The US CDC in Atlanta Wants to Help You Prepare for Zombie Assault

The US Centers for Disease Control has released a graphic novel: "Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic." Here is the PDF download link for a text version of the "get ready for a zombie pandemic" graphic novel.

Our new graphic novel, "Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic" demonstrates the importance of being prepared in an entertaining way that people of all ages will enjoy. Readers follow Todd, Julie, and their dog Max as a strange new disease begins spreading, turning ordinary people into zombies. Stick around to the end for a surprising twist that will drive home the importance of being prepared for any emergency. Included in the novel is a Preparedness Checklist so that readers can get their family, workplace, or school ready before disaster strikes. _CDC_via_USAT

Zombies are not merely fictional monsters that we use to scare ourselves silly. Zombies are metaphors, stand-ins for people and things that we would like to be able to "deal with properly," but for one reason or another we have chosen not to.

In a zombie enactment such as one of the popular TV shows or motion pictures which feature these hordes of walking dead flesh-eaters, one might ask himself which he would rather be: a zombie, or one of the dwindling numbers of normal humans that get to kill as many zombies as they are able to do.

Here is where the parallel to real life begins to break down: In real life, anyone can be a "brain-dead zombie." But it is generally not permissible to shoot them between the eyes, or to take their heads off with a large knife -- unless you are a jihadi or otherwise on the front lines of some war or another.

This asymmetry in permissibility favours the zombie side of the equation even more than in the zombie movies. That is why you may want to read the CDC graphic novel, Preparedness 101. Then spend a little time thinking about what "zombies" actually represent in real life. And finally, consider permissible ways in which you can metaphorically "kill the zombies" in real life, without being sent to prison or a mental hospital for the criminally insane for the rest of your life.