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I don't think I could survive if it all collapsed. As spectacular and awesome as my powers are, they're closely tied to society and civilisation. If those things collapsed, I wouldn't really stand a chance. Some days I like to think I'd be like Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs - able to defend my homestead through fast-thinking ingenuity and cruel improvisation, but really I'd be more like the wig salesman from Goodfellas trying to survive in a world where the rules you depend upon no-longer exist.
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posted
Turn to cannibalism? Raw person - perhaps unpalatable? Brown off flesh with cigarette lighter? How long will 1 bottle of Reggae Reggae Sauce last?
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We had a power cut the other day for about an hour and it was just getting dark and I was there thinking "What if this is it, what if this is power gone forever" and I was frustrated because I couldn't play Xbox. So, I need some sort of generator to power an Xbox and TV off wind power or something.
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Cannibalism isn't sustainable. That's part of the reason it's considered so fundamentally wrong: it goes against the principle of survial of the species. If it all went tits up, surviving on reggae reggae suace wouldn't be sustainable either. Therefore Reggae Reggae Sauce is equally as morally objectionable as cannibalism. And yet we let kids eat this stuff!Posts: 13753
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the song doesn't work properly if it's just reggae sauce. You want him to write an entire new song just because you're fussy about him repeating the word reggae?
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quote:Originally posted by Kanye West: why is it reggae reggae and not just reggae. what use is the second reggae.
It's there for flourish. It makes more sense than if it was just 'Reggae Sauce'. What what would that mean? Apple Sauce tastes of Apple, Reggae Sauce tastes of... Reggae?
The repetition of the word 'reggae' anchors the name of the sauce in poetry, in rhythm, in song. It makes it clear that the name of the sauce isn't a literal statement on flavour or content, but rather a summation of an idea or an atmosphere.
Let me know if there are any other sentences or labels that you're having trouble reading and I'll help you out to the best of your ability.
Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
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First thing I'm going to do is round up all the horses. I've got the local stables marked on a map - come Armageddon I'm there with sugar lumps and a lead rein.
Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
posted
I feel like the doomsday scenario has become likelier than ever, except now it feels more like nuclear apocalypse is more on the cards than global economic collapse. At least with the latter you can go on living.
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Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
posted
The problem with the zombie apocalypse is really that other, living humans who are stronger and more vicious and better armed than you will roll in eventually and take all your supplies. That's the problem with life post-civilization. If you're a halfway decent person you're basically fucked.
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I've given this a lot of thought and to be honest I think the biggest problem would be coping with the sheer psychological trauma. Your brain is hardwired to be horrified by corpses, and that's just ones lying flat on the floor. People who witness road accidents often need counselling just to cope with what they've seen. I think being confronted by animated rotting corpses would probably break you psychologically. Not to mention the constant fear of a violent death. And that's without even thinking about the diseases you'd be prone to.
Honestly zombie films don't really tend to focus on this, but I reckon most people would be jibbering and eating their own shit within a week, certainly not building strongholds or stealing Ferraris.
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quote:Originally posted by Ringo: I reckon most people would be jibbering and eating their own shit within a week, certainly not building strongholds or stealing Ferraris.
Agreed, the latter scenario is pretty unrealistic. Especially the Ferrari bit. I'd try and get something a little more robust.
For most, it would be a simple matter of fight or flight. For every ten people who will end up gibbering and eating their own shit, there will be one who is in some way more mentally prepared.
I'd like to think that I am one of those, but then I have always been something of a prepper. A month's worth of food and household supplies. Water saving tricks. Matches. Candles. Portable gas stove. Legally purchased antiques, garden tools and sports equipment that can be conveniently used as weapons. Portable wealth.
(You may be surprised at the number of people who do not have any candles or even a box of matches in their home, and then flip into full on freak out mode when they have an extended power cut.)
So bring it on, zombie fucks or whatever. I will not need to waste my LP collection on you.
One should never underestimate people though. Sometimes, the need to protect fuels the fight mode, meaning that those who might never have seen themselves as a stronghold-builder will often surprise themselves. Protecting one's offspring, for example, is a major driver.
Think about it Ringo, now that you have had a childe. When facing adversity or an external threat, would you be the same man you were before?
quote:Originally posted by Samuelnorton: (You may be surprised at the number of people who do not have any candles or even a box of matches in their home, and then flip into full on freak out mode when they have an extended power cut.)
Our household would be well-prepared in this respect, although I wonder how long I'd stand the scent of Madagascan Vanilla and Nordic Pine before suicidal thoughts occurred.
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quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Our household would be well-prepared in this respect, although I wonder how long I'd stand the scent of Madagascan Vanilla and Nordic Pine before suicidal thoughts occurred.
Good point. Bog standard Ikea, not Jo Malone.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
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Quite a lot of people I know are perfectly happy to announce they're just not prepared to take on an apocalypse and would quietly do themselves in. Given they're mostly the damp liberal type, I reckon the remaining humans would be wankers. And I don't like people much anyway, so I'd be happy to just take any remaining humans out without prior communication as I head off to Assynt to live on a smallholding with some turnips.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
quote:Originally posted by Louche: And I don't like people much anyway, so I'd be happy to just take any remaining humans out without prior communication as I head off to Assynt to live on a smallholding with some turnips.
I have a recurring theme in my dreams where I decide that I absolutely have to kill someone for my own survival / to protect someone else, but halfway through killing the person I realise they're actually really nice and just trying to get by, or sometimes I've misunderstood and I'm actually midway through killing the person I was trying to protect. At that point, the person is usually in a pretty bad way, so I try to finish the job by putting them out of their misery, but then I balls up that as well, and just make things more and more painful for them even thought I don't even want to be doing this in the first place.
So in an apocalypse scenario I don't think I'd be able to kill anyone, either for moral reasons, or reasons of basic competence. I bet it's really difficult, even when the chips are down.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
posted
To be fair, the effort of it always seems a bit difficult. All that hacking. I'd need something quite weapony. A big gun, perhaps.
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quote:Originally posted by Ringo: I reckon most people would be jibbering and eating their own shit within a week, certainly not building strongholds or stealing Ferraris.
Agreed, the latter scenario is pretty unrealistic. Especially the Ferrari bit. I'd try and get something a little more robust.
For most, it would be a simple matter of fight or flight. For every ten people who will end up gibbering and eating their own shit, there will be one who is in some way more mentally prepared.
I'd like to think that I am one of those, but then I have always been something of a prepper. A month's worth of food and household supplies. Water saving tricks. Matches. Candles. Portable gas stove. Legally purchased antiques, garden tools and sports equipment that can be conveniently used as weapons. Portable wealth.
(You may be surprised at the number of people who do not have any candles or even a box of matches in their home, and then flip into full on freak out mode when they have an extended power cut.)
So bring it on, zombie fucks or whatever. I will not need to waste my LP collection on you.
One should never underestimate people though. Sometimes, the need to protect fuels the fight mode, meaning that those who might never have seen themselves as a stronghold-builder will often surprise themselves. Protecting one's offspring, for example, is a major driver.
Think about it Ringo, now that you have had a childe. When facing adversity or an external threat, would you be the same man you were before?
Thing is, a cupboard full of lentils and a well maintained pen-knife aren't going to be of much use if your mind goes snap. I'm not sure it would be possible to mentally prepare yourself. Perhaps working for the fire service, or in a hospital, you may be able to desensitise yourself a little bit to seeing gruesome things, but there's nothing really which is going to come close to the experience of seeing a corpse literally get up and try to eat you. To be surrounded by shambling, disintegrating, putrifying flesh, leaking and dripping and stinking. Ghoulish remnants of human faces sliding off of liquifying muscle and bone, eye sockets bursting with maggots.
I'm as praactical as the next person. I'm an avid DIYer, have an interest in engineer, and think of myself as a logical and calm thinker. But I can't assume that I could just witness those things and not just lose my mind totally, as I think the vast majority of people would. I think for those that retained the mental capacity for it, suicide would be the most obvious and likely outcome. The rest I guess woul djust be overcome by zombies, lacking the mental faculties required to defend themselves.
The very small number who wouldn't kill themselves or go insane would still hardly come out the other side mentally unscathed. Disassociation, dehumanisation, borderline personality disorder.. Actually I think those doomsday prepper types are probably the ones who would poo themselves the quickest. I think prepping is a response to fear of everyday life, and an inability to cope with the world in which they live - Can't cope with living in the real world? Make yourself able to cope with a fantasy one instead. For sure we can all build and underground bunker, do a bunch of pressups and learn how to fire a bow and arrow. But when the shit hits the fan in a zombie apocalypse, the best thing you can be is a sociopath who feels zero empathy for other human beings, who also happens to have been desensitised to seeing human bodies in varying states of disintegration.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
posted
There'd be a kind of second wave I reckon, the people who got through the first bit on a surge of adrenalin and defiance. Then six months in went what is this shit, probably half way through gnawing on the raw legbones of their own parents. They'd implode. And those who were weaker, but sheltered by the adrenaliny ones would give up. So eventually you'd probably be left with a handful of sociopaths and the orangutans could rule the earth.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Thing is, a cupboard full of lentils and a well maintained pen-knife aren't going to be of much use if your mind goes snap. I'm not sure it would be possible to mentally prepare yourself. Perhaps working for the fire service, or in a hospital, you may be able to desensitise yourself a little bit to seeing gruesome things, but there's nothing really which is going to come close to the experience of seeing a corpse literally get up and try to eat you. To be surrounded by shambling, disintegrating, putrifying flesh, leaking and dripping and stinking. Ghoulish remnants of human faces sliding off of liquifying muscle and bone, eye sockets bursting with maggots.
It's a bit more than lentils and a penknife, but yeah, I hear you. I would like to think that I am mentally prepared, but there is always the possibility of something just snapping. I agree about having to be slightly desensitised and perhaps, being something of a sociopath.
<point worth noting>I have always ended up on the right side of normal in all of those "Are you a sociopath?" tests one finds on Facebook and elsewhere.</point worth noting>
I have never encountered a human corpse, but have dealt with stuff that has come close. Animals that have have had their guts torn out by predators, sometimes discovered after days of sitting in the baking heat. It is not pleasant, but you find yourself acknowledging and accepting it. The flies, the maggots, the putrefaction, the incredible acidic stench that would set off the gag reflex in a person that cannot even smell.
Then there is seeing a hyena looking straight at you, before taking out the bastard with a shot to the head. I think it would easier to take out a erratic zombie. Hyenas have this peculiar and rather disturbing grin when they are looking straight at you, by the way.
quote:I'm as praactical as the next person. I'm an avid DIYer, have an interest in engineer, and think of myself as a logical and calm thinker. But I can't assume that I could just witness those things and not just lose my mind totally, as I think the vast majority of people would. I think for those that retained the mental capacity for it, suicide would be the most obvious and likely outcome. The rest I guess woul djust be overcome by zombies, lacking the mental faculties required to defend themselves.
Do not underestimate yourself. Yes, you might lose your shit if you are on your own and trapped in a corner, but if your child was threatened by this creature I am almost certain that the fear would be distilled into something else. The human spirit, and our ability to hold and fight for our ground, is an amazing thing. Many people will discover something in them they never thought they had.
quote:The very small number who wouldn't kill themselves or go insane would still hardly come out the other side mentally unscathed. Disassociation, dehumanisation, borderline personality disorder.. Actually I think those doomsday prepper types are probably the ones who would poo themselves the quickest. I think prepping is a response to fear of everyday life, and an inability to cope with the world in which they live - Can't cope with living in the real world? Make yourself able to cope with a fantasy one instead. For sure we can all build and underground bunker, do a bunch of pressups and learn how to fire a bow and arrow. But when the shit hits the fan in a zombie apocalypse, the best thing you can be is a sociopath who feels zero empathy for other human beings, who also happens to have been desensitised to seeing human bodies in varying states of disintegration.
I am not going to disagree with the first sentence. Who could ever return to normality after experiencing something like that?
Yes, there are plenty of doomsday merchants who have a fear of the world outside of their little bubble. But there are others who are happy enough to go with the flow while having some sort of a contingency plan. Yes, an underground bunker at the back of the garden would be nice.
For me, the only fear I would have is not having any available long-term options. Being able to plan is what gives me a sense of equilibrium. Yes, I think I could stick it out while the zombies are charging about the country. They will all be killed or die off. Yes, I think I could fight my corner. But if, after emerging from that bunker, I find that there are no possibilities to make things work... Then will come the decision to end it all quickly, and on my own terms. I actually don't fear a post-zombie world such as in 28 Days Later. I actually like the idea of a world with fewer humans it it.
What would make me want to finish it quickly is a world where it is impossible to grow or feed anything. So, in short... Zombies, fine. Nuclear holocaust where every plot of soil is irradiated, not so much.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
posted
Or, you know, like, orangutans and bunnies.
quote: Originally posted by Samuelnorton: You may be surprised at the number of people who do not have any candles or even a box of matches in their home, and then flip into full on freak out mode when they have an extended power cut.
We've been building 'Go bags' here and the county recommend it as we are close to an aging nuclear power station. Also simply because of Shitgibbon and that North-Korean lunatic despot and our proximity to NYC, the fear is there that it could all go turbo in time. Having conversations about even having a go bag, plans to evacuate to New Hampshire and so on scares the shit out of me.
Fuck it, think I'll watch Threads again just to really ram it home.