Zombie Cliche Lookout: Info Dump
At the beginning of a zombie outbreak, people are going to have a lot more questions than answers. As they slowly learn (and the numbers of non-zombies drops at a geometric rate) they become more confident and less afraid. But at the beginning? Fear and chaos reign.
Once in a while, people learn a whole bunch of information in one sitting. They can do one of two things with this. Option one includes just completely freaking out, shuting down, and then probably getting killed. Violently. The second option is to absorb that information and use it to inform your survival strategy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes the information is accurate, and often it isn’t. At the beginning of the zombie outbreak, you can count on a lot of bad intel.
About this Episode:
I figure there are a few different sort of people in situations like this. There are those who are very goal based; they have one thing on their mind and they don’t need any distraction. There are also the people who want to try to put together all the pieces and try to figure out what’s going on and how it works. Then the people who are at the edge of a complete panic and are looking for something to push them over.
Discussion Question: What Do You Fear
So, other than zombies, what is it that you are afraid of?
For me, it’s crowds. Not very exciting, I suppose, but crowds really, really freak me out. There’s just something about not having a clear exit, with lots of people in the way, that bothers me. And the more people, that more freaked out I get. I suppose it’s probably like claustrophobia, which is interesting because small spaces don’t really bother me.
Great, it’s an emergency and el security guard is confronted with some anti-gun person…
As for the fear question: Crowds are scary because you’re helpless in them. If everyone decides to riot and run you over there isn’t anything you can do about it. You could freak out and kill everyone around you but just get buried in bodies. People die every year in stupid fights over whose team won and whose team lost…
I always think about people getting trampled during Black Friday sales. A big rush to get a cheap DVD player or something leaves one person dead and a dozen injured. Terrifying.
My fear other than zombies would be that wherever my meticulously thought through survival plan took me, people will have gotten there first. The local shop cleared out, the school sports shed devoid of the glorious baseball bats . My friend’s house smashed up by the zombies. I said I’d come and find him in the event of a ZA as he’s not exactly as ready as I am.
Seems to me you could get a baseball bat to keep in your closet to allay at least part of that fear. But finding your friends dead or missing? That is bone chilling indeed.
Agoraphobia, not claustrophobia, Dave. You actually provided the most basic definition for it:
” Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or in which help may not be available in the event of having an unexpected or situationally predisposed Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms.”
Oh, very interesting Luis!
I always thought Agorophobia was just an open-spaces sort of deal.
Bees. Bees freak me out to the point that I react to pretty much any flying but as if it were a bee until I can determine otherwise. To the best of my knowledge, I have never been stung, so this fear may be somewhat irrational.
Oh, it’s not irrational. Getting stung by bees, wasps, etc. isn’t fun. I stepped on a yellow jackets nest in the woods one. Got stung over a dozen times, including one on my lower lip and one on my right eyelid. It was awful.
Good thing I didn’t have any allergies.
See I’m the opposite of that. I LOOOOVE bugs. They just completely facinate me. How each one is different, and they interact with others in their group, outside their colony, and with other insects. Simply facinating.
Bugs are quite fascinating. I love seeing macro photography of them.
On the other hand, they’re also pretty gross.
I guess I’m of two minds on this one.
I am the opposite of claustrophobic, I get SUPER jittery and adrenaline pumped if I am in a wide open field. When I play tag and soccer, the adrenaline rush helps but I get klutzy and fall and stuff. Mostly if I HAVE to go into a wide space I just climb a tree and feel better.
I think it is some primordial instinct that if I stay in a wide open space, I will get run down by lions and predators and to climb a tree gets me away from them.
See, this is what I think of when I think agoraphobia.
I actually got over my fear of heights AND spiders. The only thing left is drowning.. I don’t fear water and I actually love being in a boat, but I’m absolutely terrified of being in deep water. I’ve done plenty of deep water things but I just can’t stop being afraid of it.
Deep water is a whole different animal, isn’t it?
Yep!
I have a huge fear of brown recluse spiders…maybe thats from growing up in TX
My sister-in-law got bitten by one of those things. She had a hell of a time with it.
My biggest fear is losing, in any way, the things that are good in my life. My kids, my wife, my career, etc. That and someone breaking in my house…but I kind of think the latter is due to the former reason.
Oh yeah, that’s a huge one.
Heights, more to the point when others are near me. I don’t trust others even the ones I love when I’m that high up. Don’t you dare fall and take me with you. It has to be at least 40 foot or better for the full affect.