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Individual Blog Post From Aaron Smith
Tuesday, November 4th 2014
Posted Tue Nov 4 2014 17:41
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Watching the most recent episode of the Walking Dead, "Slabtown," and the following episode of Talking Dead, made me think of the political messaging of the show, something remarkable as the show is fairly apolitical. However, the fallen police officer Dawn trying to justify her misrule to Beth in terms that are almost explicitly communist. Then, in the discussion afterwards, John Barrowman of Arrow, first tried to tie the speech to Sarah Palin and then justified the notion that in this world, slavery would be a reasonable response. His Palin comment was deeply ironic, since the closest Dawn came to Palin was her use of a rough and ready death panel.
So didn't land on the politics, it landed on me. But if you think about it, this sort of world, in which people will be essentially rebuilding society, makes the perfect tableau to play with the political and social theories underlying the new world. Indeed, in his excellentBlack Tide Rising series, John Ringo's protagonist agonizes that the rebuilding phase is essentially a Communism he despises but he is also consciously working to get away from it as soon as possible.
But in "Slabtown," Dawn runs what is essentially a slave society based upon people receiving what they need from those who have the means. Of course, much like the broken down horse in Animal Farm, when your usefulness runs out, it's glue factory time. As she sends out teams to "save" people and bring them back to the hospital where they can work off her debt, Dawn and her nomenklatura have all the guns and all the perks. This even includes a creepy underling who has his way with the women and Dawn using Beth as a whipping girl when she cannot hit the doctor who frustrates her.
Thus as always with communism, rules and deprivation for the proles and perks for those at the top. Displeasure with this is dealt with by the sap and Sig.
In contrast is Rick's group. There, families are the unit of survival and protection, as to both individual families and the overall larger "families" that form as these groups meet. Indeed, people do insane things to protect their families, things that would be considered completely irrational. Guns and weapons are not the tools of the elite but given to each member of the group but are spread out because each is expected to contribute to their defense.
Individuals are also free to leave. Though Rick and Abraham almost come to blows over the issue, a split is allowed. Ditto Glen being allowed to leave the incredibly mission oriented Abraham's band to try and find his wife - again, family triumphs over all.
I don't know if the messaging of the individualist versus the collectivists is intended but it is certainly interesting.