loud sounds, and all they do is forage for protein to consume. They do nothing but feed on the living.
The Setting
The rural south, the urban city of Atlanta, small towns, farms and roads, all feature prominently as settings. Later seasons of The Walking Dead feature more industrial, foreboding environments, like a prison that turns into a secure, safe facility, a small town with perimeter walls, and a planned, self-contained community.
As each season unfolds, the episodes reveal the survival mindsets, strengths and fallacies of the survivors, like our current "preppers" and their strategies, played out in various conflicts.
The Characters
As expected, such a compelling show, enjoying sensational ratings over several seasons, displays deep, and lasting character development coupled with incredible storytelling and drama.
The human condition is on display, in all its forms. Good, bad, evil, name it–it is all there for the viewing.
It is a perfect canvas for storytelling of the fiat collapse scenario. But, am I just seeing it that way because of my time here on tfmr? Is it a fair, and inescapable conclusion that we are slowly being taught what to expect when the currency fails?
The show’s main characters from the beginning are not all there anymore. Some key cast members have met a gruesome fate. They have been killed off, often violently, painfully, some with malice, some by stupidity, some just by chance. Some were killed by zombies, while the show makes a constant point that human beings are more dangerous than zombies.
No one is safe. Death can come at anytime.
The show highlights critical thinking, and emphasizes good decision-making. Time and time again, certain characters fall victim to impulse, and are killed. Many times, the weak among the characters, have their weakness exposed, exploited, to make a point, and are killed in gruesome fashion. There is evil, and there is just survival, and the show makes it clear that death from evil only comes at the hands of human beings, never zombies, who are merely following their base instinct to survive.
The main protagonists, Rick, Daryl, Carol, Glen, Maggie, Machon, Morgan, each with their own flaws, seemingly overcome the dire nature of their predicament, week in and week out. Other characters have come and gone. Race, age, gender, background are irrelevant, as all of them face the same challenges.
The commonalities among the survivors must be examined. To a person, they all share the following traits: they are critical thinkers, strong willed, emotional, caring for the greater good, and motivated beyond all reason to perpetuate their pitiful existence, even in the face of impossibly grim odds.
They all suffer from PTSD, yet seem to survive and not succumb to fatalism. Ones that did, are dead, usually eaten by zombies. Evil ones tend to get killed by humans.
There are some agitators. The very first one, Rick’s law enforcement partner, Shane, sure started out as a good guy, but his internal flaws revealed themselves over time. This was a eye-opening moment, as it showed even the perceived “good guys” are prone to fail under the exact same pressures that everyone else faces, and just because of someone’s title, or position, or one’s perception of them, not all is what it seems.
At the beginning, a poorly educated, socially disadvantaged character, Daryl, demonstrates strong anti-social behavior toward the group. His loyalty to his brother, left for dead by self-appointed new leader, Rick, turns out to ignite fierce internecine rivalry and conflict, which simmers throughout the seasons.
There are various evil leaders, all charismatic, but rotten to the core. Rick and his group outwit them all, losing some members along the way. The lessons here are that things are not always what they seem. By season four, the characters are all seasoned warriors, bound by common struggles, and a strong sense of demonstrated loyalty. Each of the characters has a role. There is a sole leader, who solely makes decisions, good or bad, which the group lives by. Others provide guidance and counseling to the leader, to provide a sound, wise basis for decision-making.
The lesson here, unmistakably so, is that survival situations can, and do create strange associations, with inherent conflict about roles, decision-making, and basic survival. The message is that only the strong survive, and the strong-willed had better have a sound, moral leader, or else they will be doomed to death.
The show has plenty of weak characters, too. Many are shown for their internal inability to handle any conflict. Young, old, weak, they all get eaten. Many become delusional, and go crazy. They all die, except one, Morgan, who comes back from his mental state through the guidance of a psychiatrist Morgan stumbles upon. Eventually, Morgan reverts back to his killing ways. What lesson did that teach? Sanctimonious, moral puffery is just that–it gets one killed or eaten in short order.
Lessons:
The show compels the dire conclusions among the living that weakness in the form of non-critical thinking, naked hope without solid planning and action are doomed.
As for the zombies, the realization came to me that they are truly the representation of the masses, as seen by the elites! They are all faceless, nameless, useless eaters. They are easily controllable. All it takes is bread and circuses due to a simple hard-wired, primitive instinct, easily manipulated. Does this not come to mind right here in the USA? Look at the bread and circuses, like 10 hours of free tv programming, on average, consumed by USA denizens, the free-shit army of takers, and the absence of any real critical-thinking, on any level.
Even the universities are beset by millenials, bent on getting their safe-space to express themselves, having been coddled by their baby-boomer generation parents who are now aging up, becoming dependent upon the state for medical care, shelter, food, the works.
With regard to money and currency and gold, all of these concepts are lost on the masses. Not one person in a thousand knows what constitutes “constitutional” money. [“The constitutional dollar in the United States is an "historically determinate, fixed weight of fine silver." The Coinage Act of 1792 is but one source among many that makes this evident, reading, "the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units … of the value [mass or weight] of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure … silver. The United States has a legal and constitutional silver standard, although we would not know it today, since the government has illegally and unconstitutionally removed silver as currency and replaced it with the Federal Reserve notes that we know as dollar bills. The term "dollar bills" obscures the actual and tangible meaning of "dollar" as a specific weight of silver. The United States has historically minted gold coins as well as silver coins, as the constitution instructed. It regulated their "value," the weight of gold they contained, in order to bring the meaning of a gold dollar into conformity with the silver standard coin, which contains 371.25 grains of pure silver. This too was constitutionally mandated. The overnment did the same for foreign coins up until 1857. The United States never was or could be constitutionally on a dual standard or a gold standard. It circulated silver and gold coins as media of exchange by adjusting the content of the gold dollar to a silver-standard dollar. For example, the Coinage Act of 1792 authorizes "Eagles — each to be of the value of ten dollars or units [i.e., of ten silver dollars], and to contain two hundred and forty-seven grains, and four eighths of a grain of pure … gold." Since the dollar contained 371.25 grains of silver, this brought into legal equivalence 3712.5 grains of silver and 247.5 grains of gold. The ratio was 1:15. In the Coinage Act of 1834, Congress adjusted the gold eagle: "Each eagle shall contain two-hundred and thirty-two grains of pure gold." This brought into legal equivalence 3712.5 grains of silver and 232 grains of gold. The ratio was 1:16. The reason for the change was that gold had appreciated in market value relative to silver.”]
So, in our society of today, the ignorant masses, unaware that their existence depends upon their very ignorance about constitutional money, have no understanding why their paper dollars buy less and less every single day. They watch their tv, they have discourse over their carefully programmed mass propaganda events [right vs. left, democratic vs. republican, etc.], all the while having no understanding that their existence is but primitive.
The elites control it all–except for extremely small groups who exist with knowledge, but which are too disconnected from one another to have any power over the elites or the dialogue at all. These small groups are like Rick and his followers. They survive, with knowledge of what really exists. They have no illusions, they are realists. These small groups believe in the time-tested protection of gold and silver, of constitutional money, of sharing knowledge to anyone who will listen. They–we–are survivors.
In real life, the zombies are everyone who still believes in the status quo, the western fiat currency model.
The Walking Dead is an awakening call for those who can hear. It portends the future, when the currency fails. It shows group dynamics, it shows decision-making, and the consequences of such decision-making, right or wrong, good or bad. It destroys popular survival myths, and demonstrates with some accuracy the reality of a world without western fiat currency hegemony, and what the living circumstances could be like in a collapse scenario.
Perhaps I am just putting too much emphasis on discrete messages from the show, perhaps not.
What I do know is that to properly prepare for whatever comes along, the concepts of critical thinking, group dynamics and survival scenarios all deserve careful study.
It is not too late. One’s fate is not permanently determined. One can choose. It is well past time to wake up.
Prepare accordingly.
