Petrus Minor Post #3

Dr. Hendershot’s lecture contributed to my interest and understanding of crisis news coverage, and how news media habitually propetuates the image of violent lawlessness in the face of a political, economic, or “natural” crisis. In the context of U.S. history, of course, such images are usually racially charged. The long term, dangerous effect, is that now in times of crisis ordinariness, there becomes an expectation of violent lawlessness (think, buying up necessary resources in the initial Covid outbreak). Such a stoking of fear naturally pits humanity against itself, rendering a bleak outlook of a future in which crises are likely to become yet more prescient. Most recently, the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us opens with an original (not in the game) scene warning of the possibility of human susceptiblility to cordiceps, clearly a post-Covid warning that the next outbreak could be so much worse. The game/show portrays a highly pessimistic outlook on what humanity would turn to in the wake of a crisis: very quickly, it becomes clear that desperate humans are a greater threat to each other than even the “infected.” The imagery of looting and chaos that dominate the zombie genre bear clear influence from crisis news coverage, propegating the notion that humanity needs institutions, especially military institutions, to retain order (consider the calls for military intervention over rescue efforts in the wake of so-called lawlessness after Hurricane Katrina). tLoU takes an ambivalent stance toward the military and what is left of the government after 20 years, having turned to fascism, though I could argue that this stance is more one of confusion than calculated ambiguity. The fascist Quarantine Zone that occupies former Boston evokes socialist imagery, something that the show seems to attempt to rectify by describing a comparatively utopian community setup as “communist.”

Just something I’m chewing on for my potential final paper. But more importantly, Couscous + Cale Epps’ cat Henry: