Zombie Cliche Lookout: Don’t Forget the Milk
People of all stripes have the same basic needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs lists them thusly: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. These are arranged in a pyramid, with the most essential (physiological) at the bottom, and the least (self-actualization) at the top. Survival stories, both with zombies and without, tend to focus on the first two levels in the pyramid. If they are not met, the person is unable to survive. Obviously, in zombie stories, safety needs become much more pressing than in non-horror survival stories, but even zombie survivors needs food, water, oxygen, and shelter.
Where this gets really interesting is when characters hew outside of our understanding of the basic needs. Our essential understanding of this includes oxygen, water, food, clothing, and shelter. Of course, this doesn’t hold true for everyone. Insulin-dependent diabetics, for instance, won’t survive long without insulin, a substance that has to be manufactured. This makes basic survival for a lot of people that much more challenging than for others.
About this Episode:
I wonder if Tara listed all the meds under their name brand and generic names to give Sam a better chance of grabbing enough for a realistic stockpile. After all, if the zombie outbreak is big enough, those drugs aren’t getting restocked anytime soon. Possibly forever.
Discussion Question: Special Needs
Let’s continue working with the zombie cliche lookout here, and talk about what other things that we need to get survive. And, if you don’t have any special needs, look at those around you that would be in your group. What would you need to do to get them what they need?
I’ll play along on this one. I have a genetic issue where my body doesn’t break down uric acid. Because of this, I have to take a pill every day. If I don’t, I’ll eventually get gout. Now, that won’t kill me, but it will certainly make it harder for me to get around, and thus that much easier to get turned into Grade A Zombie Chow.
Todays question reminds me of a late French humorist. He was talking about politicians but I guess this could apply to surviving in a Z apocalypse. Here is the quote: ” tell us (the politicians) what you need, we’ll teach you how to go without it.”
That’s a great line!
Typo alert: “won’t survive long with insulin” with–>without 😀 I don’t ever recall insulin being deadly if taken in the required dosage! 😀
Wow, that’s quite a typo. Fixing it now.
One problem is getting people to recognize real needs from strong desires. Some people think they can’t live without something when they actually can. One thing people will demand be taken care of is pets. Realistically unless it’s a service animal in a full zed assault pets will need to go. Yes they are members of the family but they are special needs and not everyone will be ready to risk themselves for someone else’s pet.
Man, this is a damn good point. I need to find a way to get this into the comic at some point.
Sam looks seriously annoyed by that list.
Not criticizing, but I really expected him to go “What the hell, this is blank.” 😉
Hah… yeah. I should have called attention to that in the hover text.
Well she is making it clear in the 4th panel : “Get as much as you can”. Why bother filling a list? LOL