The 1% Threat

[Wyldwraith]

Hey all, I actually heard a line watching the Zombies: A Living History documentary that stimulated me intellectually. Joe Biden, while talking about potential future terrorist attacks in the wake of 9/11 basically said "Even if there's only a 1% chance of such an attack occurring, the consequences would be so grave, so comprehensive and widespread that said possibility deserves our best efforts to guard against it in the here and now." Now granted, anything like a zombie apocalypse occurring is FAR lower in probability than 1%. More like .000000001%, yet again, the consequences would be so horrific that the possibility actually merits some sort of practical consideration for no other reason than the TEOTWAKI-potential of such an event. Your thoughts all?

[AcesandEights]

Thought this was going to be a thread about outlaw biker gangs rampaging through the aftermath of the apocalypse. Hey all, I actually heard a line watching the Zombies: A Living History documentary that stimulated me intellectually. Joe Biden, while talking about potential future terrorist attacks in the wake of 9/11 basically said "Even if there's only a 1% chance of such an attack occurring, the consequences would be so grave, so comprehensive and widespread that said possibility deserves our best efforts to guard against it in the here and now." Now granted, anything like a zombie apocalypse occurring is FAR lower in probability than 1%. More like .000000001%, yet again, the consequences would be so horrific that the possibility actually merits some sort of practical consideration for no other reason than the TEOTWAKI-potential of such an event. Your thoughts all? I don't really agree that it merits consideration, however it makes sense to have a general disaster preparedness plan for the family and a variant of that, which includes what to do in case of civil disorder, which a zombie outbreak should dovetail into well enough. I will say, right now, zombies would be a great teaching tool for walking a young teen through the correct steps in whatever disaster-preparedness plan your family might have.

[Morto Vivente]

I've seen that documentary too. If I remember correctly there's an emphasis towards the end about using the ZA as an educational aid to get people into the mindset of "a state of preparedness" for more likely disaster-scenarios, which I think is a great idea. Educating people that if for instance a meteor was to hit earth, or the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park was to erupt (albeit astronomical odds) then cooperation and the service chain is what will secure our survival if it's possible. Following the aftermath people with the required skills such as agriculture will be indispensable, as will artisans of all sorts. Even applying it to smaller scale disasters is a pro-active move IMO. If Vesuvius was to erupt today with the same violence as it did in 79A.D., the inhabitants of Napoli and the surrounding towns could very well be decimated. In general they don't care they assume it'll never happen in there lifetime. The only gripe I recall having about the docu' was the "zombies could be real" undertone. If an apocalypse in that ballpark was possible I think a "28 Days Later" scenario would be more likely. Possibly an epidemic that screws up the levels and/or uptake of adrenaline and serotonin in the brain?

[Wyldwraith]

Here's the only credibility I give to the notion of an actual "zombie", Given the fact that microbes mutate something like ten million times faster than multi-cellular life, and given that just about every industrialized nation on Earth has either a) An outright overt biological weapons program, or a so-called "bio-weapons defense" program...which is basically just a convenient moral excuse for working with bio-weapons, it's impossible to ONE HUNDRED PERCENT rule out ANYTHING that is not expressly prohibited by the known laws of physics. That said, I do think something like 28 Days Later would be vastly more likely. If for no other reason than the fact that rabies already exists, as do prion-based diseases that comprehensively damage the frontal lobe of the human brain, while at the same time being (relatively) slow at shutting the person down physically (Ie: Kuru). HOWEVER, it would be folly to believe that NO ONE with a pile of money, a destructive ideology in opposition to the current status quo, and no moral qualms about mass murder a) Exists, and b) Has failed to consider the potential of a bio-weapon that renders the host a hostile, out of control, active vehicle of the microbe in question. Such a microbe would turn people against each other faster than the most lethal of conventional diseases. People fear disease, because they fear the results. Ie: Death, the loss of loved ones, disability etc. But they have a far more primal, and IMO much more dangerous (with regards to the stability of society) reaction to widespread, near-omnipresent violence. Look at any warlord-dominated, war-torn third world country. Those people have no trouble accepting that the local strong man might roll into town with his gun-toting goons and, say, chop off the arms of anyone who is at all uncooperative. As a result, what almost always happens in such countries is a further fracturing into still more violent coalitions, who are in opposition to the group in opposition to the main government...and will soon spawn a group in opposition to themselves due to their own atrocity-committing. Violence can become as infectious as any actual contagion if a) It's widespread and ongoing for more than X span of time. To think that there aren't people around the world aware of this fact that would gleefully unleash the sort of horrors the peoples of various troubled latin-american nations have experienced would be the height of head-in-the-sand thought. I can think of one fairly widespread radicalized religion whose violent adherants ideology actually REQUIRES worldwide violence, bloodshed and death in order to bring about their idea of a utopian Earth. Such individuals are limited only by the resources which are or aren't at their disposal...and frankly, as war-weary as America is..and as friggin bankrupt as a large portion of the world is, such groups are only going to grow bolder. Look at Syria right now. The U.S damned well knows the Assad regime has used chemical weapons on the rebels...but it's a convenient political fiction for the U.S gov't to state they've yet to secure factual certainty of such an act. Of COURSE the President doesn't want to admit the Syrian regime called his bluff. He as much as declared that if they used chemical or bio-weapons that he'd have boots on the ground in Syria in short order. The problem of course is that the vast majority of Americans DON'T FUCKING CARE what some asshole on the other side of the world is doing if it doesn't affect them, because they're tired of their sons/daughters/husbands/wives/brothers/sisters/mothers/fathers etc etc etc, coming home in body bags from godforsaken sandboxes. Hmm, what to do if 90% of your population is adamantly against a certain course of action, yet you've publicly declared you'll take said course of action if X happens, then X does happen. You stall of course, then stall some more. And what lesson does that teach those watching the events in Syria right now? That if THEY get up to no good, the International Cop is too weary to do anything about it. So no, I rule very little out that isn't as I said prohibited by natural law. It seems, after all, to be the only sort of law that constrains our species.

[Morto Vivente]

Sometimes I think evolution is just too "god damn slow" . On a small scale I wouldn't be surprised if some of the inspiration for 28 Days Later came from Road Rage, which as a social phenomenon I find hilarious from a safe distance. But it's still the issue of some idiot who's so insecure and power driven that they have to enforce their beliefs by way of might is right. On a large scale it's unfortunate that often violence is necessary because something proactive has to be done, and the "Chamberlain approach" is such cases is complete fantasy. Although the "road to hell" is paved with good intentions I think it really comes down to the fact that action must be taken. But ultimately IMO it's a matter of who not what. The "Fuck you Hans Brix" morons have to go for the correct reasons, not just replacing one asshole with another due to invested interests, a real attempt for improvement must occur if violence is to be justified. Obviously the leap from the existing psychological reality of violence to an extreme viral-reality, i.e. mass infection and the subsequent transformation of people into solely unbridled killing machines is not as great as people coming back to life and cruising for "survivor meals". But hey, if the ZA did happen I've already found the bell tower, all I need now is a rifle.