My Bestfriend, Zombie

          In the oddly romantic film Warm Bodies, we are confronted with a different kind of blood sucking zombie movie that most of us are use to. The film is based around the romantic relationship that was developed between a woman named Julie, who is human, and a man named "R" who is a zombie. The story is portrayed through the eyes of R and what he experienced through his everyday zombie life. R spends his days wondering around an airport which is filled with his fellow undead friends where they communicate with the occasional grunt or moan. Like the typical zombie, R craves the taste for human flesh, especially brains because he is able to "feel alive" through his victims. One day while R was out on his daily hunt for human blood, he encountered Julie and a group of her friends. R is instantly drawn to Julie. After attacking Julie's boyfriend and eating his brains, he is given thoughts and memories of Julie which makes him even more attracted to her. This connection pushes him to save her from the rest of the flesh eating pack and bring her to saftey.
       

        Say this was to happen to you in real life, and you became face to face with a zombie who was trying to help you instead of kill you, what would you do? Would it be ethical to befriend such a creature in the hopes to learn something from them, and possibly save the lives of thousands or to escape back home to safety? In Julie's case, she was intreged and wanted to know more about R because maybe he held an important message that everyone needed to hear. She decides to stay with R. Its true that many of us make irrational decisions at some point in our lives, but what if Julie's decision could possibly save the lives of her entire community, and that of the zombies as well. As we step into the world of ethics, there are many things that can justify Julie's decision, and possibly
conflict with it as well.

      At a Kantianism stand point, Julie's decision would be going against some views of this perspective. Kant believes that we all act on our own instincts, but when we are about to act on our instincts we must use our rational will and evaluate our future actions. When Julie made the decision to stick with R, she did not think through about her decision and the possible consequences of her actions. Julie acted out on her own selfishness so she could learn more about R. Although Julie's irrational decision making went against Kantianism, there may be something here that Kant could believe in. The Categorical Imperative of Kantianism insists in treating other as "equal worthy"(Salazar 1392). Julie's befriending R means that she did not exclude R from her journeys, or think of him as anything less than she was. He was a person who needed to be helped, just like her. Although seeing a zombie as equal worth to yourself is hard, but Julie was able to accept all the horrible things that had happened and move on. Utilitarianism, another ethical perspective, focuses on maximizing pleasure while minimizing pain in ones life choices. So, when someone is to make a decision, they should take into consideration "both the short and the long term consequences"when measuring the advantages of a particular situation (Salazar 1393). For Julie, the short term consequences of sticking around with R would be that she misses her family and being in a comfortable human environment. This consequence would not be pleasurable to Julie. A long term consequence that could arise could be the possibility of her getting bit while in zombie territory, and then essentially turning into a zombie herself. This consequence would in no way be pleasurable for Julie.

      Its hard to really say what one would REALLY do if you encountered a Gentle zombie. Although many's first reaction would be to kill that zombie weather or not they are good or bad, while others may choose Julie's path and trust them. In my own opinion, I feel Julie made a irrational, selfish decision. She acted on instincts and didn't rationalize her actions and think about the possible consequences of her actions, which went completely against Kant in which its important to hold our desires in check. Although in the end she was found a hero for saving her people and many zombies, not many theorists would agree with her decision making.



References:

Salazar, Heather. "Self-Interest," The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Series on Ethics and Morality, ed. by Robert Fastiggi. Gale Cengage Learning, 2013

Salazar, Heather. "Kantian Business Ethics," in Business in Ethical Focus, ed. Fritz Allhoff and Anand J. Vaidya. Broadview Press, 2008