The Zombie Apocalypse
Its been a really weird year. I know I keep saying that but it really has been.
A common theme in the SciFi genre is dystopian fiction. What happens 'after' the end of the world. Its usually pretty bleak but always is the result of nuclear war, plague, zombies from plague, government run amok, out of control environmental changes, fertility crisis's, or alien destruction. Sometimes you'll get a slightly different concept, but usually its one of those main themes. We have the unfortunate pleasure of living in the 'plague' scenario, although hopefully it doesn't cause zombies. The word 'unprecedented' gets tossed around a lot, but we truly are living in unprecedented times. The world has never shut down on this scale and I don't think I've ever seen so many people unified in their division of how to handle this.
When cases first cropped up in China, I kept asking why it was such a big deal? Why is the news freaking out about something that's akin to a cold? Weird bugs pop up all the time in Asia; but then the deaths started bubbling up, Wuhan was quarantined, and still the cases kept growing. Slowly cases showed up all over the world, and then in the blink of an eye Italy was on its knees. That country went from no cases to the military blocking off 12 towns in under a week.
Movies often teach us the wrong things, but in this case, I think had more people paid attention to the imaginations of others and what their own eyes were seeing, this hysteria may have been less. When China walls off a bunch of people, that's not a big deal, that feels like a normal Tuesday in a communist country. When you hear North Korea shot someone who violated quarantine, again that's not anything new. When a western nation barricades people in towns and leaves the elderly to die for lack of resources, that's when its time to maybe start thinking ahead. It doesn't take much imagination or more experience than an episode of the Walking Dead to see where this was going.
Where we live we frequently get storms that drop 6-12 inches of snow; sometimes over 2 feet. The county isn't great about plowing our road, and even still our driveway is a quarter mile long and that's on us to clear. There are lots of days we just simply can't get out, or don't want to try. We always have fully stocked freezers and a full pantry because that's just the smart thing to do where we are. When you are an hour from the grocery store you can't just let the shelves go bare, it can be a matter of life and death. I'm amazed at what I see in these pictures online. People who typically eat out or run to a store every few days, are piling up on goods most don't know how to cook. Everyone is grabbing dried beans, but who actually eats these regularly? Not most households. Carts of bottled water can be helpful-ish, but what if quarantine goes up to a month? Can you survive for a month on just that water? Yes not everyone loves their tap water, but maybe its time to start. What if everyone at the local power plant gets sick and a tree takes out a wire and you have no electricity for days? Do you have a plan? Do you even know what to plan for and how to mitigate it?
There are whole shows dedicated to preppers and what they are doing to prepare for the end times. Some are a bit crazy, but some measures are reasonable. While the zombie apocalypse won't happen (probably), situations happen all the time due to weather or other factors that clearly no one in the general population is prepared for. Clearly no one had enough toilet paper before this moment. We can't plan for every scenario, but this was one that has been a slow moving freight train for the last month or so, there was time.
Everyone keeps asking me what I think and is Coronavirus as bad as they (some) say it is. My two cents is that some parts of the virus seem bad, but some seems okay. We'll have to see where it goes, but being cautious isn't a bad thing. The real problems are guaranteed to be from the shortages of everyday goods, the disruption to businesses, and the inevitable problems that this level of fear will lead to.
This won't be the end of the world, even if it will be something we all talk about for a long time. We'll get through it with some bruises I have now doubt, but in the end it'll be okay. In the midst unknown we have to look after ourselves, our families, and those around us. Offer up some extra ramen to someone who didn't plan enough, offer sandwiches to the local kid who relies on free lunches at school, call your extrovert friends who are probably going crazy sitting at home, and extend a little extra kindness to all those you pass. Everyone is panicking, so be a calming influence if you can.
For years now, we've had a lot of conversations with people where they say 'well if the world gets bad we're just going to come by you!' so I guess we'll see how many of them meant it. We're always ready, but if you do come, bring wine.
A common theme in the SciFi genre is dystopian fiction. What happens 'after' the end of the world. Its usually pretty bleak but always is the result of nuclear war, plague, zombies from plague, government run amok, out of control environmental changes, fertility crisis's, or alien destruction. Sometimes you'll get a slightly different concept, but usually its one of those main themes. We have the unfortunate pleasure of living in the 'plague' scenario, although hopefully it doesn't cause zombies. The word 'unprecedented' gets tossed around a lot, but we truly are living in unprecedented times. The world has never shut down on this scale and I don't think I've ever seen so many people unified in their division of how to handle this.
When cases first cropped up in China, I kept asking why it was such a big deal? Why is the news freaking out about something that's akin to a cold? Weird bugs pop up all the time in Asia; but then the deaths started bubbling up, Wuhan was quarantined, and still the cases kept growing. Slowly cases showed up all over the world, and then in the blink of an eye Italy was on its knees. That country went from no cases to the military blocking off 12 towns in under a week.
Movies often teach us the wrong things, but in this case, I think had more people paid attention to the imaginations of others and what their own eyes were seeing, this hysteria may have been less. When China walls off a bunch of people, that's not a big deal, that feels like a normal Tuesday in a communist country. When you hear North Korea shot someone who violated quarantine, again that's not anything new. When a western nation barricades people in towns and leaves the elderly to die for lack of resources, that's when its time to maybe start thinking ahead. It doesn't take much imagination or more experience than an episode of the Walking Dead to see where this was going.
Where we live we frequently get storms that drop 6-12 inches of snow; sometimes over 2 feet. The county isn't great about plowing our road, and even still our driveway is a quarter mile long and that's on us to clear. There are lots of days we just simply can't get out, or don't want to try. We always have fully stocked freezers and a full pantry because that's just the smart thing to do where we are. When you are an hour from the grocery store you can't just let the shelves go bare, it can be a matter of life and death. I'm amazed at what I see in these pictures online. People who typically eat out or run to a store every few days, are piling up on goods most don't know how to cook. Everyone is grabbing dried beans, but who actually eats these regularly? Not most households. Carts of bottled water can be helpful-ish, but what if quarantine goes up to a month? Can you survive for a month on just that water? Yes not everyone loves their tap water, but maybe its time to start. What if everyone at the local power plant gets sick and a tree takes out a wire and you have no electricity for days? Do you have a plan? Do you even know what to plan for and how to mitigate it?
There are whole shows dedicated to preppers and what they are doing to prepare for the end times. Some are a bit crazy, but some measures are reasonable. While the zombie apocalypse won't happen (probably), situations happen all the time due to weather or other factors that clearly no one in the general population is prepared for. Clearly no one had enough toilet paper before this moment. We can't plan for every scenario, but this was one that has been a slow moving freight train for the last month or so, there was time.
Everyone keeps asking me what I think and is Coronavirus as bad as they (some) say it is. My two cents is that some parts of the virus seem bad, but some seems okay. We'll have to see where it goes, but being cautious isn't a bad thing. The real problems are guaranteed to be from the shortages of everyday goods, the disruption to businesses, and the inevitable problems that this level of fear will lead to.
This won't be the end of the world, even if it will be something we all talk about for a long time. We'll get through it with some bruises I have now doubt, but in the end it'll be okay. In the midst unknown we have to look after ourselves, our families, and those around us. Offer up some extra ramen to someone who didn't plan enough, offer sandwiches to the local kid who relies on free lunches at school, call your extrovert friends who are probably going crazy sitting at home, and extend a little extra kindness to all those you pass. Everyone is panicking, so be a calming influence if you can.
For years now, we've had a lot of conversations with people where they say 'well if the world gets bad we're just going to come by you!' so I guess we'll see how many of them meant it. We're always ready, but if you do come, bring wine.
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