What is a Zombie?

[Boyd]

I've seen this come up. I know I am a bit of a weirdo and I always think folks know what I'm talking about.. I did it again, somebody asked me about a zombie

Well, they don't have to be the night of the living dead type. They can be friends, families, neighbors. Are you ready to fend them off? Even if it means saving yourselves and letting others go?

This is an old twilight zone episode called "the shelter"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shelter_(The_Twilight_Zone)
and the video
http://www.cbs.com/classics/the_twilight_zone/video/?pid=TNoLJX6Td_02JaG54UUZ2q_u9sED7D18&play=true

If you have the time, this is a great eye opener. You never know who's going to be a zombie, or when the time to duck your head arises.

 

[k0xxx]

Also known as the Golden Horde, they could be a real possibility in a TEOTWAKI situation. Unfortunately, I live about 1 full tank away from 2 major cities (600k+), and one smaller city (150k+). Fortunately (for us) these days, not many people are smart enough to keep their tanks full or have fuel on hand to top off their tanks.

 

[Wifezilla]

I see "zombies" as people who did not bother to prepare and now feel entitled to my food, clothing or shelter.

Ask for help? Not a zombie.
Ask to trade for what you need? Not a zombie.
Ask to earn what you need? Not a zombie.
Try to steal what you need or want? ZOMBIE
Try to bully what you want out of me? ZOMBIE
Ever had the title Community Organizer? Most likely a zombie. Be cautious.
Try to tax or regulate away my ability to care for myself and my family? ZOMBIE or possibly a Vampire.
Lazy mooching relative? ZOMBIE or VAMPIRE

 

[pioneergirl]

I agree with the "you never know..." part. We'd all like to think that our closest friends or family members would do their part in helping or even being polite about things. Sadly, that won't be the case. Zombies/Vampires will be, as Wifezilla said, anyone who is a mooch, bully, thief, or basically non-prepper that chooses to use you as their means of survival.

 

[Lady Henevere]

I may be naive, but there is something about the zombie thing I just don't get. I can't even conceive of a disaster situation in which people would fight off family or friends in need rather than help them. In natural disasters and hard times people tend to get together and help one another, not fight each other off to protect their own stuff. What kind of situation would bring about an "every man for himself" society? Twilight Zone aside, are there real world examples where this has occurred? Particularly situations in times of modern transportation in which emergency supplies are never more than a few days away? I'm not saying people shouldn't be prepared for a disaster, I just don't get the part where people become "zombies" rather than friends/family/neighbors who need temporary food/clothing/shelter because their own has been destroyed. I know these may be really dumb questions (I hate asking stuff that everyone else seems to already know!), and I appreciate any responses people are willing to share. Thanks.

 

[pioneergirl]

We're not saying people won't band together, what we're saying is that there WILL be people who have nothing, and will do anything to get what they want. If there is an extreme disaster situation, people who have nothing, and nowhere to go, will do what they feel they need to do to get it. In other words, look at the looting in Louisiana and even in Los Angeles after disasters. Some come together, most become hordes of hungry, mad, and desperate people willing to do anything they need to do in order to eat.

I do not grow my garden to feed my town. I grow it and preserve it to feed me, my kids, and, if they are willing to help and not MOOCH, my family. Nothing comes without work, and call me a snot, but at my house nothing comes for free.

 

[i_am2bz]

Ever had the title Community Organizer? Most likely a zombie. Be cautious.
Try to tax or regulate away my ability to care for myself and my family? ZOMBIE or possibly a Vampire.

LOL!! Too funny.

I've thought a lot about what I would do with relatives/friends who showed up at my door; it's tough, because if the situation were reversed, I would want someone to help ME. Yet, I've spent a LOT of time, money, effort, etc. to prepare, going without a lot of things so that I could be prepared in an emergency. I know I would start feeling resentful, despite my best efforts to the contrary, if my 6 months of supplies suddenly became 2 months due to extra folks who didn't take the time/money/effort that I did.

Katrina did it for me. When I saw people sitting on their rooves or looting or practically rioting at the convention center, I made a solemn vow to myself: THAT WILL NEVER BE ME.

Anyone who thinks the government, any government, will save or protect them is in for an extremely rude awakening.

 

[Wifezilla]

In the case of Katrina, people did help people...BUT...there was also people looting, robbing, raping and otherwise taking advantage of people. Those were zombies. Sometimes the public officials paid to help are the zombies.

"Henry Glover was shot by an unknown assailant on September 2, 2005, four days after the hurricane hit.

When Glover was taken to a makeshift police station the cops allegedly refused to treat him and left him to bleed to death. The charred remains of the 31-year-old father of four were found days later in a burnt-out car.

Police also stand accused of shooting and killing two African-American civilians in cold blood and wounding four others on Danziger Bridge, which connects two predominantly black neighborhoods in the city, on September 4.

The notorious incidents allegedly spawned elaborate cover-ups by the officers involved, including a meeting at a deserted former police station to agree on a story.

As legal proceedings progress, the cases repeatedly reopen old wounds. Five officers were charged in July over Glover's death. Another five have pleaded guilty over the Danziger shootings, while six more were indicted last month.

"They're such high-profile incidents in the consciousness of the city," NOPD sergeant James Young told AFP.

"Still it depends on whom you ask. Some people think the police do a great job despite the behavior of a couple of officers. Others want to lump everybody into one big group and say it's all NOPD."

New Orleans is on track for over 200 murders in 2010 -- the highest per capita homicide rate in the nation -- and the force desperately needs to win back trust if it wants witnesses to come forward and cases to get tried.

"There have been 840 homicides since the storm, and fewer than 50 convictions," Peter Scharf, a criminology expert at Tulane University, told AFP.

"It's pathetic, and so it's a good time to kill people in New Orleans. And of course witnesses won't come forward to testify in these cases because they're afraid that the drug dealers are going to whack them."

Mayor Mitch Landrieu laid bare the scale of the trust deficit when he sent a letter in May to US Attorney General Eric Holder calling for help and describing the NOPD as "one of the worst police departments in the country."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5icUUDOBFItyALt6ls3PyDEmLRWiQ

More..
http://www.alternet.org/katrina/26871/

Now in the case of family, I know several that are dealing with "zombies" now. Family that have outright said to friends of mine "if things get really bad we will just come to your place". These are people who buy expensive toys, have no savings, are in debt up to their eyeballs, and think food miraculously generates from fairy farts on styrofoam trays wrapped in shrinkwrap.

They could easily prepare, but don't. They have already said their intention is to continue to not prepare and burden someone else. That is their idea of disaster planning. ZOMBIES I tell yeah.

 

[lupinfarm]

All I think of when I think Zombie is what John Green said, "Are Zombies people too?" hehe

 

[Lady Henevere]

I know there will always be bad pockets of society -- I've lived most of my live in L.A., after all. But even during the riots in the early 90s, none of us were fighting off "zombies" -- we just steered clear of the bad parts of town (which most everyone from anywhere else does anyway), and went about our usual business. And mooching, fail-to-prepare family members show up on doorsteps when their own personal S hits the fan, because they are their own walking disasters. (We generally don't help them either, but if their house fell down in an earthquake I would.) But it always seems like there's more to this zombie talk than just lazy family members, one-on-one crime or crappy cops (always a possibility), natural disasters (people "prep" even outside major disaster zones and plan for much more than a few weeks without electricity or whatever), or the possibility of civil unrest stemming from a small pocket of poverty-stricken inner city. These are the kinds of things that make me ask:

I know I would start feeling resentful, despite my best efforts to the contrary, if my 6 months of supplies suddenly became 2 months due to extra folks who didn't take the time/money/effort that I did.

What kind of situation do you foresee that will require both you and other people to need six months of supplies?

Also known as the Golden Horde, they could be a real possibility in a TEOTWAKI situation. Unfortunately, I live about 1 full tank away from 2 major cities (600k+), and one smaller city (150k+). Fortunately (for us) these days, not many people are smart enough to keep their tanks full or have fuel on hand to top off their tanks.

What kind if situation do you foresee that will cause people to come streaming out of cities looking for your stuff?

Again, sorry if these are dumb questions, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around this one. (And I hate feeling like I'm missing something obvious!) Thanks!