Friday, October 23, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Swine Flu, it's coming to get you and eat your flesh!!
My mother called me on Thursday during classes just to tell me that a middle schooler, a twelve year old little girl from our county died last week of swine flu. You could hear the concern and worry in her voice as she frantically relayed the story about the out-of-nowhere onset and the girl’s lack of contact with anyone who was “infected.”
Although I was more than appreciative of my mother’s concern for my health and well-being, she’s playing into the mania that is the fear of swine flu. This scare, hysteria, paranoia, panic, whatever you want to call it, is something that is directly brought on from years and years of science fiction zombie movies.
Take the recent movie Quarantine, for example – a movie that might be a little questionable in merit and not exactly a huge hit in the box office, was scary in itself because of the fact that the infection, ailment, disease, etc, is a mutation of something that would otherwise be considered normal and (although not by any means safe), usually easily-handled – rabies. This mirrors the swine flu considerably, since the regular seasonal flu is something that has ravaged our society for years upon years, whereas swine flu is a new strain that we just don’t seem to be able to deal with, yet. The thought of this scary mutation theory is twisted even more by the thought that someone might have manufactured it to victimize the human condition of which we’re so fond. Movies like this, where infection spreads quickly and symptoms take effect even quicker sending the victims into a zombie-like frenzy, are no doubt the reason why the regular populous fears something unknown, the swine flu, so damn much.
It’s as if those infected with the “influenza like symptoms” are going to fall down, get back and start eating each other and everyone else. Or, the whole human race is going to be infected one way or another, except of course for some lucky duck who’s immune and survives even after the government turns in on its own people, I am Legend style.
Paranoia is no doubt the name of the game. People are worried about the unknown, which is completely normal and expected, but the over-preparation and over-whelming anxiety is going to do nothing to ease the spread of the malady, minus practical applications of disease prevention. I feel like every time someone coughs or sneezes on campus or anywhere else, people instinctively slide a little bit further away, or take a step back, as if being anywhere within a twenty foot radius will mean instant death. It’s like the scenes in Dawn of the Dead where the surviving group of uninfected people shoot the individuals who are infected in the head to prevent them from turning into a mindless, flesh-eating zombie, in order to ensure the survival of the whole group. Only our weapons aren’t shot guns and 9 mm hand guns, but disinfectant spray, hospital masks and an over-whelming abundance of hand sanitizer.
I completely expect that after all of this hype is over, the “pandemic” is situated and everything is quite literally history, the SyFy Channel will produce a B rated movie about the whole thing as their so famous for doing. Only, to make it interesting, (because in all reality, it killed just about the same, if not less than the season flu) those infected with the flu will turn green, grow pig snouts and begin eating and infecting everyone else, being only defeated by a meat cleaver to the head. It won’t really be a stretch in the public’s eye, however, since that’s how it’s seemingly being treated.
Although I was more than appreciative of my mother’s concern for my health and well-being, she’s playing into the mania that is the fear of swine flu. This scare, hysteria, paranoia, panic, whatever you want to call it, is something that is directly brought on from years and years of science fiction zombie movies.
Take the recent movie Quarantine, for example – a movie that might be a little questionable in merit and not exactly a huge hit in the box office, was scary in itself because of the fact that the infection, ailment, disease, etc, is a mutation of something that would otherwise be considered normal and (although not by any means safe), usually easily-handled – rabies. This mirrors the swine flu considerably, since the regular seasonal flu is something that has ravaged our society for years upon years, whereas swine flu is a new strain that we just don’t seem to be able to deal with, yet. The thought of this scary mutation theory is twisted even more by the thought that someone might have manufactured it to victimize the human condition of which we’re so fond. Movies like this, where infection spreads quickly and symptoms take effect even quicker sending the victims into a zombie-like frenzy, are no doubt the reason why the regular populous fears something unknown, the swine flu, so damn much.
It’s as if those infected with the “influenza like symptoms” are going to fall down, get back and start eating each other and everyone else. Or, the whole human race is going to be infected one way or another, except of course for some lucky duck who’s immune and survives even after the government turns in on its own people, I am Legend style.
Paranoia is no doubt the name of the game. People are worried about the unknown, which is completely normal and expected, but the over-preparation and over-whelming anxiety is going to do nothing to ease the spread of the malady, minus practical applications of disease prevention. I feel like every time someone coughs or sneezes on campus or anywhere else, people instinctively slide a little bit further away, or take a step back, as if being anywhere within a twenty foot radius will mean instant death. It’s like the scenes in Dawn of the Dead where the surviving group of uninfected people shoot the individuals who are infected in the head to prevent them from turning into a mindless, flesh-eating zombie, in order to ensure the survival of the whole group. Only our weapons aren’t shot guns and 9 mm hand guns, but disinfectant spray, hospital masks and an over-whelming abundance of hand sanitizer.
I completely expect that after all of this hype is over, the “pandemic” is situated and everything is quite literally history, the SyFy Channel will produce a B rated movie about the whole thing as their so famous for doing. Only, to make it interesting, (because in all reality, it killed just about the same, if not less than the season flu) those infected with the flu will turn green, grow pig snouts and begin eating and infecting everyone else, being only defeated by a meat cleaver to the head. It won’t really be a stretch in the public’s eye, however, since that’s how it’s seemingly being treated.
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