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Welcome to That Sci-Fi Show where we believe in ignoring the fiction in science fiction
to change your perspective and make you think.
In today's show, we're exploring five basic truths from The Walking Dead.
Right after the bump.
SO!
You want to survive thezombie apocalypse!
Well, lucky you, becuase I have 5 basic truths you'll need to accept to survive the zombie
apocalypse and we're going to talk about them right now.
AMC's "The Walking Dead" is the story of a particular group of survivors in a zombie
apocalypse.
Developed by Frank Darabont, based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert
Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard.
Andrew Lincoln plays the show's lead character, sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes.
It presents ethical conundrums and creates the basis for many philosophical debates.
There are priorities in the apocalyptic world, food, water, shelter, medicine and safety,
these are constant goals.
There's always a sense of impending doom on the show.
At any moment there could be screaming, terror, and the squishing and splashing of killing
zombies, which in "The Walking Dead" world are called Walkers (or geeks, or biters...
floaters, dead ones, lame brains, lurkers... basically anything but Zombie).
Blood, guts, dangling entrails and missing limbs are as common for the living as they
are for the dead.
In fact, the line between the two becomes more and more blurred as the show continues.
The Walkers on the series represent the outcome of a pandmic that reanimates the dead and
then sweeps across the world killing the bulk of the population.
The idea is that survival is both a conscious and unconscious imperative; it's survival
of the fittest taken to it's extreme.
There are elements of utilitarianism in the series (a concept we've discussed before).
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few comes into play.
In other words the greatest good for the majority is the best course of action.
In the case of "The Walking Dead," that majority is the group, not necessarily the
rest of the world.
The psychological aspect of "Us versus Them" is apparent in how the living disassociate
themselves from the dead and from other groups of people.
Anarchy is starting to form because all of the old rules are now gone.
People keep trying to adapt and trying to survive.
That survival comes with a price; the need for survival becomes a validation for "doing
whatever is necessary."
Anyone who watches "The Walking Dead" or is planning to must come to accept a few
important truths.
Number One: There is NO Safe Place
There is absolutely no safe place.
It does not matter where you are, be it fortified in a town, a high rise building or a prison;
it is still not safe.
It will never be safe.
It does not matter how high the walls are, how secure the fences are or how many weapons
you have - it is still not safe.
It's not just because of the Walkers, but because of other people.
If you think you are safe, ten seconds later you are being eaten (and not always by the
dead).
Or worse, you get bit, get sick and have to lie there while your friends and family draw
straws to decide who will stab you in the head after you die.
Number Two: No One Knows if The Dead are Really Dead
Biologically, there is an ongoing debate as to whether Walkers are alive or dead; and
either way, are they still human?
But when one turns into a Walker, there essence, their personality, memories and any complexityo
f thinking are gone.
Their humanity is gone; this is evident because Walkers will eat any living that catches its
attention, as long as they are kicking and screaming, including their own children, their
moms and dads and the poodle down the block because they no longer recognize them as anything
other than food.
This was made clear in series when the well-Walker showed no interest in the canned ham they
lowered down; Lori, points out that the Walkers "There's a reason the dead didn't come back
and start raiding our pantries."
You may know for a fact that the zombies are dead, just don't expect everyone to agree
with you.
However, if you find yourself sleeping near a barn of walkers or dating a man who keeps
his zombie daughter in his closet, just keep in mind that....
Number Three: It Doesn't Matter if They are Alive or Dead
If someone is groaning and grunting, smells like road kill, has parts falling off and
approaches you, grasping and snapping, wanting to bite you, does it matter if they are alive
or dead?
They want to eat you.
It does not matter and that is the logic used on "The Walking Dead," it is about survival;
get them before they can get you.
Glenn tells Maggie, "I don't care if they're sick people or dead people, they're dangerous".
In other words, whether they are dead or sick they still need a good old fashion shovel
to the head.
There are those, like Hershel, who refuse to see them as anything but sick people; people
who could be cured.
But that is hard to validate because the bodies of the Walkers are literially rotting; some
do not even have organs anymore.
Even if they could be restored to the person they were before they would not be able to
function or survive, a realization Hershel came to when Shane put serval rounds into
one of his "sick people" and it just kept coming.
This is why most people conclude that they are already dead so it is okay to kill them
again.
So, a little bit alive or mostly dead they need to be completely dead because they are
dangerous.
They are not human beings anymore.
So
just keep in mind, people who treat walkers like people won't get to be people much longer.
Number Two: Disturbed/Dangerous People are a Much Bigger Problem
In an end-of-world scenario people change and possibly become different people from
who they were before.
This can lead people to do what, before the apocalypse, would have been considered less
human or inhumane; in some cases this can manifest as psychopathic or psychotic behaviors.
First, there was Shane.
He plotted and attempted to kill Rick mostly because, "…it ain't like it was before".
Then there's the Governor, who watched Walker heads in fish tanks for entertainment; they're
like a serial killer's trophies.
The people of Terminus were developing a new post-apocalyptic subculture; one that eats
people, which is an ultimate taboo.
Eating people is inhuman.
What defined human before, no longer applies in The Walking Dead world.
People are not who they used to be and that may make them disturbed and dangerous.
Number One: The People are The Walking Dead
The last thing you need to know before you set off on the post-apocolyptic zombie rampage
of your dreams is that there are no happy endings.
The Walking Dead came about when writer Robert Kirkman wondered what would happen after the
happy ending in a zombie movie.
What would it be like to continue to live in that world.
The reality is that when one looks at the story before them there is very little difference
between the survivors and the Walkers.
That line keeps getting thinner based on what the survivors have been willing to do.
Right and wrong has been eschewed, ethics and morality remains in question.
The Walkers wander aimlessly until they find food, without real purpose or goal.
The survivors are no different.
They are forced to keep moving for the same purpose.
The Walkers will eat anything, hence the people eating; but, again, the survivors have to
eat what they find, as well.
Rick's group "chowed-down" on a Doberman Pincher and a German Sheppard.
The people of Terminus, again, were hunting, capturing, slaughtering and eating people
for food.
They took a hauntingly bureaucratic approach to canabilsim.
Walkers are base creatures, animalistic.
Clawing and biting; people would not behave that way, right?.
Well that is hard to believe after watching Rick rip the throat out an attacker with his
teeth or when Enid was hungrily tearing into and stuffing her face with the most unlucky
little tortoise in all of Georgia.
People would never just kill other people for the sake of making a point, right?
That would be inhumane.
But that is hard to believe when Neegan carries around a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire
that he uses to smash people's heads to a pulp as part of saying, "Hello."
Seriously, they do that to one person everytime they meet a new group.
In the end, being alive, being human and what constitutes a life worth living is constantly
changing.
The Walkers may or may not be biologically alive, but they try to eat people so killing
them is okay.
The one thing that separates the two, survivors and Walkers, philosophically is the desire
to survive.
Walkers do not have inner consciousness and no concept of self preservation; they will
walk off cliffs or into a fire.
Those people who have lost that drive will likely get eaten; that is just how it goes.
In this case, being human is, in fact, a state of mind, any state of mind, which automatically
separates them from the Walkers.
That is probably the greatest struggle in "The Walking Dead," trying to maintain
that sense of humanity and not becoming like the Walkers; the need to make a life worth
living and worth fighting for.
That is how they can stay human.
If not there is nothing else to be done but keep running and try not to get eaten; unlike
Walkers that is not enough for us.
Thank you for watching!
My name is Jay and this has been that Sci-Fi Show.
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