There have been a few references here and there to armies of the dead, in ancient mythology, religion and in current times we have them in stories and books, and represented visually in films and TV. I’ll mention a few to give you the full gist of what I mean.

Lord of the Rings (Return of the King) – I have mentioned it before in my article He Who Has An Army, as a convenient saviour when all looks lost. But it was the fact they were all damned, the worst of what humanity had to offer they say and were cursed for being liars, thieves and murderers. And it was only through that curse of time and death that they got to fulfil their true purpose, to fight evil and save the day.

Army of Anubis (The Mummy) – another dead army that rises when the time is right, and to that which they show allegiance calls them forth. Maybe I should have considered this concept in my article Rising, as I now wonder whether it may be something else looking to come up from The Old Underground.

Euphrates legend – this one is rather a big one, and is the ultimate in legends. Especially as it is said that when the Euphrates dries up, and four angels will be discovered and released. Not just any angels though, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse no less, bringing with them war, famine, pestilence and glory. So not exactly an army rising up, but something coming back they say to bring disaster, but written in the new telling of the religion, and interpreted by many along the way, as they weren’t actually specifically mentioned as four horsemen, or their allocated purpose. So, make of that what you will.

I can’t help but wonder though, what if the army of the dead was meant to signify those who were dead on the inside, soulless or void of being what we would call human. Almost perhaps like the modern vision of a zombie, of which I have a number of articles speculating on the ‘undead’, Not Quite In Control is one of them, looking at the idea that people’s minds have been captured and they are no longer themselves. Although, that could be said of us all, since we have all had a conditioned upbringing and have been subject to their systems and procedures for so long, are any of us ourselves anymore?

My article Gen Z looked at that conditioning, and how its effect is now being seen on a scale maybe some us hadn’t quite realised, although had thought was there based on what we were seeing in society. And rather than an army of the dead which would just magically appear and sweep the land of all the evils and wrongs, it’s turned out to be something quite different. Where probably the idea The Walking Dead had, of constant fear, isolation, infection and survival – where it was your own you had to be afraid of, like in The Road, and Book of Eli, where they show you that when it all goes to shit, people turn on their own and end up living a half-life, where it would be better to be dead that try to ‘live’ through the horrific and grim times to come.

But then part of me remembers that all of those things mentioned, imagined and portrayed, are all films, stories and ideas propagated by the media machine that conditions us all. Prepped for Disaster, or Clever Programming? already acknowledges that we create much of what they condition us to, following the breadcrumbs like Hansel and Gretal, which are well placed to lead you to the next marker or crumb, wanting you to fall Down The Rabbit Hole and get lost in the never-ending warren of tunnels and secrets that appear to have been constructed around you. And like in Watership Down, these days it’s starting to feel as though many are stuck in the tunnels, getting crushed and looking for the light and a way to the surface, before they start to fill them in…

(c) K Wicks