좀비 자유주의

Zombie Liberalism: Zombies Reviving Liberalism

In an attempt to convert "Zombie Liberalism," which is currently used to criticize American liberalism and even to signal its demise, into something that might help revive liberalism, this paper maps out some of the positive aspects of zombies and considers their potentials for liberalism. First of all, zombies that are being read, seen and watched have traditionally represented various philosophical and social issues related to human nature, colonialism, capitalism, technology and so forth. As such, zombies can offer criticisms of those human and social conditions that cause such issues, and by paying attention to what zombies can offer, liberalism will be able to take a critical review of its own involvement in and contribution to the same conditions. Furthermore, in popular culture, zombies as non-rational dead humans now bring out various emotive effects-not only fear and disgust but laughter and diversion. In so doing, they redefine emotions as the means by which one responds to and identify others-dead, alive or undead. This emotive potential of zombies can undo liberalism's preoccupation with rational human beings as social constituents and rejuvenate recent liberal theorists' interests in emotional human beings as liberal subjects. Finally, zombie outbreaks are oftentimes caused by human-centered technological and social programs that are responsible for global ecological problems, so zombies can send out warning to people, including liberals, about those programs' catastrophic outcomes. Drawing upon critical abilities represented in/by zombies, those engaging in zombie performances, especially zombie protesters witnessed in "Occupy Wall Street" and other similar events, enact what might be called "theatrical liberalism." While utilizing zombies' abilities to criticize issues at hand and also playing with various emotions that they evoke, zombie performers redefine the scene of their protests as a place where they can strip off their pre-determined social identities, which have turned them into both victimizers and victims of social injustice and oppression. Thus free of their previous identities, zombie protesters may be able to rebuild new identities from scratch. Performing zombies can thus lead to creating diverse voices and identities, which in turn help build up a pluralistic society, one that has always been envisioned by liberalism.