The Fire Nation

HSS 206-01
Prof. Grieve
April 12, 2016

Us Against Them: A Look at the Zombie Phenomena in Media, Culture, and Spiritual Life
This is the next world. I hope its good to you guys
-Paul Jesus Rovia, The Walking Dead

Left 4 Dead is a cooperative team-play versus computer-controlled opposition firstperson shooter1 game from Valve Software in which players fight for survival during the on
going zombie apocalypse. A note-worthy campaign of the game is Death Toll - The Church.
Players find themselves seeking safety at a church where another survivor is held up; however,
they must fight off an incoming horde to gain entry. Zombies are not usually seen as religious or
holy beings, but rather flesh-eating ghouls, of some biological mishap, that have invaded
modern culture by way of film, literature, and video games.2 There is, however, a very real
religious aura to these creatures because of their influence on popular culture and apocalyptic
nature. These creatures not only entertain, but bring up the question of killing and when it
becomes, if it ever becomes, moral to do so. It is important to examine this aspect of killing, and
zombies prevalence in popular culture provides examples with which research can be done.
Popular culture is almost religious in its own way, and zombies are a large part of this.
Just as in the practice of religion, the practice of gaming or film watching, which has become a
part of modern day popular culture, happens in An enclosed space...separated from the world
1 Larsen, Emil. 2009. "Left 4 Dead." Personal Computer World. https://login.libproxy.uncg.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/213520289?accountid=14604.

2 Drezner, Daniel W. 2014. "Metaphor of the Living Dead: Or, the Effect of the Zombie Apocalypse on Public Policy
Discourse." Social Research 81 (4): 825-849,980. https://login.libproxy.uncg.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1653104021?accountid=14604.

and from life. People tend to game or watch films in one particular area. Most households have
an area designated for watching TV and playing video games, for example. Similarly, religious
rituals have their own designated places to occur such as churches, synagogues and temples for
religious services. In each of these settings an individual can escape their ordinary existence,
making the whole event sacred in its own right.3 The fact that zombies have taken hold of not
only the gaming industry with games such as the Left 4 Dead series, Resident Evil, and even Call
of Duty, but also the film and publishing industries with World War Z, Warm Bodies, and The
Walking Dead, 4 incites the idea that zombies have the same religious qualities as the popular
culture they are a part of. Popular culture gives a glimpse into societys views and feelings
towards various social issues that face the common people who typically engage in folk culture.
The group of people who engage in folk culture also engage in zombie culture. However,
zombies are more than a genre of entertainment, they exist in our culture to express feelings in
our society. According to Erik Vance zombies have much more societal influence than they may
appear to at the surface, Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), one of the most profitable horror
movies ever, explores issues of race, class, and consumerism - - it is set in a shopping mall -- as
its living characters prepare for the inevitable attack of the zombies.5
A zombie apocalypse brings about more than a mere battle for survival in the physical
world. The presence of life after death in the physical world brings about new questions of
spiritual concern. According to Paul Tillich, Faith is the state of being ultimately
3 Riley, Alexander T. 2005. "The Theory of Play / Games and Sacrality in Popular Culture: The Relevance of Roger Caillois for
Contemporary Neo-Durkheimian Cultural Theory." Durkheimian Studies 11 (1): 103-114.

4 Drezner, Daniel W. 2014. "Metaphor of the Living Dead: Or, the Effect of the Zombie Apocalypse on Public Policy
Discourse." Social Research 81 (4): 825-849,980. https://login.libproxy.uncg.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1653104021?accountid=14604.

5 Vance, Erik. 2007. Course Explores the History and Subtext of Zombies in Popular Culture

concerned...some of them are urgent, often extremely urgent, and each of them as well as the
vital concerns can claim ultimacy for a human life or the life of a social group6 meaning that as
humans our faith is the most important thing to us as the world is ending. When placed in the
context of zombies the spiritual concerns of man are manifested as vital concerns of survival. In
Left 4 Dead, current survivors of the zombie apocalypse are driven by the necessity of survival
for their mortal lives but as well as their immortal state. Some note that when people end up in a
situation where reality is the only remaining constant, engagement with reality becomes the
necessity of being. Poulos comment on spirituality and religion come into play when he states,
there is no ONE GREAT ANSWER. Despite all the dogma-manufacturing machines and the
long human chase after the ULTIMATE REALITY, the ultimate, final great secret is, simply, that
there is no end to the search...there is only the search7. Within the confines of an apocalyptic
world remaining humans can only engage with the search within reality for any form of
meaningful existence and survival. This sets up spiritual concern to be just as much an
adversarial role that plays against the characters wellbeing.
While Left 4 Dead contains plenty of violence not typically associated with religion, the ties
between the two are evident. In order to escape the violence players seek safety in a church in the
Death Toll - The Church, level and even in a parish in the games second installment Left 4
Dead 2. This inclusion of a religious symbol as a safe haven exemplifies some religious qualities
to the game. Additionally, there is no religion without violence. An example of this includes the
Christian Crusades, in which people were told if they fought in the wars they would be
guaranteed eternal salvation in return for their sacrifices. In this instance, violence was
6 Paul Tillich. Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper Torch Books, 1957), 1
7 Pollous, Christopher. Spirited Accidents: An Autoethnography of Possibility (University of North Carolina at
Greensboro Sage Publications, 2010), 51

encouraged and men were even promised a reward for participating in violence. In this way
violence is associated with religion because it is in a context that is approved by the church and
therefore God in the eyes of the Christians fighting.
The religious meaning promoted through violence associated with the game is best
explained when Rachel Wagner writes,
As Friedland and Hecht point out, violence is a form of communication, and symbolic
violence, especially in sacred spaces, is an adjunct to material violence, used by one
group of people to mobilize their communities against another one, and to make their
definition of reality the dominant one, to demonstrate the ultimate powerlessness of the
other, and to redefine the other as radically alien, as profane.8
Therefore, violence in a sacred place such as a church, synagogue, temple, or other place of
worship is considered moral by religion because of its context, as opposed to violence occurring
just for the sake of violence.
Many religions have some story for the end of the world; when it will happen, how, and
for what reason. The idea of a zombie apocalypse (the dead rising and killing the existing human
population) is often seen as one of the ways the world will end in popular culture, whether or not
we believe in its possibility. A genetic mutation bringing death too many is not unlikely, but to
what extent no one can know. However, plagues have occurred within Earths and mans history
and continue to do so even today.
According to most people and religions, killing another human being is not a morally just
act. Killing in self-defense is acceptable under the law. Killing animals is morally justified for
many. So, when a human reverts to its animalistic instincts, can it be killed? Are zombies still
people? Left 4 Dead seems to suggest that they arent. The act of uninfected humans going to
hide in churches as safe houses, but not the zombies, is an example of how the zombies may not

8 Wagner, Rachel. 2015. This is not a game: Violent Video Games, Sacred, Space and Ritual

be considered people any longer; they are not behaving in a manner that seems appropriate given
the circumstances. Instead they are seen as something we as humans need protection from. The
zombies do not participate in human activities such as religion. They do not care about any
human needs or wants, they simply want to kill and eat humans. Therefore it is not seen as
morally corrupt in the game to kill zombies. The provision of a church as a safe house is a way
of implying that religion for some is their ultimate concern. When faced with a life threatening
situation many people will flee to what is considered sacred architecture in order to find safety
and if not, hopefully salvation.
Zombies are an important topic given their prevalence in the modern entertainment
world. Between books, movies, TV shows and video games, zombies can be seen just about
everywhere. They have become an integral part of our popular culture as Americans, and with
zombies come many other facets of our culture including religion and violence. Religion can be
incorporated in video games like Left 4 Dead where the safe house is a church. While violence is
inevitable in a zombie related game, it can also bring up moral questions of when it is okay to
kill and when it is not okay to kill. Through our research we have found that killing zombies is
viewed as morally just by society due to their inhuman like qualities. They are bloodthirsty and
will kill anyone they can to survive. Therefore, the only way you can interact with them is to
either fight them, or be killed by them. Since such an action is done in self-defense, it is viewed
as morally acceptable to kill zombies.