As a people, we've become so secure in ourselves, that anything short of the sun exploding is something our society can handle. But how secure are we really? Are we really ready for the unforeseen future? This is the question Max Brooks presents to us in his work. The Novel World War Z approaches the zombie novella with a global scope to speculate what might happen in such a disastrous event. The zombie war can most definitely be seen as an unforeseen disaster, that no one could've prepared for, or could we? History would say yes. As a people, we are generally prepared to assess and react to just about any situation, including the unbelievable. Plagues, earthquakes, eruptions, nuclear catastrophes, have come and gone leaving us still standing
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They were not prepared for such a disaster. Whether it was disbelief and denial or the lack of knowledge, humankind was not ready. When we hear a soldier retelling a great battle against the zombies he states, "No one thought about it, no one! Don't pull my pud with stories about budget cuts and supply problems! The only thing in short supply was com-mon fucking sense!"(Brooks 61), blaming the failure on the misjudgment of military needs for the operation they were undertaking. They certainly had the means to destroy their enemy, but not the strategy and knowledge to put it into action. He goes on to speak about the expectations of a soldier saying, "You think that after being "trained" to aim for the center mass your whole military career you can suddenly make an expert head shot every time'"(Brooks 62), which further notes the lack of knowledge and especially experience to handle this specific situation. Why would a soldier really need to get a headshot, when a much easier target yields the same result. In any other reality this thinking is correct, but not against something like zombies! At the same time, during the beginning, the world had this full hardy self assured outlook. That nothing could beat them. Whether it was direct combat, Quarantine, treatment, etc. We saw just about every solution presented fail, which nearly broke humanity and its will. This zombie …show more content…
People being in denial trusting in their indomitable government to protect them from harm. In the novel, Dr.Waimbrunn, whose responsible for one of the first reports on the outbreak states,"Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature. I don't blame anyone for not believing."(Brooks 21), This is very true in times of crisis. The common phrase of "this isn't happening" is usually recounted in the memories of disaster survivors. Denial is a coping mechanism; to just hope everything is going to be okay is much easier than facing the difficulties on the horizon. We see that government takes the brunt of the responsibility for handling this crisis. The government has to manage grappling with a situation, and possibly failing, while keeping up the moral of the general populous. The public outcry, when said government does come up short or even fails can be unforgiving,""Where was the CIA' How come all those people were murdered by that fanatic? Where was the CIA ? How come, when the dead began coming back to life, we didn't know about it until they were breaking through our living room windows? Where the hell was the goddamn CIA! ?!""(Brooks 30), we see this outcry whenever something goes wrong. We see our government's capabilities as almost infinite, and when they fall short we lose faith. It's the reason we have
They were not prepared for such a disaster. Whether it was disbelief and denial or the lack of knowledge, humankind was not ready. When we hear a soldier retelling a great battle against the zombies he states, "No one thought about it, no one! Don't pull my pud with stories about budget cuts and supply problems! The only thing in short supply was com-mon fucking sense!"(Brooks 61), blaming the failure on the misjudgment of military needs for the operation they were undertaking. They certainly had the means to destroy their enemy, but not the strategy and knowledge to put it into action. He goes on to speak about the expectations of a soldier saying, "You think that after being "trained" to aim for the center mass your whole military career you can suddenly make an expert head shot every time'"(Brooks 62), which further notes the lack of knowledge and especially experience to handle this specific situation. Why would a soldier really need to get a headshot, when a much easier target yields the same result. In any other reality this thinking is correct, but not against something like zombies! At the same time, during the beginning, the world had this full hardy self assured outlook. That nothing could beat them. Whether it was direct combat, Quarantine, treatment, etc. We saw just about every solution presented fail, which nearly broke humanity and its will. This zombie …show more content…
People being in denial trusting in their indomitable government to protect them from harm. In the novel, Dr.Waimbrunn, whose responsible for one of the first reports on the outbreak states,"Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature. I don't blame anyone for not believing."(Brooks 21), This is very true in times of crisis. The common phrase of "this isn't happening" is usually recounted in the memories of disaster survivors. Denial is a coping mechanism; to just hope everything is going to be okay is much easier than facing the difficulties on the horizon. We see that government takes the brunt of the responsibility for handling this crisis. The government has to manage grappling with a situation, and possibly failing, while keeping up the moral of the general populous. The public outcry, when said government does come up short or even fails can be unforgiving,""Where was the CIA' How come all those people were murdered by that fanatic? Where was the CIA ? How come, when the dead began coming back to life, we didn't know about it until they were breaking through our living room windows? Where the hell was the goddamn CIA! ?!""(Brooks 30), we see this outcry whenever something goes wrong. We see our government's capabilities as almost infinite, and when they fall short we lose faith. It's the reason we have