Fear the Living

"Dear Lord, thank you for giving me the strength and the conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me. Thank you for guiding me straight and true through the many obstacles in my path. And for keeping me resolute when all around seemed lost. Thank you for your protection and your many signs along the way. Thank you for any good that I may have done, I'm so sorry about the bad. Thank you for the friend I made. Please watch over her as you watched over me. Thank you for finally allowing me to rest. I'm so very tired, but I go now to my rest at peace. Knowing that I have done right with my time on this earth. I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith." - Eli, "Book of Eli"

The thing I hate most about reality shows is that they seem to celebrate and glorify the worst of human nature. That, of course, is why I don't watch them. When "Survivor" premiered during the summer of 2000, I was intrigued. It seemed like a fun premise, it was summer, and I decided to watch.

I watched the whole season, becoming more disenchanted with what I saw each week. After the finale, when the most deceitful and conniving people battled for the final prize, I knew that I was done. That might be an accurate reflection of what it takes to get ahead, but that doesn't mean I have to revel in it each week.

Since then — with the exception of the occasional season of "Last Comic Standing" — I have forsaken reality shows. I mean, after all, if you want to see the worst in humanity, all you have to do is turn on the news.

I don't like reality shows because they're probably too close a reflection on what it takes to get ahead in our culture. We like to think that good prevails, the laws of our land protect us, and people are mostly good. None of those things are true and the last bit isn't even accurate if you read the Bible. Still, we are comforted by that thought.

But when you watch apocalyptic shows and movies, you get a different vision of humanity. One of the things that troubled me about "The Book of Eli," a film some Christians like to contend is an excellent Gospel pitch, is the violence and brutality of the world. Even the "good" guys come off a little violent and grimy. That's what you have to do to survive in a world devoid of order, humanity, and hope. And "The Book of Eli" isn't alone in this respect. You'd be hard pressed to find an apocalyptic vision of the world on film that depicts anything idyllic.

Of course Gene Roddenberry liked to romanticize our future in "Star Trek," but our future is probably closer to "Mad Max" than we'd like to admit.

That thought occurs to me when I'm watching "The Walking Dead" too. The slogan for the show is "Fight the Dead; Fear the Living." Even in a world where there are threats all around, the biggest obstacle to peace and survival is your fellow man.

Consider Sunday's entry in the series, a bleak hour that focused on the mental disintegration of the primary hero and many vicious acts committed by those not yet zombified. You'd think in a world where death lies around every corner men and women would rally together to survive, but that's never how it's depicted. And you have to wonder — based on what we see in reality TV, the news, and our own neighborhoods now — if that isn't an accurate reflection of how it would be.

Michone left Woodbury on her own, heading out into a bleak landscape. Her odds of survival on her own aren't great. Still, the Governor and Merle had to shorten that time frame — or attempt to — because it was in their nature to be cruel, vicious, and deceitful.

You what I really don't like about reality shows? It's that those that are most dishonest and cruel are the ones that prevail and outlast the others. That will probably be true about the end of time as well. All we can hope is that, like Eli, we can fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith.