Originally Posted By: chaosmagnet
[color:#33CCFF]Thank you for keeping the discussion courteous. Let's keep further political discussions out of this thread and off of ETS altogether.


Let me urge everyone to follow Chaos' admonition. I think there is some value in discussing the show even in terms of preparedness, though it's also fun, too. It would be a shame to get this thread shut down.

I also want to clarify that I did not intend to bring in politics. I was mainly interested in the cultural factors in a survival show like The Walking Dead. So, to me, Shane and Rick represent two sets of different psychological and cultural attitudes, and it's not clear to me which one would be best for survival. If we're in that situation, should we continue to uphold some sense of fairness and ethics, or should we embrace Shane's "new world" code of conduct?

In one of the last episodes, Dale said to Shane something to the effect of: "I'm contemptuous of you, and I can't be like you. My chance of survival probably is going to be worse because of it, but that's OK." This is self-knowledge and ethical decision. Dale knows who he is and where he sets limits for his conduct. I wonder where each one of us will stand when the storm hits. I don't think we'll know unless we've been tested. (I was almost mugged around Christmas. I had no idea I'd be able to react the way I did, and I certainly had no idea that I wouldn't be upset afterwards.) In the mean time, I have the book that Martin Focazio recommended about how communities actually come together in times of crisis. I hope things will be more like that.

To me Daryl is an interesting guy. Other than the fact that he seems to recover from wounds almost as quickly as Wolverine does from X-Men, he struggles against a different form of group thinking: standing by his brother (kin) vs. helping a group of strangers. In one of the last episodes, he had to climb his way back up a slippery slope after getting thrown off the horse and down the slope, getting impaled by arrow, and almost getting eaten by zombies. He hallucinated and saw his brother, who taunted him. At one point, Merle said, "Don't you know kin is the only thing you can count on?" This is probably the most traditional version of the spectrum between the good of the group vs. the good of all.

Yet he takes risks on behalf of the group precisely because he, as a denizen of the country with this sort of kinship value, doesn't fit in with the group. He has nothing to do in camp, and he's more comfortable searching for Sophia. So this is a bit ironic. Of course, he is also motivated by the new-found friendship with Sophia's mother. Wonder where that relationship is going.