Wait a minute... SLUGS?

I'm in Washington State -- I've got the SOLUTION!

The zombies smell like decay, and I live in the Slug Capital of the World!

I'll just sic the slugs on them, and they'll be history!

I wish all my problems were so easily solved...

Sue

Not those slugs Sue, shotgun slug rounds. The kind you use when you want to make big holes in stuff.

Silly person.

Altho on Dirty Jobs they showed Mike and company dining on leeches. I hate me some leeches.

Bingo, the term is euphemism.

Saying you are ready for Zombies is basically making light of the serious problems you really are preparing to encounter. Whether that problem is an earthquake in DC, a hurricane coming up the coast or a world-wide food shortage and economic catastrophe.

Get prepared for Zombies and you are ready.

The zombie metaphor, as an aid in thinking, will drive your survival plan in a certain direction, while that may not be the best possibility. Naturally, while the zombie scenario might work well for mass civil unrest or anything that involves a breakdown of order, it encourages you to formulate your plans based on the individualist model: grab your guns & ammo, hole up in your apartment, get out into the woods, etc. But take a look at the earthquake/tsunami/fallout in Japan: people worked along the cooperative model. They got in line at stores, pooled their resources, and returned around $78,000,000 in cash found in rubble. This sort of unselfish behavior that puts the group above the individual will help the Japanese recover faster. How can zombies teach us this?

Da Bing

I don't know, I thought PNW slugs were a pretty good idea. Considering the way they can decimate a lettuce, a mass attack on a zombie shouldn't be much of a problem.

Sue

Thank you for the link. I learned something.

By the way, I don't view zombies as being a purely mythical concept. Some people go overboard and get silly with the concept. However, some groups of people in real life can rightfully be described as zombies. For example, random stragglers on the streets of UK during the riots may rightfully be described as zombies. Another example is the recent rebel takeover in Libya. Watching CNN, I noticed random stragglers in the background stumbling around. They looked like they were up to no good. They looked like "zombies".

That Top 10 List in the link may have been useful for preparing for such situations. At a minimum, the list activates the brain cells for thinking generally about survival.

Yes, there were a lot of people like that in Haight-Ashbury back in the 60s!

Now, they all tend to have cell phones to their ears.

Sue

It seems to be true that being prepared for the zombie apocalypse means that you are prepared for anything. It also seems true that using zombies as a metaphor can lead to some good thinking about what it takes to survive.

However, it tends to cross over into survivalist thinking, as opposed to simple survival preparedness (to use ETS terms). As Doug wrote on the "not a survivalist site" page:

The focus of Equipped To Survive™ is survival preparedness, preparing to get through a short-term emergency to return to civilization, either via rescue or by normalization of the situation as the emergency conditions cease.

Zombie preparedness seems to fall into another class of preparedness, the type Doug classes as survivalists:

Survivalists and survivalism anticipate that the emergency or emergency conditions are permanent, that there will be no civilization as we know it to return to and no help or rescue--you're on your own forevermore, or at least for an extended period.

Personally, I find that using a zombie outbreak as a thought exercise leads to the consideration of, and even focusing on, preparations not strictly necessary for any situation that I and my family should be preparing for based on realistic risk assessments.

This is one of the reasons I really appreciate Doug's advice on the main ETS site and these forums; the focus is on more likely situations where survival skills and preparations would become necessary.

As as side note, when using the zombie as a metaphor for such discussions, relating zombies to groups of people tends to get a bit dicey; after all, the appropriate response when you come in contact with a zombie is to kill it.

I usually hear the zombie argument as justification for buying for buying guns like pistols with a huge magazine, laser sights, bayonet, flashlight, flame thrower, and scope, etc., or a rifle with a caliber and range big enough for taking out engine blocks. Amongst gun people, the zombie is a tongue-in-cheek excuse for one's obsession with fantasy firearms that have no practical application in one's life. It usually goes like this:

Salesman: Let me show you this new piece we got since you were last here, which was four days ago. *whips out the said over-accessorized pistol*
Me: That's cool, but I don't have any use for it.
My Enabler: But what if there is a zombie apocalypse? You've gotta get yourself one of these!

This is all in bad taste, of course. But we admit it. I still want that Saiga 12 with a drum magazine.

So I was a little surprised to see this zombie apocalypse scenario on this forum. I continue to be unconvinced that it's of much help to anyone. We are all aware of the importance of emergency preparation, so we don't need the zombie fantasy to guide us. One of the previous posters in the thread has very nicely argued that zombies suggest a complete breakdown of civilization and encourage a survivalist mentality, which is NOT the purpose of this forum.

By the way, zombies are NOT a metaphor. A metaphor stands for something else, and there has to be a non-trivial correspondence between the zombie scenario and the "metaphorized" scenario (e.g., zombies = rioters, zombie virus = social irresponsibility, flesh eating = looting, etc.). In most cases, zombies are fantasies, or imaginary scenarios far removed from reality.

Alright, so maybe some people need the fantasy to help them see the importance of preparation. Again, those people are not here. So I can tell you what I think of those people: they are a bunch of immature kids who spend too much time playing Halo and too little time actually living life. And they have poor taste. I'm glad some of you good folks are helping them get out of the pale, sexless life in their parents' basement, but it ain't gonna be me.

Da Bing

If a person is not interested in sex, it's their prerogative.

Jeanette Isabelle