Personally, I think zombie movies reflect 'fear of societal collapse' more than 'fear over the absence of technology'. (The absence of technology is certainly part of a societal collapse, but societal collapse is more than just the absence of technology.)
Sudden, unpredictable, uncontrollable events - large stock market fluctuations, 9/11, the housing crisis, almost certainly the upcoming sovereign debt crisis - have made people very uneasy.
Zombie movies give people an opportunity to think about what they'd do in a societal breakdown, reassuring them on some level - since unlike a sovereign debt crisis, the zombie apocalypse isn't going to happen. Thinking about barricading the windows and aiming for the head is fun; thinking about total market failure is horrifying.
There's also a certain segment of the population, the underclass that's being left behind, who sees nothing in our society for them and would love a hard reset. For them, zombie movies feed into happy fantasies about their rugged gun-toting individualism. (The hero-protagonist in a zombie movie is never, say, a stockbroker from New York.)
Good thoughts. Something else I've been wondering about - why do you think the reset always brings us to Pre-Industrial Revolution (lack of infrastructure) - as opposed, to say, the Dark Ages (lack of scientific method)? Specifically, the apocalypse never seems to impact survivor knowledge, just the speed at which they can rebuild?
There are a really huge number of books around - it's unlikely that they'll all be destroyed, unless some doomsday cult starts burning every book they can find, so there would be a large amount of knowledge that could be recovered without much difficulty. The scientific method is a fairly easy thing to know; it doesn't seem likely that it's just going to vanish. Realistically, there would also be a lot of people hiding out in bunkers, mountain cabins, or other areas where the number of zombies would be more manageable. So, while a large amount of knowledge is going to vanish (anything computerized is going to be hard to access unless you have a generator), most of it won't be hard to recover unless you wait too long.
I highly encourage you to read World War Z (written by the same guy who wrote the Zombie Survival Guide); while it doesn't directly address most of those questions, you can read between the lines to find the answers. It is, admittedly, only a type 1 Apocalypse, by the TVTropes scale, but still.
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Personally, I think zombie movies reflect 'fear of societal collapse' more than 'fear over the absence of technology'. (The absence of technology is certainly part of a societal collapse, but societal collapse is more than just the absence of technology.)
Sudden, unpredictable, uncontrollable events - large stock market fluctuations, 9/11, the housing crisis, almost certainly the upcoming sovereign debt crisis - have made people very uneasy.
Zombie movies give people an opportunity to think about what they'd do in a societal breakdown, reassuring them on some level - since unlike a sovereign debt crisis, the zombie apocalypse isn't going to happen. Thinking about barricading the windows and aiming for the head is fun; thinking about total market failure is horrifying.
There's also a certain segment of the population, the underclass that's being left behind, who sees nothing in our society for them and would love a hard reset. For them, zombie movies feed into happy fantasies about their rugged gun-toting individualism. (The hero-protagonist in a zombie movie is never, say, a stockbroker from New York.)
Good thoughts. Something else I've been wondering about - why do you think the reset always brings us to Pre-Industrial Revolution (lack of infrastructure) - as opposed, to say, the Dark Ages (lack of scientific method)? Specifically, the apocalypse never seems to impact survivor knowledge, just the speed at which they can rebuild?
There are a really huge number of books around - it's unlikely that they'll all be destroyed, unless some doomsday cult starts burning every book they can find, so there would be a large amount of knowledge that could be recovered without much difficulty. The scientific method is a fairly easy thing to know; it doesn't seem likely that it's just going to vanish. Realistically, there would also be a lot of people hiding out in bunkers, mountain cabins, or other areas where the number of zombies would be more manageable. So, while a large amount of knowledge is going to vanish (anything computerized is going to be hard to access unless you have a generator), most of it won't be hard to recover unless you wait too long.
I highly encourage you to read World War Z (written by the same guy who wrote the Zombie Survival Guide); while it doesn't directly address most of those questions, you can read between the lines to find the answers. It is, admittedly, only a type 1 Apocalypse, by the TVTropes scale, but still.