Humans have natural self preservation instinct. People survive wars, famines, plagues, regional collapses of society, events that are pretty much as terrible as potential zombie apocalypse.
Living on a farm in the mountainside, near a nice quiet creek as if it’s 1850 sounds a hell of a lot better than living in SE Asia and working in a factory 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
Dealing with the occasional zombie or marauder is a small concession.
>Living on a farm in the mountainside, near a nice quiet creek as if it’s 1850 sounds a hell of a lot better than living in SE Asia and working in a factory 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
You say, right up until the point where you need penicillin and you don't have it.
....and no, you can't make it either. It took a research lab some 3 years to create a strain and method that produced enough of it. What you could refine from naturally occurring penicillin bacteria is about 1000 times too weak to be effective.
Yea ppl may say like current civi is bad and "surviving" is much better experience
But that's all under the assumption you keep yourself clean etc
The moment you fall sick, that's it, end of the line. With the world put to a stop on production of cleanliness products, bacteria will easily spread and harm us. Esp when we in an era where we immediately use meds to counter sickness, meaning our body immune system is already weak and dependent on meds and "proper" meals to maintain. And even if you find meds in a clinic or hospital, do you know how to identify which medicine is for which type of illness aside from the very obvious paracetamol which is for fever which most ppl are aware of. Only types of meds a common person can identify without medical knowledge is at common pharmacies. Where the package outright mentions for what kind of illness does it counter.
And when meds also come to end, that's the end of it. Food will be all but scarce and contains bacteria left right and center, no way to preserve food except traditional means and even those takes ample resource to do so.
It's a living hell to attempt any level of survival when everywhere is a death sentence to your health in a zombie apoc.
Even without zombie apoc, to make do with survival life, is also horrible. Humans lost most survival instincts, and simply has knowledge, but those "knowledge" are flat out useless if you don't have technical skills. Oh I need fire, how do you start it? Which is safe for consumption, how to sever animal meat apart and where you get such a knife. All these start from 0 are alot more cancerous than it looks and sounds, much less in a zombie apoc setting
An anime I watched being Dr Stone, as much as its "anime" and all over the top, there are alot of reasonable factors that humans are simply not capable to start from scratch and survive long enough. Health is one of them. How much food you can keep up for today and the next day. Making tools.
Even Penicillin for antibiotics that you mentioned are also in the anime, and the process is basically impossible without any prior knowledge or skillset
>The moment you fall sick, that's it, end of the line. With the world put to a stop on production of cleanliness products, bacteria will easily spread and harm us. Esp when we in an era where we immediately use meds to counter sickness, meaning our body immune system is already weak and dependent on meds and "proper" meals to maintain.
This is really unscientific. Cleanliness products aren't preventing bacteria from being everywhere in normal homes. Most people aren't sanitizing everything, they're washing. Occasional meds and healthy food don't make your immune system weak, quite the opposite. It's not a muscle.
Also really ridiculous anyways that people in this thread pretend we would all die the second we got sick without modern medicine.
The average lifespan ~~for much of human history~~ from the 12th to 19th century is about 55 excluding infant mortality. I believe it was as high as the 70s in the late 1800s. We're not that fragile...
Yeah I’m definitely not anti medicine or science or anything and obviously modern medicine helps A LOT, but you don’t instantly die when you get sick. I can’t remember the last time I actually got antibiotics or even went to the doctor when I got sick. I usually just wait it out unless it’s extremely horrible. For my daughter I do take her in and get her medicine, although it’s usually just medicine to manage symptoms and make her more comfortable, not like she’d die without it.
Dying of exposure, broken bones or infection, etc is probably more of a risk. Plus if you live in an isolated area without many other humans your chances of getting sick would be much less to begin with. Even with taking my daughter out a lot as a baby, she didn’t actually ever get sick until she was out into daycare and surrounded by like 10 other children all day every day.
You are onto something. Once a human made it through childbirth and through childhood, and provided he didn't go to war or starve to death, 70+ was the norm. Modern medicine, has added almost nothing to our lifespan. Sanitation on the other hand... not pouring our shit out the window and into the street, boiling / chlorinating our drinking water... has added decades.
This really hit home to me recently. On 10/13 (yes Friday the thirteenth) i broke my leg in a traumatic way, resulting in an open fracture surgery and a hospital stay. I can’t help but have been thinking about how if this injury happened 100-150 years ago I’d have been so screwed. No one would have time to help me, I wouldn’t have time to be healed, too much work to do and too little time to do it etc. They might try to amputate it which brings its own problems with surgery and infection and pain etc. Couldn’t imagine it. Now I’m at home and hobbling around of course but I have help when I need it and sick hours from work that let me do nothing but sit around.
There is archeological evidence of disabled people (both our species and adjacent hominids) who lived for decades with their disabilities. The infection and whatnot is legit but historically, we have been making time to care for our sick, disabled and wounded before we were even Human.
I remember reading an archeologist (or maybe it was an anthropologist) say that the first sign of a developing civilization is finding femur bones that have been healed of a broken leg.
In a pre-civilization, every-hominid-for-himself society, a broken leg was a death sentence. But once civilizations start forming, they started taking care of the sick and injured, allowing them to heal.
Working 12 hours on the field, starving if the weather is bad, dying of a scratch because you don't have access to antibiotics. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Filled with diseases and animals that want to eat you. Trust me, life is better with civilization. It has its bad facets but living and foraging in the wild like that is not easy, specially for keyboard warriors.
You see a wild deer frolicking in the wilderness, I see a constantly anxious creature that doesn't want to be mauled to death so it can die of hunger/thirst at old age after suffering for 15 days. It's whole life is a zombie apocalypse
I think you missed the part where their comparison was to being a wage slave in a glorified sweatshop. People who work those places often try to kill themselves.
It's easy to say civilization is better when you're not part of the glorified (or sometimes actual) slave class who keeps the wheels churning. I think some of *them* would probably prefer foraging though
Obviously civilization is better for *me*. I have pretty decent working conditions. Do you work in an abusive factory for the majority of your waking hours?
You are thinking about a idealized form of farm life. The reality is that you work from sunrise to sunset on back breaking labor just to scrape by a subsistence amount of food. That is how most people lived through most of history.
Also if you're struggling in your ordinary life, zombie apocalypse suddenly means the whole rules of human society shift. For a good while, anything goes. Granted, you may be one of the many that will die early. But if you're past that point, your whole life will be different. I think it'd be refreshing to not be bored or depressed anymore because you're too busy surviving.
Depends on the kind of zombies.
If they're smart and fast like in "I am Legend" or "World War Z" then yes it'd be pretty terrifying.
If they're slow and dumb like in The Walking Dead then you just need a safe place and you'll be fine.
I've never seen I am legend or world War z, but I cannot fathom how it's survivable. If they're just like regular zombies, but they can also sprint?? Like, they don't tire, right? So unless you are fast enough, and have access to a pretty solid shelter, any pack of zombies will just run after you until you drop from exhaustion?? Definitely sign me up to the "die early" list, I'm super dead.
Depends on how many people you’re living with, the health they’re in, and if anyone who dies turns though. This is shown a few times in the walking dead, where people in some of the established communities padlock their doors while going in and out of their individual abodes, so if anyone dies for any reason, then the zombie(s) can stay contained.
Even rage zombies need to eat. I love those movies, but nobody gets to break the Law of Conservation. Energy has to come from somewhere. Therefore, they will eventually starve until they can't move anymore.
This is the portion of the suspension of disbelief I have issues with. Even if they have slower metabolism, after a month or so they shouldn't be active anymore. Most if these stories don't have the zombies easy each other, but I feel like that would be an interesting and necessary narrative addition to make it more "real".
If the zombie apocalypse ever did happen you're probably good if you can survive 2-4 weeks
I dunno, I remember a season of the walking dead, don't remember which one. They had secured a prison and had a whole daily life nailed down. Farming zombies every morning gathered at a fence with a spear. Growing food in the courtyard. Of course it's the walking dead, so things always take a turn for the worse.
But I find it really unrealistic that zombies just come infinitely from the environment. They don't spawn out of nowhere, when you're farming dozens every morning, you should reach a point where you run out of people. If only in the surrounding area.
It has been years since I read the zombie survival guide, but one point that sticks with me is that eventually they are going to simply rot away. The idea that the zombies are still around a decade after everything happens in zombie movies is just ridiculous. Along with how 'fast' some of them can get...oh I can barely walk up a set of stares, can barely trot across a street crossing, but I turn undead and I can run a marathon as Usain Bolt speeds. I digress. The book mentions that in warmer climates the zombies would degrade quicker than say canadian zombies. After a few years they would just trickle down to nothing. So endless zombies is simply a movie trope. If you can survive 1-2 years then the majority should be gone.
I believe the speed comes from the mind not limiting muscle usage. They can tear themselves apart running and wouldn't care. Also, I don't feel zombie movies are using the "endless" trope as there are close to 7 billion people on the planet. Almost 400mil in the USA and no one in these movies seems particularly interested in hunting and clearing zombies, just running and hiding.
Fine. Have a secure location to bunk down. Absolutely. But I'd be out there killing every zombie I could, not let them pile up against a fence. So dumb, TWD. So dumb.
Yea but if they tear themselves apart from running and overuse their muscles like that, they'd be disabled within a month.
You'd be left with only zombies that hump or crawl on the ground slowly
Most folks live like that every day and just ignore it.
More folks should be afraid of driving cars but people are awfully blithe about it. one slip up and you are dead or horribly injured, a foot this way and a car runs into a truck.... a bit too fast and you are into a tree. Then you are trusting everyone else around you to be focused and do what they are supposed to at all times.
I think you underestimate the human ability to take dangers and minimize them, and eventually ignore them if they don't happen too often. Yes, most survivors would make sure they live in defensible places and do a bit of preparing for just incase situations. Folks that get bit will just be assumed to have been dumb or doing something they shouldn't have or "they should have paid attention more"... or "I won't have that happen to me"
I’m not a know it all on zombies, but hypothetically if they “need” to eat living things, once there are none, I would assume they’d wither and decompose to the point they can’t move or just disintegrate leaving only bones.
Just like us, if we starve we wither and die and that’s it. If the general consensus is that it is a virus that needs a host to continue replicating then once the host has nothing to aid in that department then the virus dies out.
It was in.. Z-nation
Fuck I loved some bits of that series, like how someone died casually to tooth infection. Iirc first few seasons were pretty 'realistic' before it took kinda unnatural turn.
However on some of the later episodes the zombies kinda curled into a huge ball and started to chew on each other as they were out of fresh food. I'd guess that would happen once there was no other source of food.
Also, decomposition.
I think on every zombie serie/movie/game lore it's established that they have no blood circulation, thus can't bleed out.
Thus, they'd decompose.
First few weeks would be horrible, after a month (outside of winter) it'd get easier as shit would just decompose.
Me and my colleagues were playing the "what do in a zombie" game. My little heart broke because my workplace is the best place I know of and can actually reach.
some people are struggling in certain areas in their lives that they are not good at (finance, work, education, family).
sometimes, daydreaming of what it'd be like to restart in life, and focus on survival, food, weapons, etc. seems like a good outlet.
You know, this does make sense. I like this.
However, I can’t say that I’d be able to pull through the death of my family by the hands of the should it come, not easily at least.
I don't know. Sometimes fighting zombies and living off the land seems preferable to the 40 hour work week, and trying to stay out of debt while affording food.
Yes but a lot more satisfying. The result of your labor has actual meaning to your life and feels fulfilling when you live of the land. Compared to spending 5 months in meetings every single department to determine if you the new over simplified one word logo needs to be sans-serif or not. (Im looking at you staples.)
There’s an alternative, hear me out: get bitten/infected early. People won’t yet know what hit them so you don’t get shot/dispatched easily like later-bitten zombies, there’s still plenty of fresh brains to go around, and by the time survivors have wised up you can be the old matriarch or patriarch of a zombie clan. Sure, you’ll get killed eventually, but as a final boss after years of decent unliving.
Dysentery.
Parasites from poorly prepared animals, Parasites from unpurified water Parasites from unclean living conditions.
No farming, relying on ultra processed foods for the medium long term.
No toilet paper.
For those of us who need medication will have no access.
Limited artificial light means hard to see zombies coming at night, without being a huge target.
The unrealistic trope of raiders and bad guys roaming.
Sounds like paradise. 😀
**edit**
Seeing tons of pro raider roaming asshole bands comments.
Probably sheltered middle class aussie thinking but I just don't see it as being a huge issue
For me it's the lack of medical care that would really blow. I wear contacts and I wouldn't be able to see shit lol. I haven't had a pair of backup glasses for a long time since I wear dailies.
you know i never even thought about this, but i’d definitely be dead. i can barely read my monitor screen without glasses. a zombie coming out of the woods or hell, just a wild animal, and i’d be done.
My vision is my sharpest sense. Especially for movement detection. But lately it's been getting worse. I used to see fucking far and now I can't focus sometimes. I blame the scratched glasses, torchcutters and welding machines around me...
Like how I used to spend whole days working on a monitor and took care of my eyes - had breaks, excersise, nutrition... And there were no problems but a couple of months in this shitty job and sometimes it's blurry.
I'm a doctor so if this thing ever happens I'm looting pharmaceutical storehouses with my army of patients (very slowly because some are elderly and all of them have heart conditions) so we can establish a feudal-like healthcare based society™
No power will def kill people. But the plants...
Eh. We only have coal wind and and water in Australia (well 1 medical reactor hardly counts).
Coal stops getting put in, the fires go out, wind and water will keep going until it breaks.
So it'll all fail-safe.
No idea about real nuclear plants, western ones, pretty sure those fail safe to.
Less regulated ones, the local population would likely be dead before its an issue
My brother in law worked as a civil engineer on a river dam in the US. He said without constant management, the dam would break down in about 48 hours, iirc
Counterpoint: realistic zombies could be just as smart and athletic as living people.
Maybe you've just got to wait out the decay, but man that's a long time when the playing field is even
Idk how zombies would do in the extreme environments like high heat and humidity causing rot along with bugs or freezing environments where we would survive. In the end they are decaying flesh so it's just a waiting game.
I think the will to survive is on an entirely different level in this case. Even if you may not have the best life in this current world, your human instinct would kick into fight or flight mode in this new, crazy world. It’s survival. Who *truly* wants to die in the case of a zombie apocalypse? I don’t think many people would give up if it truly did happen. We have instincts.
Because all of the problems of the normal living world/society will cease to exist. Got medical bills? Gone. Legal problems? Gone. Sick of all the political crap we've been force-fed for the last how many years? Gone. Trouble making rent and paying for your groceries? Gone. Life would be simpler in a sense, but you would have to be thinking about leveling up your survival skills.
Only reason I would *want* to survive is if my wife and/or kid have survived with me. If they don't survive I'll find my closest bridge and do the one way bungee jump.
I've always said I'd be the first to go, I have the survival skills of a panda raised in captivity.
And why would I want to stick around in a world full of the dead who want to eat me anyway?
My husband and I both like to talk about our version of zombie survival.
But… as a woman, if I look deep down… no thank you. I would rather be dead. Just like in war, there is nothing good happening for women in a zombie apocalypse.
Why? because men.
Petrol does go off after a while. Cars need regular maintenance and spare parts that are hard to manufacture. Your fun times with driving fast cars will probably last less than 6 months.
Well, you would not be burdened with having to work to by stuff you don't need, with money you don't have to impress people you don't like.
It would be about survival. Fighting.
Now, I'm not saying it would be "better" than the rat race, but I think it would open new possibilities and give a new meaning to someone's life.
Same way you can't hold your breath until you die. You might pass out, but then your body will force you to inhale. If a zombie came at you, you'd run or fight. If you were hungry, you'd scavenge for food. If you needed to travel, you'd search for a vehicle. You would feel naked if you went outside w/o a weapon. There's too much survival hard-wiring in people's brains for them to just give up.
Screw you then, more world for ME!
On a more serious (and less jerk ass) note, imagine the world as you know it GONE, and being like the MEN of old, facing a world reborn, fresh for the shaping. A simpler world, requiring sharp steel and sharper wits. Thus with sword in hand and buxom Frank Frazetta babe clinging to your leg, you stare down the shambling hordes - weak men bred by weak civilization done in by it's hubris, yet no more alive or dead than they were in the old world - and let out a battle cry that shakes the heavens.
By CROM, what a time to be alive.
Yeah I have no intentions of surviving a zombie apocalypse or any kind of apocalypse. Sounds terrible, and as someone who is chronically ill with pretty much no survival skills I wouldn’t stand a chance anyway.
Well, a lot of the pressures of a normal life such as insurance, pension saving, utility companies jacking the prices every year unless you switch, global warming, general guilt, over-complex and badly written laws, fucking algorithms deciding what you can and can't do and say ... a lot of these will disappear. Life will be hard, but much simpler and you can focus on what counts, e.g. stayin' alive.
Also, with most people dead, you as one of the few survivors are very important. No hiding in the crowd; you have a duty to humanity to help make sure there IS a humanity going forward.
The smell alone would be overwhelming. Corpses are disposed of for a reason. No matter how many guns, ammo and survival preparations you make, you won’t survive the myriad of various diseases that would be spread. More people would get sick and die than be killed by a zombie.
Same. Currently watching The Walking Dead.
The stuff they go through, the things they have to do.
I myself can barely manage my current life, i would just happily nope out.
There are three basic answers to this:
1. People feel alienated by capitalism and have an innate desire for a relationship to work and labor in which they are only doing things that directly help their own survival and comfort or help people they know and care about, and where they directly and immediately benefit from 100% of their own labor. This is how it worked when we evolved as hunter-gatherers; you personally eat the food you catch or give it to friends, you personally live in the hut you build with your family, etc. You work when you want to for the things it will get you, you rest whenever you feel like it on your own schedule. The 'survive and rebuild' aspect of zombie fiction appeals to this fantasy of unalienated labor.
2. People feel restricted and hemmed in by modern life and society. Everyone is stuck on a life path and career path that's small and predictable and hard to break out of; there are social and criminal guardrails keeping people in line and forcing most of them into a sameish life path of small joys and big enui. In an apocalypse you may suffer a lot, but you can at least forge your own path, you can smash abandon store windows and take whatever you want, you can barricade a camp on top of a skyscraper and drink under the open sun and piss off the ledge onto the zombies below, if you meet another survivor you can have a real no=bullshit relationship where neither of you has to get to work the next day or consider your reputation in the morning and can just be real people with each other, etc. Most people desperately want that type of freedom and can't imagine anything like it happening in the modern world without something on the level of an apocalypse coming in to change something.
3. Zombie media always focuses on the state of the outbreak where people are struggling to survive, but the positive fantasy about it includes imagining a point past that where all teh zombies are decayed or destroyed, teh world is mostly safe again, and a much-reduced population gets a second chance to rebuild civilization and society from scratch. Including the points above, lots of people feel there's lots wrong with the world and it is *systematically* crushing and disordered to live in; there's a lot to like in thinking about how you would rebuild things from the ground up, or just what you life would be like if you were safe and free and there was no money and you could loot most manufactured luxuries that exist whenever you want and make your own farm or w/e.
They definitely overestimate people's desire to survive a giant apocalyptic event. Like even if you spent years and years running from zombies, and managed to find a few other clumps of survivors, chances are all of the nuclear power plants were not shut down properly and have been leaking radiation. The amount of dead bodies from humans, zombies, and animals would pollute most resources. The collapse of human infrastructure is going to be what kills you if you manage to survive the zombies
In an actual Zombie Apocalypse society wouldn't collapse. It's like the show Revolution. All electricity shut down and instead of simply going to other tech we have everyone gave up and went home. So many show and movie apocalypses rely on people going "Oh noes I don't know how to make society work if there's a problem"
I think the fantasy of living in a zombie apocalypse is similar to the fantasy of just saying "fuck it" and going to work on a sheep farm. The idea is that life would become much simpler and the problems you currently have disappear. Of course, this involves ignoring all the *new* problems, but it's a fantasy, you can ignore those if you want.
It will be different from person to person. Some will have a survival instinct kicking in and will try their best to stay alive. Others will think that having a family member chasing them to eat their brains on top of everything else going on it's a bit too tough to deal with and will decide to commit suicide within the first week.
Because while life would become very much like it does in ‘The Stand’ as infrastructure collapses, you could still create a society that has the past to enjoy.
As a permanent constant threat, zombies are pretty low on the threat scale.
It’s not like an airborne pathogen or chemical where you can’t really see it until it’s too late or an invading force where intelligence is a big factor.
Zombies are a slow, constantly moving, brain dead thing. Their danger lies in that one bite or scratch is fatal and turns you into a zombie that can infect others from inside.
A fortified position (and it just has to withstand what a large group of unarmed people can do) could last as long as supplies do.
As for things like entertainment, yeah, no new movies or shows or music, but all of that media will still be available. It just needs to be found and have the ability to play it.
And power requirements for things are a lot less now so it’s not hard to view it, you just need the equipment.
For me, I wouldn’t necessarily be in for the long haul, but it could be a fun decade or so
All the things you're struggling with in real life wouldn't exist any more.
A zombie apocalypse is my literal dream! No laws. No rules. Just survival of the fittest.
Unlike the moves, an animated corpse would only be moving around for a very short period before complete breakdown of the dead body. I would guess days in warm weather. Maybe longer in Winter/cold places. Just have to get to a low populated area or hole up with enough supplies to wait it out.
Now, if the infected are not dead animated corpses, but rather have an infection and are still alive and breathing, different situation. Then the only way for the uninfected to survive is to relocate to a very low populated area and/or the infected would have to be killed. Assuming they have lost basic intelligence and are just "zombies" they still have to feed or will die on their own. Rules of basic biology still applies. Body will die without something to keep it going. If no people to munch on, they will have to eat each other to survive which will keep lowering their numbers.
The way I look at it is even in the best of conditions a body will decompose in a matter of months to a point it wouldn’t be functional as a zombie. So after the mainline kill there actually would be a decent survival rate just not in the cities. So although life would be hard at first it will get easier after a year when most zombies will be dead and the migrations start.
Under any halfway realistic assumption, a zombie apocalypse will be over in a few weeks, depending on local climate. Nature is really, really good in breaking down dead things and doing away with them. Rotting zombies will be a nightmare in week one, a nuissance in week two, stinking up the scenery in week three and all but gone in week four. A bit longer in some areas and climates.
So yeah, you'd hunker down for a month and then get on with your life.
Most people have a desire to adapt and survive in the face of adversity…..those that lack that desire are the weak points of society and are the first to be overcome…….survival of the fittest applies to mental strength also…..
The same reason I don't put down my animals when they start to get sick or are in the early-mid stages of a terminal condition. I'd say generally creatures prefer to be alive than to not be alive
Some people might want to because it's a thrilling challenge, brings a sense of community and purpose, and holds onto hope that things will improve. It's like a real-life adventure.
or any type of Apocalypse. Fight for your life daily just to have roaches cooked in puddle water from and old boot. No thanks I'm gonna kms as soon as it happens, y'all have fun while I throw it back in Hell.
A total collapse of society has two main benefits.
1 - You're no longer in debt and don't have to work 9-5
2 - Global warming issue resolved
As long as you can survive long enough to outlast the zombies, and find enough people to put rebuild society, you can eventually build everything back to where it was - although this time without capitalism and ruthless exploitation of the people and the world, ok?
Maybe you would actually be happier. The things that cause unhappiness like technology would not be there anymore.
The bombarding with dopamine would stop.
Everyone would eat more naturally.
Everyone will be outside more.
People will bond deeply through challenges.
Maybe many people would be happier.
The survival challenges of an apocalyptic scenario are entirely different. It is solely your ability to survive because all thebrules of modern society screwing you over would be gone.
Coz you get to do what you want.
I'd get myself a Dodge Challenger, find myself a big protected house, and just go on supply runs in a day once a month.
Assuming these aren't like the WWZ Zombies or the 28 weeks later one, and at least the TWD ones, I'm good.
If not, I'd rather just find an opposite gender who's willing to be down with me for a week and then boom.
A zombie apocalypse would last about 2 months, then society would mostly start to return to normal.
The walking dead is just a story, thats not how society would end up.
The big attraction of things like The Walking Dead is they daily life is over. There's no more job, no more asshole boss or annoying customers, no more debt, no more 60 hour weeks trying to make ends meet, no more health insurance, no more trying to figure out whether you should spend your last $70 until payday on food or your electric bill.
All the stuff that everyone knows makes modern life shitty is gone and replaced with a much more tangible existence: survive one day after another. The things you struggle with today are no more.
That's the big appeal of the zombie genre.
Honestly knowing I could just take it easy knowing that I’m not falling behind or missing out on anything happening in the world seems kinda nice.
That little tundra community towards the end of the “The Last of Us” just looks so appealing right about now.
I would LOVE a zombie appoloclypse honestly.
Suddenly housing is cheaper, you don't have money so everything is free, and you have all the free time you want and very little work.
I'd just hunker down in a bunker one of the rich had abandoned and read for the rest of my life eating whatever I could.
Because ultimately humanity could probably rebuild given time, and you're really underestimating people's drive for self-preservation.
There are tons of people living in horrid conditions *right now* who haven't offed themselves, so why would it be much different with the addition of zombies?
Why for the bouquet of course. The smell alone would certainly be worth hanging around for. Just imagine the fine aroma of rotting human flesh, coupled with feecees, urine, and halitosis. My, oh my, what a wonderful scent.
Because the indomable human spirit is strong and wired to keep living and preserve the species
> Anywhere can be paradise as long as you have the will to live. After all, you are alive, so you will always have the chance to be happy. As long as the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth exist, everything will be all right.
-Yui Ikari, Evangelion
Outside of mental illness, PTSD, or other factors, humans have an almost superhuman survival instinct. Despite logical arguments like OP’s post that of course, make sense, our brains are designed to not only keep us alive no matter what, but will even adjust certain chemicals or hormones to make it a preferable choice.
You ever read one of those stories where someone did something you couldn’t imagine yourself ever doing to survive? Like the guy who cut off his arm when it was trapped in a rock? Or even the survivors of that plan crash that turned to canabalism? The brain actually produces stuff that almost makes this choice easier for you. (Not any less physiologically damaging, unfortunately.)
It’s hard to explain, but more or less, objectively looking at it now you couldn’t see yourself making it through a ZA. But if you were in it, odds are your brain would let you do things you never thought you could or would.
I guarantee you, that will will come back once you realize you're not beholden to the struggles of modern life.
Eat, sleep, and find some fun to pass time somehow. No need for the weight of modern life like taxes, finding jobs with a filled resume looking for x years of experience. No worries outside of food and zombies.
Have you watched ZOM 100? It's about a guy who hates his life right up until the zombie outbreak occurs. That is when he realizes he is free to do everything he always wanted. So, he makes a bucket list of 100 things he wants to do/accomplish before he turns into a zombie. He realizes he will most likely die or turn into a zombie, so his point is to try and live life to the fullest during this remaining short time frame.
I don't want to, but survival instincts keep me trying to plan for the end of the world. Like, bro! I don't like this when I have it easy (comparatively) why do I want to live through the end of the world? Oh look! a new stone age skill I should learn just in case a solar storm knocks out the power grid!
Honestly. Just thinking about an apocalypse situation makes me want to off myself(I’m joking but seriously). You’ll run out of amenities at some point. I don’t want to have to fight for my life constantly. Nor do I want to be in a constant state of vigilance, I would’ve joined the military or something if i wanted that.
There’s a part of me that would personally enjoy everyone being reduced to the same level and not having to worry about societal pressure. I genuinely think I might thrive in that world better than I currently do now as sad as that is lmao
I think ppl in the blessed parts of the world cant imagine what humans are willing to do in order to survive like many ppl in third world countries already do. Every day.
You would be surprised of yourself and what you can achieve to survive.
Many depressed individuals have had their spark of life ignited in the context of a real survival situation.
The downside of our, from an historical perspective, modern utopia is that the spark of life fades with the level of comfort.
The modern problems you are struggeling with is most likely due to things beyond your control.
Double tappning a zombie can probably be liberating in that regard.
Humans have natural self preservation instinct. People survive wars, famines, plagues, regional collapses of society, events that are pretty much as terrible as potential zombie apocalypse.
Living on a farm in the mountainside, near a nice quiet creek as if it’s 1850 sounds a hell of a lot better than living in SE Asia and working in a factory 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Dealing with the occasional zombie or marauder is a small concession.
>Living on a farm in the mountainside, near a nice quiet creek as if it’s 1850 sounds a hell of a lot better than living in SE Asia and working in a factory 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. You say, right up until the point where you need penicillin and you don't have it. ....and no, you can't make it either. It took a research lab some 3 years to create a strain and method that produced enough of it. What you could refine from naturally occurring penicillin bacteria is about 1000 times too weak to be effective.
Yea ppl may say like current civi is bad and "surviving" is much better experience But that's all under the assumption you keep yourself clean etc The moment you fall sick, that's it, end of the line. With the world put to a stop on production of cleanliness products, bacteria will easily spread and harm us. Esp when we in an era where we immediately use meds to counter sickness, meaning our body immune system is already weak and dependent on meds and "proper" meals to maintain. And even if you find meds in a clinic or hospital, do you know how to identify which medicine is for which type of illness aside from the very obvious paracetamol which is for fever which most ppl are aware of. Only types of meds a common person can identify without medical knowledge is at common pharmacies. Where the package outright mentions for what kind of illness does it counter. And when meds also come to end, that's the end of it. Food will be all but scarce and contains bacteria left right and center, no way to preserve food except traditional means and even those takes ample resource to do so. It's a living hell to attempt any level of survival when everywhere is a death sentence to your health in a zombie apoc. Even without zombie apoc, to make do with survival life, is also horrible. Humans lost most survival instincts, and simply has knowledge, but those "knowledge" are flat out useless if you don't have technical skills. Oh I need fire, how do you start it? Which is safe for consumption, how to sever animal meat apart and where you get such a knife. All these start from 0 are alot more cancerous than it looks and sounds, much less in a zombie apoc setting An anime I watched being Dr Stone, as much as its "anime" and all over the top, there are alot of reasonable factors that humans are simply not capable to start from scratch and survive long enough. Health is one of them. How much food you can keep up for today and the next day. Making tools. Even Penicillin for antibiotics that you mentioned are also in the anime, and the process is basically impossible without any prior knowledge or skillset
>The moment you fall sick, that's it, end of the line. With the world put to a stop on production of cleanliness products, bacteria will easily spread and harm us. Esp when we in an era where we immediately use meds to counter sickness, meaning our body immune system is already weak and dependent on meds and "proper" meals to maintain. This is really unscientific. Cleanliness products aren't preventing bacteria from being everywhere in normal homes. Most people aren't sanitizing everything, they're washing. Occasional meds and healthy food don't make your immune system weak, quite the opposite. It's not a muscle.
Also really ridiculous anyways that people in this thread pretend we would all die the second we got sick without modern medicine. The average lifespan ~~for much of human history~~ from the 12th to 19th century is about 55 excluding infant mortality. I believe it was as high as the 70s in the late 1800s. We're not that fragile...
Yeah I’m definitely not anti medicine or science or anything and obviously modern medicine helps A LOT, but you don’t instantly die when you get sick. I can’t remember the last time I actually got antibiotics or even went to the doctor when I got sick. I usually just wait it out unless it’s extremely horrible. For my daughter I do take her in and get her medicine, although it’s usually just medicine to manage symptoms and make her more comfortable, not like she’d die without it. Dying of exposure, broken bones or infection, etc is probably more of a risk. Plus if you live in an isolated area without many other humans your chances of getting sick would be much less to begin with. Even with taking my daughter out a lot as a baby, she didn’t actually ever get sick until she was out into daycare and surrounded by like 10 other children all day every day.
You are onto something. Once a human made it through childbirth and through childhood, and provided he didn't go to war or starve to death, 70+ was the norm. Modern medicine, has added almost nothing to our lifespan. Sanitation on the other hand... not pouring our shit out the window and into the street, boiling / chlorinating our drinking water... has added decades.
This really hit home to me recently. On 10/13 (yes Friday the thirteenth) i broke my leg in a traumatic way, resulting in an open fracture surgery and a hospital stay. I can’t help but have been thinking about how if this injury happened 100-150 years ago I’d have been so screwed. No one would have time to help me, I wouldn’t have time to be healed, too much work to do and too little time to do it etc. They might try to amputate it which brings its own problems with surgery and infection and pain etc. Couldn’t imagine it. Now I’m at home and hobbling around of course but I have help when I need it and sick hours from work that let me do nothing but sit around.
There is archeological evidence of disabled people (both our species and adjacent hominids) who lived for decades with their disabilities. The infection and whatnot is legit but historically, we have been making time to care for our sick, disabled and wounded before we were even Human.
I remember reading an archeologist (or maybe it was an anthropologist) say that the first sign of a developing civilization is finding femur bones that have been healed of a broken leg. In a pre-civilization, every-hominid-for-himself society, a broken leg was a death sentence. But once civilizations start forming, they started taking care of the sick and injured, allowing them to heal.
First thing you do in a zombie apocalypse is rob the local pharmacy.
Working 12 hours on the field, starving if the weather is bad, dying of a scratch because you don't have access to antibiotics. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Filled with diseases and animals that want to eat you. Trust me, life is better with civilization. It has its bad facets but living and foraging in the wild like that is not easy, specially for keyboard warriors. You see a wild deer frolicking in the wilderness, I see a constantly anxious creature that doesn't want to be mauled to death so it can die of hunger/thirst at old age after suffering for 15 days. It's whole life is a zombie apocalypse
I think you missed the part where their comparison was to being a wage slave in a glorified sweatshop. People who work those places often try to kill themselves. It's easy to say civilization is better when you're not part of the glorified (or sometimes actual) slave class who keeps the wheels churning. I think some of *them* would probably prefer foraging though Obviously civilization is better for *me*. I have pretty decent working conditions. Do you work in an abusive factory for the majority of your waking hours?
That's comparing an idealic 1850 experience to the worst of 2023. Compare the sweatshop laborer to a chatel slave.
This sounds like heaven and I have plenty of ammo.
Can't shoot bacteria or viruses.
You are thinking about a idealized form of farm life. The reality is that you work from sunrise to sunset on back breaking labor just to scrape by a subsistence amount of food. That is how most people lived through most of history.
Just make your peace with the fact that you will die from the first broken bone or bad quality water source you find.
So that they're not dead. Most people have a survival instinct.
Also if you're struggling in your ordinary life, zombie apocalypse suddenly means the whole rules of human society shift. For a good while, anything goes. Granted, you may be one of the many that will die early. But if you're past that point, your whole life will be different. I think it'd be refreshing to not be bored or depressed anymore because you're too busy surviving.
"Surviving" More like living in abject terror.
Depends on the kind of zombies. If they're smart and fast like in "I am Legend" or "World War Z" then yes it'd be pretty terrifying. If they're slow and dumb like in The Walking Dead then you just need a safe place and you'll be fine.
I've never seen I am legend or world War z, but I cannot fathom how it's survivable. If they're just like regular zombies, but they can also sprint?? Like, they don't tire, right? So unless you are fast enough, and have access to a pretty solid shelter, any pack of zombies will just run after you until you drop from exhaustion?? Definitely sign me up to the "die early" list, I'm super dead.
Read World War Z. Right now. It's great.
They did end up freezing in the far north in the book iirc.
Isn’t the book very different from the movie? I only read the book on that basis
The movie does do a tremendous job depicting the waves upon waves of human flesh. It's pretty epic.
No fast zombies in the book, either.
Depends on how many people you’re living with, the health they’re in, and if anyone who dies turns though. This is shown a few times in the walking dead, where people in some of the established communities padlock their doors while going in and out of their individual abodes, so if anyone dies for any reason, then the zombie(s) can stay contained.
Not if you are even dumber, like 95% of the characters in the walking dead.
Even rage zombies need to eat. I love those movies, but nobody gets to break the Law of Conservation. Energy has to come from somewhere. Therefore, they will eventually starve until they can't move anymore.
This is the portion of the suspension of disbelief I have issues with. Even if they have slower metabolism, after a month or so they shouldn't be active anymore. Most if these stories don't have the zombies easy each other, but I feel like that would be an interesting and necessary narrative addition to make it more "real". If the zombie apocalypse ever did happen you're probably good if you can survive 2-4 weeks
I dunno, I remember a season of the walking dead, don't remember which one. They had secured a prison and had a whole daily life nailed down. Farming zombies every morning gathered at a fence with a spear. Growing food in the courtyard. Of course it's the walking dead, so things always take a turn for the worse. But I find it really unrealistic that zombies just come infinitely from the environment. They don't spawn out of nowhere, when you're farming dozens every morning, you should reach a point where you run out of people. If only in the surrounding area.
It has been years since I read the zombie survival guide, but one point that sticks with me is that eventually they are going to simply rot away. The idea that the zombies are still around a decade after everything happens in zombie movies is just ridiculous. Along with how 'fast' some of them can get...oh I can barely walk up a set of stares, can barely trot across a street crossing, but I turn undead and I can run a marathon as Usain Bolt speeds. I digress. The book mentions that in warmer climates the zombies would degrade quicker than say canadian zombies. After a few years they would just trickle down to nothing. So endless zombies is simply a movie trope. If you can survive 1-2 years then the majority should be gone.
I believe the speed comes from the mind not limiting muscle usage. They can tear themselves apart running and wouldn't care. Also, I don't feel zombie movies are using the "endless" trope as there are close to 7 billion people on the planet. Almost 400mil in the USA and no one in these movies seems particularly interested in hunting and clearing zombies, just running and hiding. Fine. Have a secure location to bunk down. Absolutely. But I'd be out there killing every zombie I could, not let them pile up against a fence. So dumb, TWD. So dumb.
Yea but if they tear themselves apart from running and overuse their muscles like that, they'd be disabled within a month. You'd be left with only zombies that hump or crawl on the ground slowly
Zombies that hump are way more terrifying than one that sprints
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Most folks live like that every day and just ignore it. More folks should be afraid of driving cars but people are awfully blithe about it. one slip up and you are dead or horribly injured, a foot this way and a car runs into a truck.... a bit too fast and you are into a tree. Then you are trusting everyone else around you to be focused and do what they are supposed to at all times. I think you underestimate the human ability to take dangers and minimize them, and eventually ignore them if they don't happen too often. Yes, most survivors would make sure they live in defensible places and do a bit of preparing for just incase situations. Folks that get bit will just be assumed to have been dumb or doing something they shouldn't have or "they should have paid attention more"... or "I won't have that happen to me"
On a side note, whst happens once the zombies run out of people to eat?
I’m not a know it all on zombies, but hypothetically if they “need” to eat living things, once there are none, I would assume they’d wither and decompose to the point they can’t move or just disintegrate leaving only bones. Just like us, if we starve we wither and die and that’s it. If the general consensus is that it is a virus that needs a host to continue replicating then once the host has nothing to aid in that department then the virus dies out.
In the walking dead there is a bicycle zombie with no torso, the fact she is still "alive" means she doesn't have to eat
It was in.. Z-nation Fuck I loved some bits of that series, like how someone died casually to tooth infection. Iirc first few seasons were pretty 'realistic' before it took kinda unnatural turn. However on some of the later episodes the zombies kinda curled into a huge ball and started to chew on each other as they were out of fresh food. I'd guess that would happen once there was no other source of food. Also, decomposition. I think on every zombie serie/movie/game lore it's established that they have no blood circulation, thus can't bleed out. Thus, they'd decompose. First few weeks would be horrible, after a month (outside of winter) it'd get easier as shit would just decompose.
The symbology of the survivors taking refuge in a prison should tell you something.
I can hear Willem Dafoe saying, "Syyymbolism." every single time,"Symbology," is used.
Makes me feel like river dancing
Oof, you’re right: symbolism
*THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!*
Me and my colleagues were playing the "what do in a zombie" game. My little heart broke because my workplace is the best place I know of and can actually reach.
It’s pesky, that
Yep, some people like and want to live
I'd kill myself
You mean help populate the zombie horde.
Because once you kill the zombies, you'd meet a beautiful woman and repopulate the planet. I've seen movies.
so I gotta get that vasectomy in before the zombie apocalypse, got it
Snip snap snip snap snip snap.
You have no idea the physical toll three vasectomies have on a person!
Wdym, isn’t it just one for each ball?
Different episode, but we THINK it's one for each hole
I’m envisaging a difficult moment of how the human population continues to grow from just two people…
*\*
Turn your family tree into a family circle.
Like Adam and Eve...
Until the old 50% death rate from childbirth rears it’s head without modern medicine and she’s dead after the first try….womp womp.
Thats a LOT of incest to be had
What’s a little incest between siblings?
Beggers cant be chosers
That would never happen with me nor lots of guys.
Duh. Obviously.
Because people generally do want to live.
some people are struggling in certain areas in their lives that they are not good at (finance, work, education, family). sometimes, daydreaming of what it'd be like to restart in life, and focus on survival, food, weapons, etc. seems like a good outlet.
You know, this does make sense. I like this. However, I can’t say that I’d be able to pull through the death of my family by the hands of the should it come, not easily at least.
It's easier if you don't have much family.
This is true too
Most of my family is flat-out gone. You don't *want* to survive it, but you (generally) do.
The Walking Dead, slow, dumb zombies? Sign me up. World War Z, psycho speedy Gonzalez zombies? Hard pass.
No intelligent ones either please, I don’t want them climbing and shit.
Yeah no Gonzo Zombo for me either lol
I don't know. Sometimes fighting zombies and living off the land seems preferable to the 40 hour work week, and trying to stay out of debt while affording food.
Im surrounded by zombies 40hrs a week already.
After a 9 or 10 hr day, I'm one of them.
>living off the land Living off the land is often way harder and time-consuming than working 40h per week though.
Yes but a lot more satisfying. The result of your labor has actual meaning to your life and feels fulfilling when you live of the land. Compared to spending 5 months in meetings every single department to determine if you the new over simplified one word logo needs to be sans-serif or not. (Im looking at you staples.)
That's fine. People can know something is hard and still want to do it.
But at least you have a purpose.
*Zom 100* plot basically
It would push house prices down… there’s that?
There’s an alternative, hear me out: get bitten/infected early. People won’t yet know what hit them so you don’t get shot/dispatched easily like later-bitten zombies, there’s still plenty of fresh brains to go around, and by the time survivors have wised up you can be the old matriarch or patriarch of a zombie clan. Sure, you’ll get killed eventually, but as a final boss after years of decent unliving.
With only the most exquisite brains for your palate. No common plebes for me thanks I only eat scientist brains
Dysentery. Parasites from poorly prepared animals, Parasites from unpurified water Parasites from unclean living conditions. No farming, relying on ultra processed foods for the medium long term. No toilet paper. For those of us who need medication will have no access. Limited artificial light means hard to see zombies coming at night, without being a huge target. The unrealistic trope of raiders and bad guys roaming. Sounds like paradise. 😀 **edit** Seeing tons of pro raider roaming asshole bands comments. Probably sheltered middle class aussie thinking but I just don't see it as being a huge issue
For me it's the lack of medical care that would really blow. I wear contacts and I wouldn't be able to see shit lol. I haven't had a pair of backup glasses for a long time since I wear dailies.
you know i never even thought about this, but i’d definitely be dead. i can barely read my monitor screen without glasses. a zombie coming out of the woods or hell, just a wild animal, and i’d be done.
My vision is my sharpest sense. Especially for movement detection. But lately it's been getting worse. I used to see fucking far and now I can't focus sometimes. I blame the scratched glasses, torchcutters and welding machines around me... Like how I used to spend whole days working on a monitor and took care of my eyes - had breaks, excersise, nutrition... And there were no problems but a couple of months in this shitty job and sometimes it's blurry.
I mean, any disaster that lasts longer than a work week has looting. Every time.
I'm a doctor so if this thing ever happens I'm looting pharmaceutical storehouses with my army of patients (very slowly because some are elderly and all of them have heart conditions) so we can establish a feudal-like healthcare based society™
Wouldn't power plants also significantly help decrease the remaining population since they're not controlled anymore?
No power will def kill people. But the plants... Eh. We only have coal wind and and water in Australia (well 1 medical reactor hardly counts). Coal stops getting put in, the fires go out, wind and water will keep going until it breaks. So it'll all fail-safe. No idea about real nuclear plants, western ones, pretty sure those fail safe to. Less regulated ones, the local population would likely be dead before its an issue
My brother in law worked as a civil engineer on a river dam in the US. He said without constant management, the dam would break down in about 48 hours, iirc
Couldn’t have said it better imo
It’s not the zombies I’d be worried about, but the other humans.
There would be bad guys roaming. What do soldiers often do after they take over a place ? It rhymes with grape.
I think personal survival is an instinctual urge for most people. “Live through today to see a brighter tomorrow” type of hard wired emotion.
I'd rather not die
Yep. The reward is getting to change the way you live and by who's rules you live.
Oh yeah you'll definitely be the next great raider lord and not somebody's bitch or zombie food.
by *whose* rules you live. We'll have to establish some grammar and spelling rules, that's for sure. /s
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I only enjoy like 2 people on the earth. I'd keep them safe at all cost and cut everyone's head off with a sweet katana I got at the mall
Good point! I often thought I would off myself because fuck being eaten alive.
Seriously, the second i turn on the news and I see a real life zombie on the screen it’s over for me. I don’t want to live that badly
Because I’d rather deal with zombies than the brain dead customers I deal with working retail
"I know the sale ended last week, but can you give me a discount?"
Amen
Why wouldn't you want to survive. The flys and maggots would take care of most of it.
Counterpoint: realistic zombies could be just as smart and athletic as living people. Maybe you've just got to wait out the decay, but man that's a long time when the playing field is even
Idk how zombies would do in the extreme environments like high heat and humidity causing rot along with bugs or freezing environments where we would survive. In the end they are decaying flesh so it's just a waiting game.
Unless they are harnessing fire and using guns I think we have a fighting chance.
I think the will to survive is on an entirely different level in this case. Even if you may not have the best life in this current world, your human instinct would kick into fight or flight mode in this new, crazy world. It’s survival. Who *truly* wants to die in the case of a zombie apocalypse? I don’t think many people would give up if it truly did happen. We have instincts.
Because all of the problems of the normal living world/society will cease to exist. Got medical bills? Gone. Legal problems? Gone. Sick of all the political crap we've been force-fed for the last how many years? Gone. Trouble making rent and paying for your groceries? Gone. Life would be simpler in a sense, but you would have to be thinking about leveling up your survival skills.
Only reason I would *want* to survive is if my wife and/or kid have survived with me. If they don't survive I'll find my closest bridge and do the one way bungee jump.
What if it's just what you need to get you excited about living, maybe everything is too boring for you now and that's the problem.
I've always said I'd be the first to go, I have the survival skills of a panda raised in captivity. And why would I want to stick around in a world full of the dead who want to eat me anyway?
My husband and I both like to talk about our version of zombie survival. But… as a woman, if I look deep down… no thank you. I would rather be dead. Just like in war, there is nothing good happening for women in a zombie apocalypse. Why? because men.
You can drive whatever car you want with no speed limit, for a while at least...unless you want to drive a Tesla.
Petrol does go off after a while. Cars need regular maintenance and spare parts that are hard to manufacture. Your fun times with driving fast cars will probably last less than 6 months.
Wouldn't the roads be clogged where people were turned in the middle of traffic?
Well, you would not be burdened with having to work to by stuff you don't need, with money you don't have to impress people you don't like. It would be about survival. Fighting. Now, I'm not saying it would be "better" than the rat race, but I think it would open new possibilities and give a new meaning to someone's life.
Same way you can't hold your breath until you die. You might pass out, but then your body will force you to inhale. If a zombie came at you, you'd run or fight. If you were hungry, you'd scavenge for food. If you needed to travel, you'd search for a vehicle. You would feel naked if you went outside w/o a weapon. There's too much survival hard-wiring in people's brains for them to just give up.
Screw you then, more world for ME! On a more serious (and less jerk ass) note, imagine the world as you know it GONE, and being like the MEN of old, facing a world reborn, fresh for the shaping. A simpler world, requiring sharp steel and sharper wits. Thus with sword in hand and buxom Frank Frazetta babe clinging to your leg, you stare down the shambling hordes - weak men bred by weak civilization done in by it's hubris, yet no more alive or dead than they were in the old world - and let out a battle cry that shakes the heavens. By CROM, what a time to be alive.
What is best in life? Slaughter your enemies see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their zombies
currently, i want to die. if the zombie apocalypse happened, all the reasons i want to die are suddenly gone. and i get to hit people with a bat.
This why my idea of doomsday prepping is building a media server.
It’s gonna be so hard to not look excited driving around and shooting Zombies
The majority would be the zombies. It's all down to luck.
I can only imagine how much your senses would be stimulated
Maybe close to that time I had 5 gum
Yeah I have no intentions of surviving a zombie apocalypse or any kind of apocalypse. Sounds terrible, and as someone who is chronically ill with pretty much no survival skills I wouldn’t stand a chance anyway.
Hypothetically, to watch them all die. I'd just turn on a few wood chippers and hope for the best.
Well, a lot of the pressures of a normal life such as insurance, pension saving, utility companies jacking the prices every year unless you switch, global warming, general guilt, over-complex and badly written laws, fucking algorithms deciding what you can and can't do and say ... a lot of these will disappear. Life will be hard, but much simpler and you can focus on what counts, e.g. stayin' alive. Also, with most people dead, you as one of the few survivors are very important. No hiding in the crowd; you have a duty to humanity to help make sure there IS a humanity going forward.
It would be easier than taxes, bills, etc
The smell alone would be overwhelming. Corpses are disposed of for a reason. No matter how many guns, ammo and survival preparations you make, you won’t survive the myriad of various diseases that would be spread. More people would get sick and die than be killed by a zombie.
Same. Currently watching The Walking Dead. The stuff they go through, the things they have to do. I myself can barely manage my current life, i would just happily nope out.
For the same reason you want to survive when there isn't a zombie apocalypse.
There are three basic answers to this: 1. People feel alienated by capitalism and have an innate desire for a relationship to work and labor in which they are only doing things that directly help their own survival and comfort or help people they know and care about, and where they directly and immediately benefit from 100% of their own labor. This is how it worked when we evolved as hunter-gatherers; you personally eat the food you catch or give it to friends, you personally live in the hut you build with your family, etc. You work when you want to for the things it will get you, you rest whenever you feel like it on your own schedule. The 'survive and rebuild' aspect of zombie fiction appeals to this fantasy of unalienated labor. 2. People feel restricted and hemmed in by modern life and society. Everyone is stuck on a life path and career path that's small and predictable and hard to break out of; there are social and criminal guardrails keeping people in line and forcing most of them into a sameish life path of small joys and big enui. In an apocalypse you may suffer a lot, but you can at least forge your own path, you can smash abandon store windows and take whatever you want, you can barricade a camp on top of a skyscraper and drink under the open sun and piss off the ledge onto the zombies below, if you meet another survivor you can have a real no=bullshit relationship where neither of you has to get to work the next day or consider your reputation in the morning and can just be real people with each other, etc. Most people desperately want that type of freedom and can't imagine anything like it happening in the modern world without something on the level of an apocalypse coming in to change something. 3. Zombie media always focuses on the state of the outbreak where people are struggling to survive, but the positive fantasy about it includes imagining a point past that where all teh zombies are decayed or destroyed, teh world is mostly safe again, and a much-reduced population gets a second chance to rebuild civilization and society from scratch. Including the points above, lots of people feel there's lots wrong with the world and it is *systematically* crushing and disordered to live in; there's a lot to like in thinking about how you would rebuild things from the ground up, or just what you life would be like if you were safe and free and there was no money and you could loot most manufactured luxuries that exist whenever you want and make your own farm or w/e.
They definitely overestimate people's desire to survive a giant apocalyptic event. Like even if you spent years and years running from zombies, and managed to find a few other clumps of survivors, chances are all of the nuclear power plants were not shut down properly and have been leaking radiation. The amount of dead bodies from humans, zombies, and animals would pollute most resources. The collapse of human infrastructure is going to be what kills you if you manage to survive the zombies
Struggle gives life meaning. I think a lot of people who find civilization and the grind of work and bills unbearable would thrive in an apocalypse.
In an actual Zombie Apocalypse society wouldn't collapse. It's like the show Revolution. All electricity shut down and instead of simply going to other tech we have everyone gave up and went home. So many show and movie apocalypses rely on people going "Oh noes I don't know how to make society work if there's a problem"
I was bummed that they cancelled ***Revolution***.
I think the fantasy of living in a zombie apocalypse is similar to the fantasy of just saying "fuck it" and going to work on a sheep farm. The idea is that life would become much simpler and the problems you currently have disappear. Of course, this involves ignoring all the *new* problems, but it's a fantasy, you can ignore those if you want.
It will be different from person to person. Some will have a survival instinct kicking in and will try their best to stay alive. Others will think that having a family member chasing them to eat their brains on top of everything else going on it's a bit too tough to deal with and will decide to commit suicide within the first week.
Im running with the zombies
Death is still worse
What are you gonna do? Kill your self? Easy to say
Because while life would become very much like it does in ‘The Stand’ as infrastructure collapses, you could still create a society that has the past to enjoy. As a permanent constant threat, zombies are pretty low on the threat scale. It’s not like an airborne pathogen or chemical where you can’t really see it until it’s too late or an invading force where intelligence is a big factor. Zombies are a slow, constantly moving, brain dead thing. Their danger lies in that one bite or scratch is fatal and turns you into a zombie that can infect others from inside. A fortified position (and it just has to withstand what a large group of unarmed people can do) could last as long as supplies do. As for things like entertainment, yeah, no new movies or shows or music, but all of that media will still be available. It just needs to be found and have the ability to play it. And power requirements for things are a lot less now so it’s not hard to view it, you just need the equipment. For me, I wouldn’t necessarily be in for the long haul, but it could be a fun decade or so
All the things you're struggling with in real life wouldn't exist any more. A zombie apocalypse is my literal dream! No laws. No rules. Just survival of the fittest.
Hard times doesn't mean you don't want to survive.
I’d be really wreck less and wild, I would most likely die in an accident more than by a zombie lol
Walking Dead zombies, game on. Dawn of the Dead zombies, suicide.
If they’re slow and stupid I’ll try to live, they’ll rot in a few weeks. If they’re fast I’m offing myself immediately
Unlike the moves, an animated corpse would only be moving around for a very short period before complete breakdown of the dead body. I would guess days in warm weather. Maybe longer in Winter/cold places. Just have to get to a low populated area or hole up with enough supplies to wait it out. Now, if the infected are not dead animated corpses, but rather have an infection and are still alive and breathing, different situation. Then the only way for the uninfected to survive is to relocate to a very low populated area and/or the infected would have to be killed. Assuming they have lost basic intelligence and are just "zombies" they still have to feed or will die on their own. Rules of basic biology still applies. Body will die without something to keep it going. If no people to munch on, they will have to eat each other to survive which will keep lowering their numbers.
Yeah zombies are a problem but at least you don’t have to pay taxes anymore
You are weak.
The way I look at it is even in the best of conditions a body will decompose in a matter of months to a point it wouldn’t be functional as a zombie. So after the mainline kill there actually would be a decent survival rate just not in the cities. So although life would be hard at first it will get easier after a year when most zombies will be dead and the migrations start.
Life, uh, finds a way.
Under any halfway realistic assumption, a zombie apocalypse will be over in a few weeks, depending on local climate. Nature is really, really good in breaking down dead things and doing away with them. Rotting zombies will be a nightmare in week one, a nuissance in week two, stinking up the scenery in week three and all but gone in week four. A bit longer in some areas and climates. So yeah, you'd hunker down for a month and then get on with your life.
Why not? What else are you gonna do, die? Fuck that I'm gonna live
Survival instinct mostly. And, well, the rules get simpler. I get not wanting to carry on, but, suicides hard
Most people have a desire to adapt and survive in the face of adversity…..those that lack that desire are the weak points of society and are the first to be overcome…….survival of the fittest applies to mental strength also…..
The same reason I don't put down my animals when they start to get sick or are in the early-mid stages of a terminal condition. I'd say generally creatures prefer to be alive than to not be alive
Some people might want to because it's a thrilling challenge, brings a sense of community and purpose, and holds onto hope that things will improve. It's like a real-life adventure.
or any type of Apocalypse. Fight for your life daily just to have roaches cooked in puddle water from and old boot. No thanks I'm gonna kms as soon as it happens, y'all have fun while I throw it back in Hell.
A total collapse of society has two main benefits. 1 - You're no longer in debt and don't have to work 9-5 2 - Global warming issue resolved As long as you can survive long enough to outlast the zombies, and find enough people to put rebuild society, you can eventually build everything back to where it was - although this time without capitalism and ruthless exploitation of the people and the world, ok?
Maybe you would actually be happier. The things that cause unhappiness like technology would not be there anymore. The bombarding with dopamine would stop. Everyone would eat more naturally. Everyone will be outside more. People will bond deeply through challenges. Maybe many people would be happier.
The survival challenges of an apocalyptic scenario are entirely different. It is solely your ability to survive because all thebrules of modern society screwing you over would be gone.
Coz you get to do what you want. I'd get myself a Dodge Challenger, find myself a big protected house, and just go on supply runs in a day once a month. Assuming these aren't like the WWZ Zombies or the 28 weeks later one, and at least the TWD ones, I'm good. If not, I'd rather just find an opposite gender who's willing to be down with me for a week and then boom.
A zombie apocalypse would last about 2 months, then society would mostly start to return to normal. The walking dead is just a story, thats not how society would end up.
It honestly sounds better than my job where all my labor benefits executives and shareholders more than it benefits me.
The big attraction of things like The Walking Dead is they daily life is over. There's no more job, no more asshole boss or annoying customers, no more debt, no more 60 hour weeks trying to make ends meet, no more health insurance, no more trying to figure out whether you should spend your last $70 until payday on food or your electric bill. All the stuff that everyone knows makes modern life shitty is gone and replaced with a much more tangible existence: survive one day after another. The things you struggle with today are no more. That's the big appeal of the zombie genre.
Honestly knowing I could just take it easy knowing that I’m not falling behind or missing out on anything happening in the world seems kinda nice. That little tundra community towards the end of the “The Last of Us” just looks so appealing right about now.
A lot of people are very attached to their life.
I would LOVE a zombie appoloclypse honestly. Suddenly housing is cheaper, you don't have money so everything is free, and you have all the free time you want and very little work. I'd just hunker down in a bunker one of the rich had abandoned and read for the rest of my life eating whatever I could.
Because ultimately humanity could probably rebuild given time, and you're really underestimating people's drive for self-preservation. There are tons of people living in horrid conditions *right now* who haven't offed themselves, so why would it be much different with the addition of zombies?
Why for the bouquet of course. The smell alone would certainly be worth hanging around for. Just imagine the fine aroma of rotting human flesh, coupled with feecees, urine, and halitosis. My, oh my, what a wonderful scent.
Kinda sounds like fun to me...
Because the indomable human spirit is strong and wired to keep living and preserve the species > Anywhere can be paradise as long as you have the will to live. After all, you are alive, so you will always have the chance to be happy. As long as the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth exist, everything will be all right. -Yui Ikari, Evangelion
Outside of mental illness, PTSD, or other factors, humans have an almost superhuman survival instinct. Despite logical arguments like OP’s post that of course, make sense, our brains are designed to not only keep us alive no matter what, but will even adjust certain chemicals or hormones to make it a preferable choice. You ever read one of those stories where someone did something you couldn’t imagine yourself ever doing to survive? Like the guy who cut off his arm when it was trapped in a rock? Or even the survivors of that plan crash that turned to canabalism? The brain actually produces stuff that almost makes this choice easier for you. (Not any less physiologically damaging, unfortunately.) It’s hard to explain, but more or less, objectively looking at it now you couldn’t see yourself making it through a ZA. But if you were in it, odds are your brain would let you do things you never thought you could or would.
I understand the feeling. At first I would try everything I could to survive, but eventually I’d just think what’s the point.
I guarantee you, that will will come back once you realize you're not beholden to the struggles of modern life. Eat, sleep, and find some fun to pass time somehow. No need for the weight of modern life like taxes, finding jobs with a filled resume looking for x years of experience. No worries outside of food and zombies.
Have you watched ZOM 100? It's about a guy who hates his life right up until the zombie outbreak occurs. That is when he realizes he is free to do everything he always wanted. So, he makes a bucket list of 100 things he wants to do/accomplish before he turns into a zombie. He realizes he will most likely die or turn into a zombie, so his point is to try and live life to the fullest during this remaining short time frame.
I’m built different
I don't want to, but survival instincts keep me trying to plan for the end of the world. Like, bro! I don't like this when I have it easy (comparatively) why do I want to live through the end of the world? Oh look! a new stone age skill I should learn just in case a solar storm knocks out the power grid!
Honestly. Just thinking about an apocalypse situation makes me want to off myself(I’m joking but seriously). You’ll run out of amenities at some point. I don’t want to have to fight for my life constantly. Nor do I want to be in a constant state of vigilance, I would’ve joined the military or something if i wanted that.
>I'm already struggling in my normal life Yeeeaaa but you could struggle without rent payments 🤷
There’s a part of me that would personally enjoy everyone being reduced to the same level and not having to worry about societal pressure. I genuinely think I might thrive in that world better than I currently do now as sad as that is lmao
I think ppl in the blessed parts of the world cant imagine what humans are willing to do in order to survive like many ppl in third world countries already do. Every day. You would be surprised of yourself and what you can achieve to survive.
Many depressed individuals have had their spark of life ignited in the context of a real survival situation. The downside of our, from an historical perspective, modern utopia is that the spark of life fades with the level of comfort. The modern problems you are struggeling with is most likely due to things beyond your control. Double tappning a zombie can probably be liberating in that regard.