Revenge of the Zombies: Palin, Beck, Limbaugh and the Return of Dark Times

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Revenge of the Zombies: Palin, Beck, Limbaugh and the Return of Dark Times

Wednesday 02 June 2010

by: Henry A. Giroux, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed


(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: david_shankbone: 1, 2, echobase_2000, wvs: 1, 2, Digital Sextant, pinguino, Aaron R)


{H}e had found the bridge with which to span the abyss that yawns between the 'no longer and not"' yet of history, between the "no longer" of the old laws and "not yet" of the new saving word, between life and death: "Not quite here but yet at hand; that is how it has sounded and how it would sound." -Hannah Arendt


Armies of the Hyper-Dead


In the world of popular culture, zombies seem to be everywhere as evidenced by the relentless slew of books, movies, video games and comics. From the haunting "Night of the Living Dead" to the comic movie "Zombieland," the figure of the zombie has captured and touched something unique in the contemporary imagination. But the dark and terrifying image of the zombie with missing body parts, oozing body fluids and an appetite for fresh, living, human brains does more than feed the mass marketing machines that prey on the spectacle of the violent, grotesque and ethically comatose. There is more at work in this wave of fascination with the grotesquely walking hyper-dead than a Hollywood appropriation of the dark recesses and unrestrained urges of the human mind. The zombie phenomenon is now on display nightly on television alongside endless examples of destruction unfolding in real time. Such a cultural fascination with proliferating images of the living hyper-dead and unrelenting human catastrophes that extend from a global economic meltdown to the earthquake in Haiti to the ecological disaster caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico signal a shift away from the hope that accompanies the living to a politics of cynicism and despair. The macabre double movement between the living dead and those alive who are dying and suffering cannot be understood outside of the casino capitalism that now shapes every aspect of society in its own image. A casino capitalist zombie politics views competition as a form of social combat, celebrates war as an extension of politics and legitimates a ruthless social Darwinism in which particular individuals and groups are considered simply redundant, disposable - nothing more than human waste left to stew in their own misfortune - easy prey for the zombies who have a ravenous appetite for chaos and revel in apocalyptic visions filled with destruction, decay, abandoned houses, burned out cars, guttered landscapes and trashed gas stations.

The 21st century zombies no longer emerge from the grave; they now inhabit the rich environs of Wall Street and roam the halls of the gilded monuments of greed such as Goldman Sachs. As an editorial in The New York Times pointed out, the new zombies of free-market fundamentalism turned "the financial system into a casino. Like gambling, the transactions mostly just shifted money around. Unlike gambling, they packed an enormous capacity for economic destruction - hobbling banks that made bad bets, freezing credit and economic activity. Society - not the bankers - bore the cost."<1> In this way, the zombie - the immoral, sub-Nietzschean, id-driven "other" who is "hyper-dead," but still alive as an avatar of death and cruelty - provides an apt metaphor for a new kind of authoritarianism that has a grip on contemporary politics in the United States.<2> This is an authoritarianism in which mindless self-gratification becomes the norm, and public issues collapse into realm of privatized anger and rage. The rule of the market offers the hyper-dead an opportunity to exercise unprecedented power in American society, reconstructing civic and political culture almost entirely in the service of a politics that fuels the friend/enemy divide, even as democracy becomes the scandal of casino capitalism - its ultimate humiliation.

But the new zombies are not only wandering around in the banks, investment houses and death chambers of high finance; they have an ever increasing presence in the highest reaches of government and in the forefront of mainstream media. The growing number of zombies in the mainstream media have huge financial backing from the corporate elite and represent the new face of the culture of cruelty and hatred. Any mention of the social state, putting limits on casino capitalism and regulating corporate zombies puts Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh into a state of high rage. They disparage any discourse that embraces social justice, social responsibility and human rights. Appealing to "real" American values such as family, God and guns, they are in the forefront of a zombie politics that opposes any legislation or policy designed to lessen human suffering and promote economic and social progress. As Arun Gupta pointed out, they are insistent in their opposition to "civil rights, school desegregation, women's rights, labor organizing, the minimum wage, social security LGBT rights, welfare, immigrant rights, public education, reproductive rights, Medicare Medicaid."<3> They spectacularize hatred and trade in lies and misinformation. They make populist appeals to the people while legitimating the power of the rich. They appeal to common sense as a way of devaluing a culture of questioning and critical exchange. Unrelenting in their role as archetypes of the hyper-dead, they are misanthropes trading in fear, hatred and hyper-nationalism.

The human suffering produced by the walking hyper-dead can also be seen in the nativist apoplexy resulting in the racist anti-immigration laws passed in Arizona, the attempts to ban ethnic studies in public schools, the rise of the punishing state, the social dumping of millions of people of color into prisons and the attempts of Tea Party fanatics and politicians who want to "take back America" from President Barack Obama - described in the new lexicon of right-wing political illiteracy as both an alleged socialist and the new Hitler. Newt Gingrich joins Glenn Beck and other members of the elite squad of the hyper-dead in arguing that Obama is just another version of Joseph Stalin. For Gingrich and the rest of the zombie ideologues, any discourse that advocates for social protections, easing human suffering or imagining a better future is dismissed by being compared to the horrors of the Nazi holocaust. Dystopian discourse and end-times morbidity rule the collective consciousness of this group.

The "death panels" envisaged by Palin are not going to emerge from Obama's health care reform plan, but from the toolkits the zombie politicians and talking heads open up every time they are given the opportunity to speak. The death threats, vandalism and crowds shouting homophobic slurs at openly gay Sen. Barney Frank already speak to a fixation with images of death, violence and war that now grips the country. Palin's infamous call to a gathering of her followers to "reload" in opposition to President Obama's policies soon followed in a nationally televised press conference with a request for the American people to embrace Arizona's new xenophobic laws makes her one of the most prominent of the political zombies. Not only has she made less than vague endorsements for violence in many of her public speeches, she has cheerfully embraced the new face of white supremacy in her recent unapologetic endorsement of racial profiling, stating in a widely reported speech, "It's time for Americans across this great country to stand up and say, 'We're all Arizonans now.'" <4> The current descent into racism, ignorance, corruption and mob idiocy makes clear the degree to which politics has become a sport for zombies rather than engaged and thoughtful citizens.<5>

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http://www.truthout.org/revenge-zombies-palin-beck-limbaugh-and-return-dark-times59952