I don’t disagree (though (private) Montessori appears to be the vogue for Western internet entrepreneurs nowadays). Unfortunately (“politics aside”) they do also produce the majority of our politicians, and that doesn’t appear to be going so well – today’s (UK-)earth shattering vote aside. Good quote btw, though I wonder if the Byronic pattern can be produced in any other way(?) – one tends to be more than enough.

On the other hand, Erik von K.L. did say,

The British public school with its latent suspicion for brilliancy and originality is largely responsible for the depersonalization of the English upper class. (The Scottish mountain dwellers fared definitely better.) The public school had fostered a team spirit and a small herd esprit de corps which is neither aristocratic nor of great value to the state by its tendency to create reliable mediocrities. One is inclined to like the gentleman of a Byronic pattern rather than the one standardized by the old school tie, and to prefer an aristocracy with a knightly tradition to one crushed in the years of adolescence by a vaguely homoerotic group spirit and the industrial idea of “cooperation.” Boarding schools, preparatory schools, and public schools are far more hostile to the ideals of liberty than the much maligned family, and this is the reason why these actually play into the hands of democratism.

I submit that England has sunk so dramatically in stature that this commentary is obsolete.

Having mostly been dragged down by the godawful, prolonged statist schooling, inane mass media culture and total dissipation of creative energy, we young middle class people are insipid, stuffy and incapable of meaningful rebellion.* It’s enough effort to have a normal marriage, career and family at a reasonable age. And based on my impression of several kinds of European teenager, as well as comments that I’ve noticed all sorts of people make about England, the zombie virus is more prevalent here than in any other wealthy country, including white America.

But if America is somewhat similar, the thrust of that film (based on the synopsis) could be that instead of trying too hard not to be zombies, maybe middle class teenagers should learn to accept elements of zombism, and work on other aspects of their lives. (Or else we’re reading too much into these crappy films.)

*I guess the main kind of adolescent rebellion is symbolic retreat into indifference, embodied in overtly inane and futile tropes. That’s why people find 4chan, Nyan Cat et al cathartic. Amongst PhD student types, the type of rebellion practised by Snowden and Aaron Swartz is taken seriously. So it’s the classy version of “Rage Against the Machine”.

The entire premise is that zombies don’t look or act like ‘us’ (i.e., White Westerners), but underneath, they really really just want to act like us. If we’re a little bit nicer, and get to know them, we’ll realize that beneath the undead exterior is a an upper-middle class hipster waiting to come out.

(Bonus: the movie comes with a ‘don’t build a wall’ metaphor.)

In an over-brief but poignant scene, a sniper on overwatch offers mercifully to take the Captain out before the change, but the commander responds, “no, I got this” and shoots himself in the head – the last act of autonomy.

I found the story of the North Korean response to also warrant more attention. The rogue ex-CIA intelligence-mercenary (or something) who tells Brad Pitt to go to Israel because they’re safe behind their wall, also says that the Norks pulled out everyone’s teeth (to eat mushes rice, presumptively, until the threat had passed and false teeth distributed to all) to prevent contagion. The CIA agent himself speaks as if toothless, but I can’t remember getting a clear look.

The think I was wondering for the rest of the movie was, “Well, wouldn’t that work? Aren’t the Norks Ok? Do they take over the region? The world?”

(But I think that the Yahoos will always be the best satire of humankind.)