Alright, so I’m hoping this doesn’t degrade into paranoid end-of-the-world status. My wife and I were talking at lunch yesterday about what could happen during a real-life “zombie” attack. I say “zombie,” and I will say that it’s not in the context of someone who’s been re-animated into a brain-devouring undead monster. If you’ve seen Zombieland (if you haven’t, you should. It’s awesome), the zombies in that movie aren’t dead people who have been brought back to life. They explain in the deleted scenes that Mad Cow Disease became Mad Human Disease became Mad Zombie Disease. With today’s anti-biotic resistant superbugs and viruses that morph faster than we can keep up with, I don’t think it’s impossible to think (maybe sooner than we think) that some form of some virus could infect people on a wide scale and make them go crazy and start attacking fellow humans with their bare hands and teeth, spreading the virus even wider.
Now that that introduction is done, we were discussing one point: zombie rights. If this ever were to happen, I don’t think local law enforcement is equipped to deal with crazed zombies, and I don’t know if the military would use a “just bomb the hell out of the zombie-infested areas and then deal with stragglers under a martial-law setting” type solution. Do you think it’s plausible that there would be people arguing that the zombies are still people and shouldn’t be killed indiscriminately? Do you think that a zombie apocalypse type setting would justify killing the zombies that you felt endangered your safety?
I’m posting this in all seriousness, because I don’t know if the government has ever really considered something like this to be a possibility. Just think about the circumstances for a second, and tell me if you don’t think that it’s somehow possible to end up in that situation. In the event that it does happen, I think they probably would declare Martial Law, and I don’t know that I would feel comfortable turning over whatever arms I may have to the government because they’re “going to keep me safe.”
What do you think would happen to normal citizens? What do you think the policy would be on sight-killing zombies? Would there be a zombie reparation fund set up for the people who became infected and had to be disposed of? I’m just thinking out loud, and I’m genuinely curious to see what your guys’ (serious) opinions are. I know there will be jokes, I’m just as ready to make zombie jokes as the next guy. But think for a few minutes on what <span style="font-style: italic">could</span> happen in a situation like that. What would the world and the law look like under those circumstances?
Now that that introduction is done, we were discussing one point: zombie rights. If this ever were to happen, I don’t think local law enforcement is equipped to deal with crazed zombies, and I don’t know if the military would use a “just bomb the hell out of the zombie-infested areas and then deal with stragglers under a martial-law setting” type solution. Do you think it’s plausible that there would be people arguing that the zombies are still people and shouldn’t be killed indiscriminately? Do you think that a zombie apocalypse type setting would justify killing the zombies that you felt endangered your safety?
I’m posting this in all seriousness, because I don’t know if the government has ever really considered something like this to be a possibility. Just think about the circumstances for a second, and tell me if you don’t think that it’s somehow possible to end up in that situation. In the event that it does happen, I think they probably would declare Martial Law, and I don’t know that I would feel comfortable turning over whatever arms I may have to the government because they’re “going to keep me safe.”
What do you think would happen to normal citizens? What do you think the policy would be on sight-killing zombies? Would there be a zombie reparation fund set up for the people who became infected and had to be disposed of? I’m just thinking out loud, and I’m genuinely curious to see what your guys’ (serious) opinions are. I know there will be jokes, I’m just as ready to make zombie jokes as the next guy. But think for a few minutes on what <span style="font-style: italic">could</span> happen in a situation like that. What would the world and the law look like under those circumstances?
