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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think if a zombie apocalypse happened, that there would not be an immediate breakdown in law?

172 replies

clairemcnam · 08/05/2019 14:45

In any zombie apocalypse film ever, within days there are roving dangerous gangs killing people and stealing things. I don't think this would happen in Britain. Yes there would be thefts of food, and lots of breaking into shops, but no there would not in days be gangs of roving murderers killing people and bringing fear.
AIBU?

OP posts:
IDontLikeZombies · 10/05/2019 07:03

I think it would be fine, well maybe not fine but not lawless helltown like some of you are predicting. Here's my reasoning:

  1. Most people are decent and want to live peacefully. If you've ever been in a big crowd and its starting to kick off there's usually a couple of folk calming it down and it does work. There are relatively few riots compared to the millions of football matches, festivals, marches and what not taking place every week.

  2. Even the most mental mentalist will follow the herd when it gets scary. I've had to evacuate buildings a few times and when people are panicking they want to follow someone who knows what they are doing. Its more likely that will be a decent person, see above.

  3. People are good at working together, we've been living in bands and working co-operatively for longer than we've been people.

  4. Being a anti social bastard in a well ordered society is one thing - rape, pillage, rampage, go home, put on Netflix and have a cuppa. However, chaos is scary and even the bad yins need a bit of order.

  5. Like the poster said above, it'll be all over in a fortnight. The zombies will have melted and it'll be nothing we can't handle with a cloth and some bleach Grin

orangeblosssom · 10/05/2019 07:08

May be a zombie takeover would help Earth ged rid of earthlings that are destroying the planet. Other animals/plants could have a chance of living.

Lweji · 10/05/2019 07:15

It's mostly the hermits and loners who'd survive.
Geeks would come out of their game basements to an empty planet.

BasiliskStare · 10/05/2019 08:39

Bizzarely one of the most comforting things my son ever told me is than in the event of a proper nuclear strike , we live close enough to strategic targets that we would probably be vaporised before we even knew it was a problem. So 1) instantaneous & 2) when my time comes , I don't want to be roaming the earth in bad makeup looking for humans to get dinner.

Will no - one think of the zombies ?

clairemcnam · 10/05/2019 08:56

Yes it would all be over in a fortnight. So all you really need to do is hide with enough water to get you through. You can manage without food, although better to have some. But 14 chocolate bars will see you through. Then those who have committed terrible crimes will be harshly punished. They would have to be as part of the emotional process of getting back to normal.

Also martial law would quickly be declared. The last thing any government wants is its citizens running about taking the law into their own hands. If zombies spread far enough quickly enough, and biting is a really inefficient way of spreading a virus, then any sane government will put a cordon around the affected areas and bomb them to smithereens.

But if you really want a comparison, look at ebola. A terrifying disease. No people do not become zombies, but the virus is very infectious to anyone coming into contact with any bodily fluid. and causes you to bleed to death - spreading the disease. Volunteers, mainly medicine sans frontiers, successfully fought the disease and contained it. There were riots as rumours spread that Drs were spreading the virus. But no, it was not a Mad Max scenario, even though it happened in countries with poor infrastructure and law and order.

Because if zombies really happened, unless there was a very long incubation period, and no film or series has ever shown that scenario, then countries would quickly close their borders from infected countries. And there would be people who would volunteer to tackle it. Can you imagine asking people to volunteer to be trained to fight and kill zombies in another country? Some people would volunteer. Some for good reasons, some for bad. But you would be able to put a volunteer army together, along with an airforce attacks, plus drones that can kill. Help would come.

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NewAccount270219 · 10/05/2019 09:10

Some friends and I were once having a conversation about the zombie apocalypse and one of my very closest friends said 'I'd shoot you, NewAccount, right off, I'm afraid. You're exactly the sort to get bitten and then hide it and go zombie in a confined space.'

NewAccount270219 · 10/05/2019 09:13

The thing with ebola is that the outbreaks have all been in relatively isolated places with relatively low movement of people. If you got an ebola outbreak in central Johannesburg, say, then it would be a very different and even more terrifying situation for the whole world. So it would depend where the zombie outbreak began - in films it always seems to be a very built up area.

clairemcnam · 10/05/2019 09:28

No ebola started in rural areas and quickly spread to built up areas. The difference is that it happened in very poor countries with little infrastructure. And those countries are least equipped to deal either with ebola or zombies. They are actually the worse places to happen.

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vampirethriller · 10/05/2019 10:30

NewAccount that made me laugh! You can join my group in the apocalypse but I'll have to chop whatever part of you got bitten, off. Sorry.

Lweji · 10/05/2019 10:36

The thing with ebola is that the outbreaks have all been in relatively isolated places with relatively low movement of people.

Did you completely miss the largest outbreak a few years ago?

Lweji · 10/05/2019 10:40

I don't know if people on this thread realise it, but the CDC actually has a zombie apocalypse plan and site.

www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/index.htm

NewAccount270219 · 10/05/2019 10:43

Sorry, what I said about ebola was stupid - I meant that they all began in isolated locations, which slowed the spread. As you say, it was the spread to densely populated areas in the most recent outbreak that pushed it to such a disastrous, deadly and unprecedented scale. I seem to remember huge fears about people with ebola getting on planes and what that would mean. What I meant was that in zombie films it seems to start in a city, which is quite different and I think would cause much more immediate panic among already tightly packed populations. But on reflection, it was stupid and so I apologise!

NewAccount270219 · 10/05/2019 10:49

And actually, having just looked it up, I didn't remember the details of the 2014-16 outbreak nearly as well as I thought I did, so I definitely should have kept my ignorant mouth shut! Blush

clairemcnam · 10/05/2019 10:52

No need to apologise, its fine.

But I do think the ebola outbreak is a good example of how selfless volunteers would work to kill zombies and find a cure.
So I think realistically there would be a volunteer army made up of actual soldiers and people volunteering and trained up, who would systematically kill zombies. In this way I think War of the Worlds is more realistic. The protagonists are having to survive the aliens trying to kill them and live in a war zone. The army and airforce are fighting back, even if they are losing.

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Lweji · 10/05/2019 10:59

The main difference is that Ebola patients are not actively trying to infect healthy people.
It would be most similar to rabies, in fact, but with a much shorter incubation period. (disclaimer: I don't remember if people can or do transmit rabies by biting)

Lweji · 10/05/2019 11:00

And zombies would have to be killed, not just avoided or quarantined. It takes special skills.

clairemcnam · 10/05/2019 11:07

Yes rabies can be spread by biting. And has been eradicated from Britain. More scarily rabies is carried by animals who can run faster than people.

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Childrenofthestones · 10/05/2019 11:15

I remember, (was it 2011 or 12 )when London went to rat shit.
I was extremely impressed by the Hindu and Sikh community, the men of whom got together and fucked anybody right off that tried to come mooching in their area.
We live in a small rural village where half the population seem to own shotguns.
To be honest I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing as it could make you a target for gangs to get their hands on your guns.
Forward planning with food etc is all very well but as bill burr put it eloquently, if you aren't able to defend yourself you are just collecting food for the most violent guy in your neighborhood.

NewAccount270219 · 10/05/2019 11:30

I should probably just step away from the thread as I've already made a tit of myself, but aren't you now making a different point, OP? You're now arguing that a zombie 'apocalypse' wouldn't happen because people would work to stop it reaching that point. I think you're probably right there (especially as in most films the zombie virus is actually quite hard to spread - if it were airborne then obviously we'd all be fucked) but that wasn't your original question, which was about society going to shit if the apocalypse was already underway.

clairemcnam · 10/05/2019 11:31

Yes you are right, I am making a different point now.

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teyem · 10/05/2019 13:07

More scarily rabies is carried by animals who can run faster than people.

This is true and scary. I think there is a definite gap in the contagion movie genre in which a weaponised virus infects dogs who go feral and bitey en masses.

clairemcnam · 10/05/2019 13:14

Yes and some owners would try and protect infected dogs.
Kids would also be most at risk of infected pet dogs as less able to protect themselves.

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