When in a zombie apocalypse is it ethical to use weapons in favor of protection and causing the death of zombies? In the movie Shaun of the Dead (2004),
an outbreak of a zombie apocalypse breaks out in London. Shaun, the main character, tries to
focus more as he goes through troubles with his girlfriend, mother, and
stepfather, and has a tense relationship with his housemate, Pete, because Ed,
his unemployed best friend lives on their couch. Shaun is employed at an
electronic store and has no
direction with his life. Liz, Shaun’s girlfriend,
becomes unhappy with their social life, as it always consists of hanging out at the
Winchester, Shaun and Ed’s favorite pub, never doing things alone. After a
miserable day at work, Shaun meets up with an old friend, Yvonne, who asks him
about him and Liz, and what they have planned for their anniversary. That
thought makes him remember that he promised Liz he would book a table at a
restaurant. Because of this the poor guy gets his heart broken when she breaks
the news that they are done. He drowns in his sorrows at Winchester pub with
Ed, where they later return home to Pete, who was assaulted and bitten by some junkies,
telling Shaun to sort out his life.
The next morning, an overwhelming
amount of zombies had fled the town, but Shaun had too many problems to notice.
He and Ed became cognizant of the tragic event after watching reports on TV,
but at that point it was too late as the zombies began to attack their house. As
frightened as they were, they got weapons out of their shed and began to fight
back, but realized they needed to flee the area and go somewhere secure. The safest place they thought of was Winchester, but before they went they collected Shaun’s mother, Barbara, Phillip, the stepdad, which who was already bitten, and Liz and her flat mates.
Shaun observes that Pete has become a zombie, so they take his car to go pick everyone up. They picked everyone up, but Phillip turned into a zombie, so all the others had to set off on foot to Winchester, where they ran into Yvonne and other survivors. The path had seemed to be covered with zombies, so they started to sneak around to get to the pub where Shaun and Ed got into a fight alerting all the zombies. After being in the pub for several hours, Shaun discovers a Winchester rifle above the bar that is useful to repel off the zombies. His mother reveals a bite that turned her into a zombie, which caused Shaun to be pressured into shooting her. They used a cocktail to set the bar on
fire where they escaped into the cellar, which suicide was contemplated because
they couldn’t find a way out, but discovered a service hatch to the ground
level. Ed stays to fight off the
zombies with the rifle since he was already wounded, and Shaun and Liz arrive
on the street where they prepare to fight the zombies for what they hoped was
the last time. The British Army arrived and rescued Shaun and Liz where they
both exhibited a sigh of relief. Months after the outbreak, the uninfected
return to their daily life, Liz and Shaun lived together. While the remaining
zombies were used for entertainment; for instance Shaun kept Ed in the shed where
he was locked up and played video games.
In the movie Shaun of the Dead, the
actions of Shaun would be what you would expect a Utilitarian to do. The theory
of utilitarianism states that
“One should benefit oneself only if
those acts benefit the whole of conscious life, where measurements of benefit
include both short- and long-term consequences.” (Salazar, 1393)
The aim of action for the theory of utilitarianism is to be
the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness
over the greatest number. Utilitarianists would say that Shaun was using
weapons to kill zombies for the greater good. Even though he may live with the
thought of killing his mother after she was bitten, he was still trying to save
the lives of others but not necessarily him, which favors the good of the whole
group risking his own life. Shaun is sacrificing his self for the lives of
others, even if it deals with killing his own mom or starting a fire to fight
off the zombies. Salazar wrote in an encyclopedia, “the benefit of the whole
requires self-sacrifice, especially for those able to substantially impact the
benefits that others receive,”(1393) demonstrates the thought of why Shaun was
using the Winchester rifle to execute the zombies. He wants to kill the zombies
that way they can’t bite any more people and take more lives and more people to
the “zombie world.”
Using
Immanuel Kant’s theory, Shaun’s action could be described in another manner.
Kant uses a law called categorical imperative, which “restricts what is
rational for people to want.” (Salazar, 1392) Along with utilitarianism, Kant believes that the actions are
not self-centered, but Kant’s belief is what is right and treating people
equally with respect. Even though Shaun had been having problems with his mom,
stepfather, and ex-girlfriend, they came to his mind to help bring them to a
safe place away from the zombies.He could have easily let them suffer and become a zombie but using Kant’s theory he did what was right and treated everyone equally.
I,
as a student of a philosophy class, believe that Shaun did the right thing by using weapons and products to start a fire to help destroy
the zombie population that way more people could survive. If Shaun would of let
them bite him, than the chance of there being any survivors are slim to none
because no one would have done what Shaun did for the town. There are greater number of people that survive when Shaun provides protection for others with a Winchester rifle found above the bar at the Winchester pub than if he were to not do anything.
References
Salazar, Heather. "Self-Interest," The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Series on Ethics and Morality, ed. by Robert Fastiggi. Gale Cengage Learning, 2013
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