world-war-z-wall

By Cliff Heseltine

A while back I wrote a kind of half-serious article “In Support of the Zombie Apocalypse” and in the comments section engaged in a running defense of my assertion that there was no logical, rational way that such a condition as Zombie-ism, as depicted in modern fiction, could actually occur. Well, I stand (partially) corrected . . .

Many may ask, “Why bring this up again, and what does it have to do with The Truth About Guns?”

Well, if you believe, as many of us here do, that the primary purpose of the Second Amendment is to guarantee that the federal government (or any government, for that matter) cannot infringe on our natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, and that the Founders thought this was necessary to guarantee that the people would be able to protect themselves, their property, and as a last resort their liberty against tyranny from their own government, then the potential for Zombies, or a Zombie-like infestation, is cause for major concern.

We all know that the undead Zombies of popular fiction are not and cannot be real, but they ARE a metaphor for a massively catastrophic event in which the social order and government structure simultaneously collapse under the weight of an unforeseen and seemingly unstoppable deadly invasion. Such a scenario, if realized, would place the burden of protecting one’s self, family and community on a strictly personal basis and open the door to extreme tyranny from whatever government managed to survive, or establish itself in the vacuum.

So you need reliable and effective weapons, adequate (or excessive) ammo, survival rations, and a reasonable amount of assets in trade goods and precious metals.

What about the zombies?

Before I go on, please don’t take this as some sort of racist rant against brown-skinned people. I have close relatives with more melanin than President Obama.

Several years ago, about 2009, there was a furor over the “bird flu.” People around the world died and when cases were discovered in Mexico there was some concern of pandemic, but in the end bird flu turned out to be not nearly as contagious or virulent as originally feared. Thank goodness.

Before that there was a huge world-wide scare about Ebola, including books and movies going into great detail about how gruesome death by this disease is and that there was no known treatment or cure. You got Ebola, you died, but not right away and not pleasantly in your sleep. When Ebola didn’t turn into a world-wide pandemic interest in the disease and the Africans it was occasionally killing dissipated.

In the meantime, the American economy is in shambles, we are $17+ trillion dollars in debt, and record numbers of Americans are existing on some sort of government welfare program(s). Our military forces are being drawn down to levels not seen since before WWII. Already the countries around the world who look to America for protection are beginning to get nervous about whether or not we really can or will come to their defense any more.

And at home all the security theater and media propaganda is focused on preventing the next big Islamo-fascist terror attack on our home turf. Everybody talks about it, thinks about it, makes movies and TV shows about it, and considers possible targets and proper prevention or responses.

But recently we’ve started to hear the scary stories about Ebola again. Medical personnel have become infected and been brought to America for treatment with an experimental drug that only we have. The media go on and on about how terrible and dangerous this disease is and that generally speaking there is no cure – once you get it you WILL die a painful and gruesome death.

We can see by recent events that our southern border is wide open. Many tens of thousands of undocumented children from South and Central America have crossed into the U.S., many of them with serious communicable diseases, and our humanitarian response has been to let them enter, and probably stay, get treatment for their diseases, enroll in school, etc.

So we know what the official position is regarding the border – it doesn’t really exist and the current administration/regime is unwilling to do anything effective to close it or stem the flow of undocumented Democrats, I mean illegal aliens.

But what about the zombies?!?

According to Wikipedia: “…the Greater Mexico City population is 21.2 million people,[8] making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere…” It would be safe to say that even under “normal” conditions a significant number of those people would jump at the chance to come to the United States. Many millions already have.

But while we’re spending our time trying to predict and stop the next Islamo-fascist attack inside America, why would the terrorists go to all that trouble? Short of a nuclear weapon in a major city the best they can hope for is to piss us off again and wait for our retaliation. No non-nuclear terrorist attack within our borders, no matter how successful, can be reliably expected to destroy America. They may be 12th century religious fanatics, but 9/11 proved they are not stupid.

Is Mexico going to a lot of trouble trying to prevent a terrorist attack? Nope.

Okay, here come the zombies…

Picture this scenario: A dozen Islamo-fascist martyrs are intentionally infected with Ebola. The incubation period is from three days to three weeks before outward symptoms appear. But the victim is contagious for much of that period through simple contact with bodily fluids. These infected individuals enter Mexico City and do their best to intentionally start an epidemic in several different areas of the city. If they are even moderately successful there would be immediate and widespread panic resulting in a mass exodus from Mexico City to…where? The Texas border is less than 600 miles away and is the entrance to the only country in the world known/believed to have a cure for Ebola.

So I ask you: If you are standing on the U.S./Mexico border and you see hundreds of thousands of panicked men, women and children swarming towards the U.S. border, intent on crossing, moving as a mob in desperate fear of the deadly Ebola virus following not far behind them, how would you be able to tell the difference between this hoard and the Zombie Apocalypse? What would you be willing or able to do to stop them?

Knowing that allowing this flood of humanity unchecked into the country would cause untold economic damage and possibly the collapse of our economic and political system, could you, would you, be able to turn them back or hold them at the border? By what means? At what cost? Can you imagine any variation of this scenario which this does not destroy America’s social structure and ability to positively influence world events, given such a catastrophe at home?

And even if the virus never actually spreads to any great extent outside of Mexico City, its effects would be felt world-wide as one nation after another for decades has depended on the United States for security and protection finds itself at the mercy of all enemies, internal and external.

A dozen terrorists infected with Ebola in Mexico City could potentially collapse America as a stabilizing influence in the world and lead to massive world-wide unrest and political reorganization. Since America until now has been the only nation willing and able to block the spread of radical Islam, our collapse would open the possibility for the advent of the “New Caliphate” and this may in fact be the intended end game.

If you have read the book “World War Z” or seen the somewhat similar movie of the same name, you can see the similarity that a pandemic outbreak of a deadly, incurable disease leading to the collapse of governments all over the world could resemble the Zombie Apocalypse, even if the symptoms of mindless, cannibalistic undead creatures are not the same.

Yes, Zombies are the metaphor. Are we prepared for the reality?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

57 COMMENTS

    • Yeah… He runs into the core problem of zombie movies. His “virus” still violates conservation of energy. Even with hibernation, most of the zombies in his third book should have starved to death by the time it rolls around. Otherwise standard Ringo fair.

  2. Amazing how you’ve missed the obvious. To catch ebola you must be in body fluid contact with an infected person, in other words, piss, poop, or puke. Yet the zombies are already here and don’t require physical contact to eat our brains! Congress (proper name for a large number of Baboons, btw. Fitting) serves no purpose other than to divide the will of Americans, and the more you try to understand them, the more you feel them eating away at our brains with their stupidity. They’re intent on destroying America from the inside out. IMHO, ebola and immigrants are mere distractions.

    • His scenario doesn’t require easy contagion, only the perception of easy contagion, something ebola already has. A group purposefully exposing people to their infected body fluids could cause the panic described. Wether that would trigger the mass exedous is up for debate.

      • The hypothetical dozen Ebola infected terrorists would be handed plenty of cash sent to the red light district and told to buy their 72 (non) virgins and as many more as they could find. So, ya they could easily start a panic as described as the disease vectors outward from the first group of victims.

      • “His scenario doesn’t require easy contagion, only the perception of easy contagion, something ebola already has.”

        Smallpox has that quality for real. And since it’s been “eradicated” there is no herd immunity or widely available vaccines.

        Replace ebola with smallpox in that scenario and it’s all Bill Paxton quotes from there.

      • As all those SURE commercials in the 80’s and 90’s with their catchy jingle tell us, perspiration IS the enemy.

    • Heh, Paul53, your subtle sarc misled me, for a moment there.

      Yes, I agree the corruption in DC, and gross incompetence, and perhaps malingnity of action, deliberately Cloward-Piven or not;
      http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloward–Piven_strategy

      Is a worthy topic deserving much mockery, but back to the point, what WILL you do,
      readers of TTAG,
      when not if the black swan flies, and
      if the resulting wave of humanity reacts in panic, zombie-like, what is your plan to handle it, to defend yourself…?

      A very interesting topic, covered I. a variety of places, but hoping to hear more from lurkers, at TTAG, who never faill to impress with insight.

      BTW, “Lightening Falls” by Bill Quick is another good read, based on good research, and some reader feedback, to his blog on preparedness, in an urban setting. Available on kindle, and if you wanted a couple dimes from your purchase to do some good, since TTAG still has no Amazon link, I’d recommend buying via Instapundit, another gun guy and mentor to many new bloggers, including Bill. Good reading on 2A rights from his professor of constitutional law perspective, too.

      http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/

      • RLC@ thanks for the intelligent reply. I apologize if my reply was subtle. Was meant to be alarming. The current “Congress” reminds me of the bumper sticker, “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention!”
        As for my part, with multiple physical disabilities, all I can do is vote when appropriate, and shoot when appropriate. When my ammo is gone, so am I. I hope they gag on my brain!

        • Thanks Paul53. Methinks you and mama liberty might have much to discuss. I personally believe the more likely, of all bad things happening to good people scenarios will be more on the order of two-three months in length, and the physically challenged have much to offer, to a community, that works together using each persons strength…whether thats a cul-de-sac in the suburbs, or a closed off floor in the urban tower, or the small town of the beten track.
          The key is community of like minded, who work together, ideally in advance … saw it on a micro scale in San Diego blackout, where neighbors who had already had habit of breaking out the firepit and closing off the street for holidays, did same and cooked up the meat in the power off freezers, and fed kids ice cream before it melted and kicked back and enjoyed the star-filled sky, until the street lights came on…

          When TSHTF it will be those who have made the trusted networks, and beyond the basics, food and water for, say 60 days, the make or break wil be more about whats between your ears, and the will to go on, vs whats on your hip, or how many toys in your safe, imho…

    • Wrong.

      The CDC lists casual contact for the spread of Ebola to include shaking hands and being within room distance of a family member or patient you are treating.

      The CDC also warns airline cleaning personnel that under no circumstances should compressed air be used to clean an area contacted by a suspected infected person.

      The Canadian version of the CDC lists that they strongly suspect that the virus is now airborne between humans as has already been proven to be the case in cross species primate studies.

      Both recommend minimum N95 mask and other protective gear.

      Read between the lines. Airborne

      Oh, and sweat is also listed.

      Dig a little into it. This is not some wacky conspiracy stuff. This is coming straight up from the Anerican CDC and the Canadian health agency. Published right on their websites under infection vectors and recommendations for medical personnel.

      • Recent reports also seem to indicate that (at least this particular strain) spreads easier, and might spread through air droplets (which is different than being airborne) caused by coughing and sneezing.

    • You are correct but many if not most are underestimating just how little you require to get it. A nurse over in the region recently died and her ordeal was reported about. For only one singluar instance a Ebola patient touched her arm.

      A human touches his/her face hundreds of times a day. Transmission is rather easy. What has saved humanity in this diseases instance is not that its not transmittable via the air its most of the infected in the past were in remote locations.

      This time things are not working out so well because higher destiny areas are being hit. Should this migrate to the larger cities in the area of which some have over 50,000 people per square mile then forget it.

  3. If you consider the face-eating side-effects of smoking bath salts, combined with the necrosis and “walking death” of krokodil…I’d say the Zombie Apocalypse is already upon us. All it’s gonna take is an enterprising drug dealer combining those two, and poof!

    • Don’t forget the bird flu has already jumped the species barrier, from pig, to bird, to human, just not in the virulence and incubation period necessary to overwhelm the ability of CDC and state authorities to react in time, or the public to self quaratine, if you miss the early signals. Remember this movie?
      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/

      World War Z was more entertaining than Contagion, because…guns! but the later still scares me…

      PS: reminds me, here is another rollicking good read, by a prize winning journalist, now optioned for a movie;
      http://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Zombie-Michael-J-Totten-ebook/dp/B00IY1GV32

      You can thank me later.

      • PS, too slow on the edit, but to article authors Cliff Haseltines point and his example of the “south of the border” scenario,

        Tottens story is informed by his own well documented travels as a rigorously honest and blunt, non-political journalist of the old school brave to the point of reckless kind in various very dangerous places in the Mideast, and
        most recently in Mexico.

        I follow that kind of news and the few but immensely valuable reporters for early signs of ground truth…
        and RFs links to borderbeat, and his early scent on the Zetas/Sinaloa angle in F&F s another example…

        Keep Calm, and Read On!

  4. No, we’re decidedly not prepared for that or any other potentially bad reality.

    Hell, we’re barely able to maintain this one, and only by sheer dumb luck at that.

  5. FYI. Ebola is not contagious until the person shows symptoms. Before that happens it safe to come into contact with the carrier’s precious bodily fluids. That is why the epidemic potential for Ebola is less in a society where you don’t touch sick people and corpses.

  6. Heseltine’s scenario is not out of the question, nor necessarily unlikely. With Obama already willing to give amnesty to millions of illegals at the stroke of a pen, allowing millions more panicked invaders desperate for a cure and legitimizing them would indeed give him back his “Messiah” status , at least with those new voters.
    As Bill Murray tells the mayor in “Ghostbusters”, “…but if we’re right-then you, Lenny, will be responsible for saving millions of voters!”
    Balance that political carrot with the fact that nobody in this regime has the convictions nor “the C. O. Jones” to turn the hordes back at bayonet and bullet point.
    Something to think about.

  7. Meh – I used to care about disaster preparedness etc… not as much anymore.

    We’re all going to die. The death rate is 100%. Is it really worth living through hell and seeing one’s family and friends die just to eke out another 10 or 20 years of life?

    Call me a nihilist, but I don’t think so. If the situation ever happens I will do the best with what I have, but I’m not going to waste a lot of time thinking about it.

    • @TheBear, Yeah, I agree. I recently thought through a “preparedness scenario” over several days and came to the same conclusion. If TSreallyHTF (like a major pandemic), having prepared for you and your families’ long-term survival only puts you in one of several bad sub-scenarios, none of which turns out well. In the end I decided to prepare for 3-5 days and let the cards fall where they may after that.

  8. I’m surprised no one has mentioned the movie “28 days later”. Somewhere between Ebola and zombies.

  9. In reality, what can we the average man on the street do about this event? The best we can hope for is to protect our immediate circle of loved ones. And how could yoeven do that unless you live in an isolated bunker with no contact with the rest of society.

    No place in America is more than a 40-48 hour drive from any given point.

    Unless the situation is a complete and utter collapse of any and all authority, mad max style, there will be laws and courts and troops in place and we average man on the street types will be severely limited in our options.

  10. Sometimes I’m not sure if the Zombie Apocalypse is a fear or a wish. Maybe it’s a little of both.

    • “The hardest thing about a zombie apocalypse will be pretending it’s not awesome.”
      -random internet commenter circa 2005

  11. Unlikely; 600 miles is a long way, and scrambling in all directions into the hinterland is far more likely.

    Further, a few hundred thousand scared people — say at most 0.15% of our population — won’t collapse us.

    Now taking a U.S. city water plant or ten, shutting off the chlorine and tossing in some cholera…

  12. The panic caused by the fear of a contagious, incurable disease could be just as dangerous, if not as deadly, as the contagious, incurable disease. If there was ever an administration prepared to capitalize on fear, for crass political advantage, (never let a crisis go to waste) it’s the one we now have with Obama. We already have a serious problem at our Southern border with OTM’s (Other Than Mexicans) crossing over, including Islamists and who knows who from the growing Islamic controlled areas of Africa.

    Since I missed your previous article, I would like to add my interpretation for what Zombies represent. The zombie is a metaphor for the seemingly unstoppable liberalism infecting this country. Oh sure, you’ll get a few pockets of people who can resist the liberal disease; those who can defend themselves from the liberal human onslaught, but in the end, it all becomes a useless fight against the inevitable zombification of everyone. To speak plainly…Zombie Economics a.k.a. socialism. Why are they called zombies?. I think because, “Ignorant, Self-entitled, People, Hopelessly Dependent on the Government For Their Very Existence, Apocalypse.” won’t fit on a book cover or a movie theater marquee. That’s just my opinion, but I could be wrong.

  14. Sorry if I am carpet bombing this thread but just had a very interesting convo with a guy serving as onsite EMT at the grounds of a horseshow…who interestingly referred me to Quackenbush Air Rifles – again another highly useful topic I would never have considered, if not for TTAGs wide ranging gun culture interests.

    Check this out for serious zombie “quiet” gung eekery…you dont want to piss off the neighbors do ya?
    http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/outlaws.html#Price Schedule

    And the application for suburban self defense, both the two legged, as well as feral four legged most likely, when Rover has had a taste of and the easy picking’are all ate up…perfect for discreet hunting the typical “urban fringe” ( thats environitwit activist biologist speak for kids playground with trees…)
    dwelling small game for fresh protein on the barbie when the MREs and MountainHouse gets old in that 60 day window, above. (meoooOW!).

    And anyone who doubts the adaptability of coyotes, and danger, read this:
    http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/29/canada.singer.killed/

    or urban packs of feral dogs to thrive, watch this:
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0821_030821_straydogs.html

  15. Techno Thriller author Tom Clancy wrote in “Executive Orders” about the Iranians deploying Ebola as a bio-weapon in the United States.

    Considering Clancy used a wide-body Boeing to crash into the Capitol building killing most of Congress in his book “Debt of Honor”, he is starting to look like a modern day Nostradamus.

    Another Clancy book, “The Sum of All Fears”, terrorists detonate a low-yield nuke at the Superbowl.

    “Shiny Happy People” was the late Tom Clancy…

  16. If only our problems were as simple as shooting zombies.. More guns, more bullets.. and government was made up of drooling bloodshot eyed politician/ zombies…

  18. Ebola does not have a 100% mortality rate. Not even close. Those most virulent forms are above 90% and I believe that was only one outbreak, Ebola Zaire if memory serves. Stop spreading falsities like this in your article. People actually believe this bullshit. Not to mention it would be much harder for Ebola to spread in America like it does in Africa. It causes major problems there because of unsanitary conditions and fear of health care providers. In America, hospitals can handle these cases with ease. HIV, Hep C, MRSA, are all contracted in similar ways and there is no pandemic running throughout the hospitals.

    • The current outbreak has a mortality rate around 60% so far, from what I’ve read. And that’s in countries with very poor hospital facilities, where many victims don’t receive proper care. So, yeah, I don’t think we would see anywhere near that level of lethality of Ebola in a modern country with decent medical infrastructure.

      That’s not to say it couldn’t mutate into a more virulent or lethal strain, but the current strain sure doesn’t seem to be a sure-fire death sentence, especially if you can get decent medical care soon enough.

      • I honestly don’t get why people harbor fears towards any one disease mutating to become more lethal… Lethal diseases are often highly visible, and therefore don’t get far without being noticed in a society with good healthcare. As well, if a disease is too lethal, it might kill faster than people can be infected. Quite simply, it is very hard for a “perfect storm” epidemic to appear without outside influence… A bioweapon attack, however, could be incredibly dangerous, but the health-focused panic that ensues would likely shut down much of America. Personally, I would much prefer a shut down society to a society with a rapidly spreading terminal disease.

    • You correct but you also do not mention the extreme lengths US Hospitals go to disinfect, clean and sterilize everything. Rooms are sprayed down, some use Co2/Steam guns etc.

      Ebola running amok in the wild when a simple touch is all that is required would wreck havoc anywhere.

      So your at work and you touch a door handle, you then itch your face…you got it.

    • I purposely did not mention mortality rates – I know that the current outbreak in Africa has about a 50-50 chance of survival, even under their less than ideal conditions.

      The point I was making is that nearly everything you read in the media or hear about from any other source is pure propaganda intended to give the impression that there is a zero percent survivability in order to make the disease (the crisis) seem more severe and so justify more government intervention.

      Also, the more frightened the peasants are, the more likely they are to panic. If one goes the conspiracy theory route then the greater the panic the greater the advantage to the conspirators.

      To address another issue, infection inside the U.S. would be more likely to be discovered, isolated and treated (not by nuking the city where the outbreak occurred, despite so many popular fictional scenarios). The more effective tactic would be to panic a less sophisticated population center and have them over-run your defenses. That is the scenario I presented here.

  19. I work in plants with zombies all the time.They sort of shuffle around at work, drool, and have their eyes glazed over. The zombies seem like they try to perform work tasks from time to time.

  20. I find it ironic that the WHO declares ebola a “world wide emergency” when the U.S. only has 2 cases. And we had to IMPORT those 2 from Africa!

  21. Some ebola facts:

    INFECTIOUS DOSE: 1 – 10 aerosolized organisms are sufficient to cause infection in humans.

    MODE OF TRANSMISSION: Person-to-person transmission occurs via close personal contact with an infected individual or their body fluids during the late stages of infection or after death.
    Humans may be infected by handling sick or dead non-human primates and are also at risk when handling the bodies of deceased humans in preparation for funerals, suggesting possible transmission through aerosol droplets. In the laboratory, infection through small-particle aerosols has been demonstrated in primates, and airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated.

    INCUBATION PERIOD: Two to 21 days, more often 4 – 9 days.

    COMMUNICABILITY: Communicable as long as blood, secretions (including sweat and saliva), organs, or semen contain the virus.
    Ebola virus has been isolated from semen 61 days after the onset of illness, and transmission through semen has occurred 7 weeks after clinical recovery.

    SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: The virus can survive in liquid or dried material for a number of days. Infectivity is found to be stable at room temperature or at 4°C for several days, and indefinitely stable at -70°C. Infectivity can be preserved by lyophilisation (freeze-drying).

    • So knowing that, the terrorists don’t need 12 infected dudes in Mexico triggering a 600 mile exodus (which, btw, would take a healthy, non-athlete adult at least 30 days to cover on foot).

      Rather, they just need some of the virus in the U.S. (as easy as one infected dude peeing, sweating, spiting, pooping and bleeding into a container), distribute to cells spread out in the same time zone (east coast, for instance) and coordinate a super-soaker attack in mass transit locations at rush hour where there are hundreds of people passing through. They could hit Boston, NY, DC, VA, Atlanta, Miami etc. all at once before the authorities know what’s happening.

      Hell, they could even have one guy at each location who sets of the fire sprinklers so that:
      A- Most people don’t even realized they’ve been sprayed and
      B- The ensuing mass exodus means L.E. can’t even isolate the infected people.

      The point being, we’re always at risk. Even if the border were air-tight.

  24. I don’t think you are in the moral right to kill/stop refugees escaping from something that will kill them.

    • So if a bunch of people you don’t know break into your home to escape something that might kill them AND they’re probably be bringing that same thing in with them, you would just let them?

      WTF are you taking about?

      • No, I would try to help them. At the very least not kill them.

        This just seems like an excuse for bloodshed.

    • Please try, for a minute, to think of something greater than your own personal sensibilities.

      The point of the exercise is to show that the U.S. is the stabilizing influence in the world political scene, even after the damage caused by Obama and his minions. A concerted, intentional and effective effort to severely destabilize the U.S., especially one that collapsed our political and economic system AND gave the perception to the rest of the world that we would ruthlessly attempt to stop an invasion of “innocents” coming across our southern border, would destroy our credibility and any ability we might have to preserve political stability and/or prevent the imminent rise of the New Caliphate.

      The scenario envisioned above would accomplish the isolation of America on the world scene and open the door for any number of bad actors to undertake the world domination they have dreamed of so long and have only been thwarted by the presence of the U.S. and our willingness to protect the weak. Obama has done a good job so far of destroying our international credibility – it would not take much to collapse us entirely and open the floodgates to a new conflict spreading across the globe.

  25. This is by far the worst posting I’ve read on TTAG, Ebola isn’t nearly as spreadable as you’re making it out to be it’s fear mongering at its best….uggggh please stick to the awesome product reviews and tests!

    • It is not difficult to skip a post if you are unhappy or uninterested.

      Ebola is not as contagious as it is often portrayed, but it is OFTEN portrayed as highly contagious, and with a low survival rate. It is the perception of danger that would cause the problem, not the actual danger, else why prevent people from yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater?

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