Ressentiment: Let's play the blame game

Ressentiment, as Nietzche explains, is the need for humans to place blame on something for their sickness, illness, and bad luck. With blame there can be aggression and aggression leads to violence, war, and ultimately superiority for the victor. The large part of this essay focuses on the fact that good and evil is defined by the dominate culture. The “good” people define themselves as good and then believe it is their duty to oppress the “evil” people. Because both sides feel this way, the “good” people always win. The dominate culture will win and they will instill their idea of good into the inferior culture. The “good” will always have the Ressentiment to find a new “evil.” He believes that if man does not have Ressentiment then another group of men will and they will likely become the next culture to fall. He goes on to give an example of the fall of the Roman Empire. Rome was a strong empire but today what was Rome is inhabited by Christians. I know little about that history, but I don’t think Nietzche is right about Christians taking over the Roman Empire.

My most direct relationship between Ressentiment and Zombies is very simple. All Zombie media is based around the fact that humans must blame the Zombies for their turmoil, while it is obvious the society wasn’t functioning properly in the first place. Armageddon rarely occurs without reason, and there is always that underlying message. For example, Romero attempts to make it very clear that the materialistic and consumer culture we live in will lead to our demise. However, for that story to take hold an antagonist, something we can place our Ressentiment on, must exist. The Zombie is the perfect character for that purpose. The audience can see the Zombie and blame the protagonists’ turmoil on that figure. However, it is the zombie that merely moves the plot along, as we have said in the past. The movie or novel is a vehicle for the message, whether that’s consumerism, overzealous science, immorality, or any other reason. But as Nietzche said, the human is always looking for saving and the ascetic priest he mentions has the answer. The humans must blame themselves for troubles, because there is always Ressentiment. Often in Zombie media, a character will realize the issues they face are self inflicted, and the Ressentiment is placed on themselves or society in general.