Have you ever seen the classic zombie movie "Dawn of the Dead" by George A. Romero?

If not, I highly recommend it. A few years back they did a remake which was ok, but not nearly as good as the first. So go out, find the original made in 1978 and give it a whirl. There's a much deeper reason why you should watch this movie besides cheesy 1970's special effects gore. George Romero made it a point to use his zombie movies as social commentary and if one is able to look past the hollywood glitz you'll see that this movie carries a powerful message and criticism of our society.

For anyone who's not familiar with the flick, here's a quick synopsis (no spoilers);

The movie starts off with society in it's death throes- for whatever reason, the dead have turned into zombies who go after anyone living, wanting to feed on them. The army and police are doing their darndest to kill the walking dead left right and center, but on a planet with billions of people and only so many bullets and weapons, the deck is pretty much stacked against humanity. Despite their best attempts, the police and army are overwhelmed and forced to retreat from major cities, leaving them to the zombies. There's a cool scene where you see a TV station broadcasting evacuation notices go off the air as they get attacked by zombies and mayhem ensues.

Enter the main characters, a small band of assorted survivors who manage to get a helicopter and go airborne just as things are falling apart. They fly as long as they can looking for a safe place with fellow survivors but fuel is limited so eventually they set down on the roof of.....

A shopping mall!

Our motley crew of main characters sets about turning the mall into a fortress, venturing into the urban wasteland to steal big rigs that they use to build a wall around their new home (like a castle), barricade the entrances and so on. The mall is their refuge as it is a veritable oasis of plenty in an otherwise bleak world, and the few must defend it vigilantly so they can enjoy what little fat of the land remains inside. We see scenes that everyone has at one point in their lives, dreamed of, in which the heroes run rampant through stores sweeping armfuls of goods into overflowing shopping carts and then run out the door to do the same at the next shop, all without paying a dime.

Now of course life isn't all rosy. The reason why a wall has to built around the mall in the first place is that legions of the undead want to get in, as even though they've been turned into brainless killing machines a sliver of their former selves still lives on and they are drawn to the mall like moths to a flame.

One of the characters pontificates that it's because during their lives as humans, clearly the shopping mall was one of the most important places to them and so that's why they go to it even though they have lost all other faculties (speech, higher thought, emotion etc)

Now, the very powerful message behind all this zombie mayhem was a critique of the consumer culture that we've become. The zombies frightfully enough, represent us, the mindless consumer who goes out to buy simply because some dim spark inside of our TV-addled, pop-culture soul sucking shell of a mind tells us that it's good and will make us feel better.

Just as the zombie has the insatiable desire to feed on humans, as consumers we have the insatiable desire to buy shit. And just like the zombie there's no higher thought or reasoning behind this consumption. Now, in our distant past there was. In the 'olden' days, there was a tangible reason for going shopping- because you needed something and once in a very odd while, you'd reward yourself by getting something you wanted.

An example of a need is when you go to the hardware store to buy nails and lumber (among other things) so you can build a roof over your head, so that you'll have shelter. That's a need. Food is a need. Us humans have lots of needs actually, which go beyond the basic food/clothing/shelter mantra. But that's another topic entirely.

What is relevant, is that most of our needs as human beings simply aren't enough for today's economy, so WANT had to be manufactured. On the flipside, there are many human needs which really can't be easily monetized or commoditized and so those have been cut out of the discussion. More on that in a moment.

Going back to the end of WW2 we had all these factories sitting around with lots of production capacity but nothing to build. The decision of the time was to manufacture want, to cause people through artificial means to want products that they really didn't need. Cue the laundry detergent and toothpaste commercials in the middle of your favorite tv program. And not all of these wants are necessarily a bad thing. I for one, am quite happy to be able to wash my clothes in a washing machine and to brush my teeth.

But as with all things in life, balance is key. We've taken consumer want, which should be a portion of the economy (I don't know, let's say maybe 15 or 20 %?) and we've turned it into the be-all end-all of economics. If you don't believe me, look at third world countries that use what little arable land they have to produce cash crops  for export abroad while their people starve. People don't NEED coffee (well, some will tell you they do), rather it is a want. Same as putting those two sugars in your coffee, that is also a want.

Several volumes could be written cataloguing all the wants out there that have been manufactured artificially and again, not all of them are bad in and of themselves. When you step back and look at the big picture however, we see that the whole is much greater than the sum of it's parts. We've created a machine which creates and fuels artificial desire in human beings, while ignoring many needs that are deemed unprofitable or difficult to monetize, measure and quantify. This then leads to horrible abuses, and the loss of our very humanity all in the name of higher profits, lower prices and better bottom lines. More, more, more. We must constantly consume, or else the world will grind to an almighty halt we are told!

Just as the zombie is driven with the insatiable need to feed without knowing why, so too as consumers must we consume. We'll gladly flood every river on the planet with benzene and darken our skies with toxins and carcinogens so long as we can have our 1500 calories a day and an x-box chip implanted in our necks.

So, why the rant on zombies and consumerism?

It's black friday! Today, supposedly, is the day that us consumers are supposed to run rampant through corridors and trip our fellow shoppers in order to get the good deals before they do. Today, we are told, is the day we are supposed to do our duty as loyal consumers and buy all the shit we really don't need, like Ab-rockets and motion activated singing bass fish.

Just as the zombies flocked to the mall on a dim sliver of memory from a past life, we too are propelled out to buy, buy, buy!

And really, why not? Since many of our other needs that are too hard to quantize and monetize have been neglected, as a people we have a big empty gaping hole inside just waiting to be temporarily filled by all this meaningless junk that ultimately is just going to take up space in a dump somewhere.

And just like the zombie, nothing is ever good enough. The zombie never stops at some point and decides it is satisfied but rather must continually feast. So too must we consume endlessly, to get that little bit of temporary satisfaction that, for a little while makes us feel better inside.

So be a good zombie today, and flock to the mall. Remember, back after 9/11 the politicos wanted us to be filled with fear, but at the same time do our patriotic duty of spend, spend spend to keep the economy going.

So don't ask any questions. Don't stop and wonder about what your real needs are and how much of our lives have been filled with empty, manufactured wants. Just go out and buy as much cheap shit that you can get your paws on, and if anyone gets in your way make sure to stomp the hell out of them. It's every man for himself, after all!

Heaven forbid you ever stop to question the entire consumer based system we've created that allows for 5 % of the worlds population to consume almost 25 % of it's resources while 2.2 billion people (that's 1/3 of the human species) doesn't have regular access to potable drinking water. Maybe, just maybe, if you're really lucky, you can barricade yourself inside that last bastion of humanity, the fortified mall and enjoy one more shopping spree and trip to the food court before you too join the ranks of mindless zombies bashing away at the barricade outside.

Welcome to the dead nation gone shopping!