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5/19/13

On Zombie Preppers

TiVo'd a random show on Discovery last night - Zombie Preppers. I figured it'd be like Doomsday Preppers with a zombie spin on it. Not the case.

Instead, the show aimed to make the zombie apocalypse a plausible scenario, by talking to folks who think zombies are inevitable and then reinforcing that with talking heads in suits - associate professors from various universities looking for screen time.Weave in some government conspiracy theories and you've got your show.

Lots of "A zombie apocalypse is not a matter of IF, but when!" Maybe everyone on the show just wanted to be on TV, but it sure seemed like many of them had fully bought into the idea that zombies were a real, plausible, inevitable threat to the world as we know it.

Look, I like zombies as much as the next guy, but a zombie apocalypse is only slightly more plausible than an alien invasion or rise of the machines. We talk about zombies, the Walking Dead and so on, but it's not because the undead are at the top of our threat list.

No, zombies are a fun, tongue-in-cheek way to talk about preparing for real-world problems. Hobbies are supposed to be fun and enjoyable, but survivalism can get pretty grim, doom-and-gloomy if you're not careful. Throwing zombies, killer robots, aliens or whatever into the mix is some mildly silly fun for many of us. And hey, most of us understand that survivalism and disaster preparedness is a bit zany to begin with, so why not have some humor and fun with it?

If the undead ARE at the top of your threat list, I'd encourage you to do some reading and learn about all of the real world, equally scary stuff that has happened and/or could happen. If zombies are a stand-in, catch-all for the long list of other real world very bad stuff that could happen (pandemic anybody?), then keep on keepin' on.