Stephen Drivick's Blog - Posts Tagged "humanity"
Humanity
This is my eighth entry in the A-Z Blogging Challenge for April. Today we look at the letter H-Humanity.
We live in a society where most of our needs are provided to us. Turn a faucet, and clean water pours out. Flip a switch and your room fills with light. The grocery stores are filled with all types of food. Information is available to us at a moments notice on our phones. There's plenty of fuel to fill up your car, motorcycle, boat, etc. You get the idea.
But what if you took some or all of it away? It's a forgone conclusion that our ordered world would go to hell in a hurry.
Unfortunately, I have a real-world example. A few years ago, Hurricane Katina knocked out the gasoline pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico to Georgia. Pretty soon, the supplies of gasoline dried up. I had the misfortune of driving a muscle car Firebird with a V8 engine and a thirst for premium fuel. I couldn't find fuel, and when I did find fuel I had to buy in it in the midst of chaos. At some stations, I was witnessing the unraveling of society with yelling, cutting in line, and yes, physical threats. I started carrying a bat in my car! (No kidding ...I really did this). It got so bad, people followed tankers around. I started working at home till the supplies came back.
This was just from a temporary change in the gasoline supply.
I had a few simple questions when I began writing Sometimes We Ran: A Story from the Zombie Apocalypse. What would you do to ensure your survival? Would you kill someone to get their supplies? Could you keep your humanity?
Based on the example above, I wouldn't be able to answer so easily. Those people knew more gasoline was coming and yet they still acted like anti-social jerks. Even I started carrying a weapon in my car, and I consider myself pretty easy going. I was so afraid that I imagined myself caving in the skull of the first person to put their hand on my gas filler door. This does not bode well for my humanity.
Now, what if the gasoline in those underground tanks was the last gasoline in the area ...forever. Cars would be flipped, bricks would be tossed, and I sure gun play would start. Humanity lost. People would kill or injure for those last gallons, and I have no doubt they would probably kill or injure to keep it. All of us would have to consider the possibility of facing down our fellow survivors.
This is one of the great themes of Post-Apocalyptic/Zombie fiction. The real story in end of the world novels is not the apocalypse itself, but the people left behind. It's how they deal with the morality in the new world that makes an exciting tale. I just hope I never have to deal with it for real.
We live in a society where most of our needs are provided to us. Turn a faucet, and clean water pours out. Flip a switch and your room fills with light. The grocery stores are filled with all types of food. Information is available to us at a moments notice on our phones. There's plenty of fuel to fill up your car, motorcycle, boat, etc. You get the idea.
But what if you took some or all of it away? It's a forgone conclusion that our ordered world would go to hell in a hurry.
Unfortunately, I have a real-world example. A few years ago, Hurricane Katina knocked out the gasoline pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico to Georgia. Pretty soon, the supplies of gasoline dried up. I had the misfortune of driving a muscle car Firebird with a V8 engine and a thirst for premium fuel. I couldn't find fuel, and when I did find fuel I had to buy in it in the midst of chaos. At some stations, I was witnessing the unraveling of society with yelling, cutting in line, and yes, physical threats. I started carrying a bat in my car! (No kidding ...I really did this). It got so bad, people followed tankers around. I started working at home till the supplies came back.
This was just from a temporary change in the gasoline supply.
I had a few simple questions when I began writing Sometimes We Ran: A Story from the Zombie Apocalypse. What would you do to ensure your survival? Would you kill someone to get their supplies? Could you keep your humanity?
Based on the example above, I wouldn't be able to answer so easily. Those people knew more gasoline was coming and yet they still acted like anti-social jerks. Even I started carrying a weapon in my car, and I consider myself pretty easy going. I was so afraid that I imagined myself caving in the skull of the first person to put their hand on my gas filler door. This does not bode well for my humanity.
Now, what if the gasoline in those underground tanks was the last gasoline in the area ...forever. Cars would be flipped, bricks would be tossed, and I sure gun play would start. Humanity lost. People would kill or injure for those last gallons, and I have no doubt they would probably kill or injure to keep it. All of us would have to consider the possibility of facing down our fellow survivors.
This is one of the great themes of Post-Apocalyptic/Zombie fiction. The real story in end of the world novels is not the apocalypse itself, but the people left behind. It's how they deal with the morality in the new world that makes an exciting tale. I just hope I never have to deal with it for real.
