The Walking Stoic: how AMC's most popular show serves as a Stoic lesson

Cosmopolitans of the post-apocalyptic world

Watch out! Walkers!!!

Like it or not, AMC's flagship series, The Walking Dead, has successfully completed 5 seasons, keeping the viewers glued to their seats with the same ol' zombie spectacle. Well, not totally, because contrary to many other zombie fictions, such as the Resident Evil films, oldies like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead, etc, The Walking Dead focuses more on realistic survivalism, as demonstrated by Rick and his ragtag group of multiethnic, multicultural friends. Although the zombies (called walkers by Rick and his gang) play an important part in the series - without them the storyline would be invalid - they are presented as a passive element in the series. The active component is the group of humans, as they manage to fend off one after another zombie attack, all the while gathering food, water and other basic necessities in a post-apocalyptic world.

I had to write this far, because I don't believe everyone here is familiar with the show. After all, there are tonnes of shows nowadays, and it's not very Stoic to stay tuned to the TV set. Anyway, if you aren't familiar with the show, there's always Wikipedia for brushing up the facts. So, on to the purpose of the article.

How can a popular sci-fi, dystopian show serve as a Stoic lesson?

It is important to develop a patient, well-informed and systematic perspective about anything in the world, before we learn to cultivate the latent lessons that it can enrich us with. And the same principle holds true in this scenario as well, especially so I'd say. For some, The Walking Dead might be nothing more than AMC's unholy attempt to grab a slice of the TRP, all the while filling the viewers' heads with mercilessly meaningless gibberish about zombies, and some uber-macho survivors (who manage to look cool despite starving and living from hand to mouth!).

But simultaneously, it can serve as a great analogy. And that's what we're trying to discuss here.

Hedonic adaptation

Ok, so the first season of the TWD introduces Rick and his ragtag gang. The folks have, virtually, nothing to eat. Each day, they have to go scavenging, break into houses (the zombified residents aren't too happy about it), grab all eatables (no matter how rotten and stale they have turned), fight zombies, get dirty (with decyaing zombie parts, blood, rotten flesh and related mess), lose a member or two, and yet manage to turn up back at the camp, grinning like there's no tomorrow. And even the world of Game of Thrones is safer than than in TWD, because at least Tyrion, Sansa, Baslish, Jon Snow and a few others manage to stay alive there. In here, none other than Rick is safe - not even Carl (read Kowrl, as Rick calls his lad), I believe.

Not my ideal home, folks!

Jokes aside, we see how the group of survivors manages to, well, survive. They have no food security, no guaranteed electricity, no Internet, no police, no hospital. It shows us an important point, hedonic adaptation. In Professor Irvine's book A guide to a good life: the ancient art of Stoic joy, he discusses this in detail. Whatever new utility or convenience becomes available to us, we begin to take it for granted sooner or later. For example, once I was playing a game of Wesnoth (an open-source turn-based strategy game) with a few guys. One was from the US, while two were from Australia. The fourth was from Russia, and the firth hailed from Ghana. As the sixth player, I was from India. All of a sudden, a sudden revelation came to me, how great it is, that we are playing this game with each other, even when thousands of miles physically separates us? Shouldn't we all be thankful for that?

Alas! When I voiced my opinion, everyone else started laughing. One of them told me that my feeling was much like gas, and it'd go away in due course. This is the reason behind this deep-rooted mentality of dissatisfaction that modern man feels.

TWD, like other dystopian presentations, shows us that the conveniences we enjoy, as modern men, aren't constant, universal and eternal. In fact, they're very, very recent, when we look at history. And no, the Internet doesn't grow on trees. All these utilities had to be mentally conceived, developed, marketed, debugged and upgraded, and all this has been done by the human civilization, guided by the Logos within, aka our reason. Almost anything and everything we enjoy, is the gift of reason.

And hedonic adaptation, in my opinion, is a sin against the Logos. Of course, I use the term sin in proper sense here (to sin is to miss the mark, as per the ancient Greek roots of the word). We have so much, and yet, like mechanical beasts, we crave for more, more and even more! Much like the Vikings portrayed in the History TV series of the same name... Nothing manages to quench our insatiable thirst for more consumer gadgets, the latest, trendy clothes, best food and drinks, worldly power and reputation. And yet, the moment we achieve them, we forget their worth, and start taking them for granted.

Conveniences in life should be seen as privileges, and not as rights. By cultivating this sense of profound wonder, acceptance and gratitude from within, man can realize the worth, the value of all those things that he has in his power, his immediate possession.

Strength lies in unity 

We all have heard the story of the father, who teaches his son that strength lies in unity, by making him attempt to break a single stick first (successfully so), and telling him to try it with a bundle of sticks later. This is what Stoicism teaches us - United we stand, divided we fall.

The society is an important aspect of Stoicism. As servants of the Logos, we must learn to erase our differences, as Seneca and Epictetus would have told us. Even before the Roman Stoics, the early fathers of the Stoa Poikile, such as Zeno and Chrysippus, taught the world to reject all artificial differences - racism, sexism, militant nationalism, the difference between rich and poor - to create a happier society. The Stoics famously rejected slavery, and advocated the equality of men and women.

Welcome to Woodbury, vote for Phillip Blake!

Complex and stable systems emerge, as we see in physics, when simpler compotents (underlying it) interact, and work together. Thus, while your RAM card or the UPS might have little value independently, together they work to build one of the greatest inventions of all time, the computer. The same is true for the human society, we must learn to work together.

In the third season of TWD, we meet the settlement of Woodbury. Basically, around 80 men and women have come together, fortified a part of a town, created a post-apocalyptic society based on rules and organization. While smaller groups continue scrounging the garbage outside, the folks at Woodbury have clean water, enough food, roofs over their heads, security and (even) entertainment. They have guards patrolling their perimeter, nurses and doctors to look after the sick, schools that function, and even their own (not so) good governor!

By dividing labour and specializing tasks between them, the people of Woodbury play their destined roles - some as guards, others as gatherers, doctors, nurses and so on. What would otherwise be impossible for one man, is performed effortlessly by the society. This is why Zeno and Chrysippus advised us to recognize (and regard) ourselves as cosmopolitans, citizens of cosmos.

Rishi Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, one of the greatest writers during the Bengali Renaissance, famously remarked "Whatever creates divisions amongst human beings, is destructive and disruptive, and thus, evil. Whatever, on the contrary, unifies us, is good". 

Differences are artificial

In the first season, the racist goon Merle call T-Dawg a nigger, to which Rick replies that there are no races any longer, only black meat, and white meat. And zombies show equal appetite for both, anyway. Given the chance, they'll be equally happy to munch Merle's humerus or crunch T-Dawg's femur, if you excuse the pun. Well, zombies aren't racists, at least!

The human organism is unique, in that, we have the voice of reason, the breath of Logos, to guide us. Yet, owing to our baser, animalistic instincts, we create differences nonetheless. A shinning example of India's (in)famous caste system, which benefitted a few, at the cost of the rest's tears. Even by flipping the system upside down, and creating a society in which the Shudras enjoy the party and the Brahmins kick the dust, no solution will emerge. What's the solution, then?

Equality - of all castes, classes, genders, nationalities - is the need of the hour. This is what Stoicism advocates. All men and women have the power to reason, and they all, then, are equals (initially). And depending upon how Stoically they manage to live, they can then cause their own upliftment, or downfall.

Hershel Greene, the grand old man of TWD 

Hershel Greene

Hershel, the beloved old farmer in the series, is an excellent example of what a Stoic should be. Initially, he's living quite undisturbed in his farm, with his family. He tries his best to cure his zombified wife and stepson, among others, and still manages to plant crops and vegetables to feed his family, all the while doubling as a doctor. When he sees that his initial hypothesis (that zombies are still alive) is wrong, he patiently accepts his mistake, and changes his outlook. Later, he becomes Rick's main advisor, always serving as the voice of reason and intelligence in the series, till the moment of his death (damn you, governor!).

Hershel, famously, believes. He considers the apocalypse to be some sort of divine punishment, or the Nature's way of bettering itself. Obviously, not everyone will agree with him, at least no the atheists among us (myself included). But, while I laughed at Hershel at first, I began to see how Stoically he acted (in the ancient sense of the word). 

Epictetus told us to embody our philosophies, rather than explain it. And Hershel, in the patient, composed and responsible manner he acts, lives up to the validity of the maxim. Rather than trying to justify his beliefs to the realist Rick or the pessimist Andrea, he keeps to himself, all the while doing his duty. Even his death, in my opinion, is something he accepts in a Stoic manner.

Hershel's stoic predicament is especially visible in the fourth season, when the group experiences a flu outbreak. People are dying left and right, there's little hope of getting any medication, and the flu's very contagious, yet Hershel enters the quarantine block, helps everyone stay alive, does everything in his power (even risking his own life, both to the flu and the zombified dead) to combat the situation. Isn't this how we all should learn to act?

To be a hero is not to risk our lives needlessly. Instead, the real heroism lies in the performance of our destined duties. The real immortality lies more in our successful enactment of our roles, rather than in the possibility of infinite extension of the extent of our lives. This is what Hershel Greene, my favourite character in the show (sorry Daryl), teaches us.

Conclusion 

Ramkrishna Paramhamsa, an important socio-religious reformer of the 19th century, advised us "Be like the swan, as it laps the milk alone, from a mixture of milk and water". Thus, the cultural phenomena such as The Walking Dead can mean different things to different people. But being the Stoic aspirants we are, it is our duty to recognize the better part, the crux of them all, and learn from them. That's why, I chose to relate popular culture with Stoicism, in this post.

Image credits

walkingdead.wikia.com
http://blog.upack.com