Whitehead focuses our attention on the significance of the zombie theme proliferating in contemporary American culture--something unfamiliar to me because I avoid what I consider as cultural trash. However, there are some important reasons why such entertainment is produced and consumed.
Fear and paranoia have become hallmarks of the modern American experience, impacting how we as a nation view the world around us, how we as citizens view each other, and most of all how our government views us. [my emphasis]
Nowhere is this epidemic of fear and paranoia more aptly mirrored than in the culture’s fascination with zombies, exacerbated by the hit television series The Walking Dead, in which a small group of Americans attempt to survive in a zombie-ridden, post-apocalyptic world where they’re not only fighting off flesh-eating ghouls but cannibalistic humans.