By any observable metric, zombies are totally hot right now. Look at movies like 'Warm Bodies' and the coming 'World War Z', the ratings for AMC's hit series 'The Walking Dead' (12.9 million viewers for its recent season finale) and $2.5 billion in annual sales for zombie video games. Over the past decade, between a third and a half of all zombie movies ever made have been released. A glance at Google Trends reveals that in the past few years, interest in flesh-eating ghouls has far outstripped popular enthusiasm for vampires, wizards and hobbits.
无论按哪种可衡量的标准，僵尸题材在眼下都算得上绝对的热门。看看《血肉之躯》(Warm Bodies)和即将上映的《僵尸世界大战》(World War Z)等电影、AMC电视台热播连续剧《行尸走肉》(The Walking Dead)的收视率（其最近播出的完结季吸引了1,290万名观众）以及僵尸题材电子游戏每年高达25亿美元的销售额吧。过去十年间上映的僵尸电影占到了所有此类题材影片的三分之一到一半。稍加浏览谷歌趋势(Google Trends)就会发现，过去几年间大众对食肉的食尸鬼的兴趣已经远远超过了对吸血鬼、巫师和霍比特人的兴趣。
Why are the living dead taking over our lives, and why have so many other domains of American culture, from architects to academics to departments of the federal government, been so eager to jump on this macabre bandwagon? Is it all just good, scary fun─or something we should worry about?
为什么我们的生活会被僵尸占据？为什么从建筑、学术到联邦政府各部的如此多的美国文化领域那么急切地赶着这股恐怖潮流？它是完全无害的恐怖乐趣还是我们应当担心的事情？
First we have to appreciate why zombies are so terrifying. The classic ghoul of George Romero films seems awfully slow and plodding. But what the living dead lack in speed, they make up for in other qualities. Zombies occupy what roboticists and animators call 'the uncanny valley' in human perception─though decidedly not human, they are so close to being human that they prompt instant revulsion. Another common feature of zombie narratives is that 100% of the people bitten by zombies eventually turn into zombies. Even the most virulent pathogens encountered in the real world (say, Ebola or HIV) have infection rates below 50%.
首先，我们得了解僵尸为什么如此让人害怕。乔治•罗梅罗(George Romero)影片中的经典食尸鬼形象看起来极其迟钝缓慢，不过僵尸在速度方面的缺陷被他们其他方面的特质所弥补。他们在人类感知领域中处于被机器人学家和动画师称为“恐怖谷”(the uncanny valley)的区域──尽管他们绝非人类，但他们又非常接近人类，所以能够立即招致强烈反感。僵尸故事另一个共同的特点是被僵尸咬过的人最终百分之百都变成了僵尸。而人类在现实生活中遇到的即便是最具传染性的病原菌（比如说埃博拉病毒或艾滋病病毒）的传染率也不到50%。
These qualities matter because they map so neatly onto the genuine threats of our day. Zombies thrive in popular culture during times of recession, epidemic and general unhappiness. Traditional threats to U.S. security may have waned, but nontraditional threats assault us constantly. Concerns about terrorism have not abated since 9/11, and cyberattacks have now emerged as a new anxiety. Drug-resistant pandemics have been a staple of local news hysteria since the H1N1 virus swept the globe in 2009. Scientists continue to warn about the dangers that climate change poses to our planet. And if the financial crisis taught us anything, it is that contagion is endemic to the global market system.
这些特质事关重大，因为它们恰好映射出了当今时代的真正威胁。僵尸题材在经济衰退、不幸福感普遍蔓延的时期在流行文化中大行其道。对美国安全的传统威胁或许已经消退，但是非传统的威胁却在不断侵扰着我们。对恐怖主义的担忧自9/11事件以来还未缓和，现在网络攻击又成为了我们的新忧虑。自H1N1病毒在2009年席卷全球以来，有关抗药传染病的内容屡屡见诸于引起群情激愤的本地新闻报道。科学家们继续就气候变化给地球带来的危害提出警告。而如果说金融危机给了我们什么教训的话，那就是危机的迅速蔓延是全球市场体系的通病。
Zombies are the perfect metaphor for these threats. As with pandemics and financial crises, they are not open to negotiation. As with terrorism in all its forms, even a small outbreak has the potential to wreak massive carnage.
僵尸就是对这些威胁的完美比喻。与传染病和金融危机一样，它们是不容商议的。与各种形式的恐怖主义一样，它们即使是一次小规模的爆发也具备造成浩劫的潜力。
Because the living dead resonate so strongly with the present cultural moment, it is no surprise that various promoters and policy entrepreneurs have used them as a 'hook' for their own causes. The scholar John Quiggin published 'Zombie Economics' as a way to grab reader attention about the ill state of current economic theory. Outdoor retailer REI marketed '13 Essential Tools for Surviving a Zombie Outbreak'─each available for purchase at REI stores. The annual Zombie Safe House competition challenges architects to design the best ghoul-proof home, and zombie 'fun runs' are now regular events across North America.
由于僵尸题材与当下的文化环境产生了强烈共鸣，不同的政策倡导者和政策企业家利用它们作为实现其目的的“吊钩”也就不足为奇了。学者约翰•奎金(John Quiggin)发表了《僵尸经济学》(Zombie Economics)一书，以这样一个书名来引起读者对当今经济理论糟糕状况的注意。户外用品零售商REI在销售“逃过僵尸袭击的13种必备工具”(13 Essential Tools for Surviving a Zombie Outbreak)，每种工具都在REI的门店有售。此外，在一年一度的防僵尸安全屋设计比赛中，建筑师们为设计出最棒的防食尸鬼的住宅一争高下，僵尸“快乐奔跑”比赛如今也已成为了整个北美的常规体育活动。
Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have gotten into the act. In May 2011, the CDC posted a small item on its blog about what to do if the dead should rise from the grave to feast upon the entrails of the living. Within two hours, it had gone viral; the CDC's Web server crashed from the surge in traffic.
就连美国疾病控制与预防中心(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention，简称“CDC”)也参与了进来。2011年5月，CDC在其博客上发表了一篇小文章，讲述了万一僵尸从坟墓中爬出来大吃活人的内脏时该怎么做。这篇文章在两个小时之内就大范围传播开来，CDC的网络服务器也因流量激增而崩溃。
Recognizing a good thing, the CDC soon released Zombie Preparedness 101, a comic book designed to educate readers about how to prepare against a zombie attack─which, not coincidentally, requires the same steps as preparing for natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security soon picked up on the CDC's success and incorporated zombies into its own planning and publicity operations.
意识到其中的好处后，CDC很快又发布了《预防僵尸袭击101招》(Zombie Preparedness 101)，这本漫画书指导读者如何防备僵尸的袭击，它所列出的举措与防备自然灾害的举措如出一辙，这当然并非巧合。美国国土安全部(Department of Homeland Security)很快也学习了CDC的成功经验，在其规划和宣传举措中加入了僵尸内容。
These examples highlight the positive ways that the living dead can be used to spark interest in other ideas. One of the strengths of the horror genre is that it allows people to talk about present-day problems without addressing them straight-on. The moment zombies are added to the mix, a dry public policy problem suddenly becomes a game of sorts, accessible to ordinary citizens.
这些例子表明，可以通过某种积极正面的方式利用僵尸来激起公众对其他观点的兴趣。恐怖片的优点之一是，它可以让人们讨论当今的问题而不用马上去解决它们。一旦把僵尸题材混入其中，干巴巴的公共政策马上就会变成某种游戏，让普通民众易于接受。
Still, there's a real downside to these constant references to the living dead. The most serious problem lies in the suggested analogy. Policy entrepreneurs piggyback on zombies to capture attention, but they too often overlook a key element of zombie stories: They are relentlessly, depressingly apocalyptic. In almost all of them, the living dead are introduced in minute one, and by minute 10, the world is a wasteland. The implication is that if zombielike threats emerge, the state and civil society will quickly break down.
然而，不断引用僵尸内容也存在一个切实的负面影响，最严重的问题在于它所暗示的类比。政策企业家依附僵尸题材来俘获公众的注意力，但是他们常常忽视了僵尸故事的一个关键因素：它们都无情地、令人消沉地预示着世界的覆灭。在几乎所有的僵尸故事中，僵尸在第一分钟出场，到了第十分钟，世界就变成了一个废墟。其中暗含的意思是假如类似僵尸的威胁出现，政府与民间社会将会迅速瓦解。
The apocalypse narrative matters if people implicitly accept the notion that some real-world threats will actually trigger this sort of collapse. Perception plays an important role in maintaining national resilience and public order. If Americans think that we are teetering on the brink of chaos, the apocalyptic mind-set can, in itself, help bring about that state of affairs.
如果人们无保留地接受认为某些现实世界的威胁确实能将引发此类瓦解的观念，那么这种末日故事就会产生切实影响。观念在维持国家恢复力和公共秩序方面扮演着重要角色，如果美国人认为自己挣扎在混乱的边缘，那么末日论的思想倾向本身就能引发那种事态。
Preparations for doomsday already influence policy debates. For National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, part of the logic for opposing gun regulation is that he anticipates 'confrontations where the government isn't there─or simply doesn't show up in time.' Sen. Lindsey Graham has worried aloud about inadequate firepower if, say, 'chemicals have been released into the air and law enforcement is really not able to respond and people take advantage of that lawless environment.' When lobbyists and senators muse aloud about such scenarios, there is a problem with our political discourse.
对末日的准备已经影响了有关政策的辩论。在美国全国步枪协会(National Rifle Association)执行副理事长韦恩•拉皮埃尔(Wayne LaPierre)看来，反对枪支管制的部分逻辑就在于他所预料的“政府没有出面──或者只是没有及时出现──的地方爆发的冲突”。参议员林赛•格雷厄姆(Lindsey Graham)担心，比如说一旦“化学品被释放到空气当中，执法部门确实未能良好应对，大家也趁着混乱环境作乱”时，火力不足的问题会出现。当游说人员和参议员开始谈论这样的场景时，我们的政治话语就出现了问题。
The solution to this millenarian cul-de-sac is to create more creative zombie narratives. There will always be a place in zombie lore for the postapocalyptic visions of 'The Walking Dead, ' but we also need stories like Max Brooks's novel 'World War Z' (the source for this summer's movie), in which the adaptability, ingenuity and creativity of human beings are put on full display.
对这个千年难解之题的解决方法是创造更多有创意的僵尸故事。僵尸传说中总是会有后末日版《行尸走肉》的位置，但是我们还需要像马克斯•布鲁克斯(Max Brooks)的小说《僵尸世界大战》（将于今年夏季上映的同名影片由此书改编而来）这样的故事。在这本书中，人类的适应能力、独创性和创造力得到了充分体现。
Any species that has managed to invent duct tape, Twinkies and smartphones stands a fighting chance against the living dead. Narratives about flesh-eating ghouls should remain scary─but they can also remind audiences that we have an enormous capacity to adapt to new threats and overcome them.
任何能够发明出强力胶带、Twinkie蛋糕和智能手机的物种都有与僵尸一搏的机会。讲述食肉的食尸鬼的故事应当继续恐怖下去，但是同时它们还可以提醒观众我们具备适应新威胁并战胜它们的巨大能力。