Blogpost # 5: Fantasy or Reality: Zombie Apocalypse Conspiracy Theories

The Beatles is a Grammy award winning band that bloomed from early 1980s. They are the singer of different classical songs such as Stairaway to Heaven, I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Till There Was You. But have you heard about the conspiracy theory about them? That Paul McCartney died even before they make their 11th studio album, the Abbey Road? That he was replaced by a look alike throughout their career? How about the 9/11 attack conspiracy theory that it was planned all along by the American themselves?

According to www.merriam-webster.com, conspiracy theory is a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators. If a specific event is covered up or secretly hidden to people, it is already considered an act of conspiracy. It becomes a theory because it is just a proposition. Meaning, there's no particular decision whether the act of conspiracy is real or not. Likewise to what this post is all about, the zombie itself is not an exception for having different kinds of conspiracy theories.

A lot of site will give you different list of conspiracy theories involving zombies. But I've found a most accurate article from www.followingthenerd.com. An article from the site entitled, "CONSPIRACY CORNER: The Zombie Apocalypse" by Marc focuses only on the three most popular zombie apocalypse conspiracy theory. He ranked it according to which among the three is most-well known and most talked about.

The first from his list is the most controversial Dulce Base in New Mexico. For history diggers and alien geeks, it a basic knowledge for them that Mexico is really a place where countless of alien sightings have been reported. Going back, according to the article, that this base is manipulated by alien life force. These aliens have partnered to the government scientists in return to the favor the aliens gave us; advanced knowledge and technology. The author also stated that these government scientists are allowing these aliens to do whatever experiment they wanted. And one of this experiment is creating a certain virus that can turn the whole human race into this "living dead."

The second is the conspiracy theory about the Nazi experiments. Even after the end of World War II, Nazis still remain mysterious. Named as the most terrifying war group who created the most terrible holocaust to the history of the world, most of the Nazi members are best and brightest scientist. Moreover, a Nazi physician and SS Officer named Josef Mengele is believed to be the one responsible in experiments pertaining to the creation of zombies. According to Marc or according to what this conspiracy theory is all about, Jewish prisoners during these times are the main subject to Mengele's experiment. He turns them into mindless slaves that obey whatever orders Nazis tell them. However, after Hitler's death and end of World War II, all traces and evidences related to this experiment were burned. But the Americans can't hide their admiration to intelligence of the Nazis. In spite of the terrible things they've done, they will be forgiven unless they will join the Americans in pioneering projects such as space exploration and etc.

The third, which Marc considers as the most popular among all the zombie apocalypse conspiracy theories, is the Miami 'Zombie' Attack. It is a news that shocked not just America but the whole world! It even became one of the mainstream topic across the internet and mass media. This issue involves a 31 year old man named Rudy Eugene who just randomly attacks and gnaws a 65 year old homeless man in the face. As the attack is happening, a Miami police officer shoots Eugene once but instead, the attacker just growls, ignores the police officer and eventually continues chewing the homeless man's face. In the end, the police officer fires three more shot that finally kills Eugene. According to the reports regarding to Rudy Eugene's ruthless behavior, it is clearly a side effect of 'bath salts' which caused a person to become insane, develop cannibalistic tendencies and appear to gain inhuman strength. But contrary to Eugene's autopsy report, the only drug found on his a body is marijuana. Conspiracy theorists believe that 'bath salt' thing is only a cover up on what really happened to Eugene. What makes it more suspicious is it eventually vanished from the headlines and no more related reports have been added.

"Like all conspiracy theories the initial idea must come from somewhere and of course these ideas are many and varied...," stated Marc.

Conspiracy theories especially zombie apocalypse conspiracy theories are not just created without a strong basis and evidence. Whatever versions we hear or read, they still aiming the same point; zombie apocalypse is now starting or has been started already. Another, upon researching for articles for my previous blog entries, I've found a hard time believing to the possibilities for zombie apocalypse to happen, but after this research, it changed a part of my belief.

The ideas of zombie conspiracy theories really got my attention. An article entitled "Questions Answered: Is a Zombie Virus Outbreak Possible?" from thecount.com, though no specific writer was given, is so much related to the previous article especially to the Miami 'Zombie' Attack. It is an article that focuses to possible reason of the said attack -- the LQP-79 virus.

LQP-79 is an acronym because it is basically the 79th attempt made at formulating Lysergic Quinine Protein. From the word, 'formulating' itself, we can conclude that this virus is a man made pathogen. As what was mentioned from the previous article, the 'bath salt' drug is just a cover for what really happened to the incident, that conspiracy theorists even consider this virus a main reason for Eugene's change of attitude.

The article doesn't explains a lot to LQP-79. It is just a series of the author's opinion about people who think that a.) zombie outbreak is possible, b.) zombies will never be real, c.) the LQP-79 virus is real, and d.) it's all a conspiracy theory. He answers every opinion one by one according to what he have researched about the virus.

The author is not clearly taking any sides among the believers and non-believers. He is completely neutral by giving his own opinion. According to him, as what the usual zombie tale looks like, in order to spread the virus as the LQP-79, the host of the virus must look for a healthy victim and bite him. Though LQP-79 can be a possibility for the zombie apocalypse to happen, the author said that it's not strong enough to support a reanimated body. It can control a zombie for quite a while but the zombie will not able to survive it-- however, the virus could.

"The name seems to not be real or established officially, but a zombie virus doesn't sound all that ‘out there’, considering the fact that many conspiracy theories have been proven true," stated the author.

For me, the author made a big point. LQP-79 is not created out of nowhere. I don't have the main idea of what this virus really means because most of the websites that talk about this virus were all shut down. Is it an act of conspiracy? That the people behind it are trying to hide us the full information to avoid panics? If that's the case and if this virus is a man made pathogen, what's the reason of creating it? Conspiracy theory or not, both sides all made sense. When will the issue of zombie existence will end? Is it really going to end or it will just end up to another circles of questions?