Replies

Most people only have about 3 days of food in their pantry. And most grocery stores now operate using just in time (JIT) inventories, so it wouldn’t take long for stores to be emptied of food and other necessities.

And if the power goes out, that would affect a lot of people who are dependent on medication (insulin, for example), because there would no longer be a way to refrigerate or manufacture it. And once things start to get bad, people will stay home to take care of their own families - they won’t be working at nursing homes, etc. for very long.

“One Second After” by William Forstchen does a pretty good job of describing societal disintegration after an EMP attack. “Lights Out” by David Crawford is another good one.

TWD is a bit different in that they live in a world where the dead come back to “life”. And this is an alternate universe where they never had zombie movies or anything like that, so they had no idea what they were seeing or how to deal with it. I could see a lot of people going mad in this type of situation where you see your loved ones die and then come back as zombies.

I could see where it wouldn’t take long for some crazy dictators (like the Governor and Neegan) to take power.

Of course in the real world if the issue were just the
lack of power then there are institutions which can
take up some of the slack. Those include the military,
FEMA, Red Cross, National Guard, local fire and law
enforcement agencies. Like I have posted, if you throw
in a zombie outbreak, storm, earthquake, etc then you
put added stress on the first responders and you
have a different ballgame.

I am rather dubious about the rapid rise of Governor or
Negan types. Those with enough savvy and wits to survive
for a time don’t strike me as being prone to allow
themselves to become the slaves of mad Men. That would
come much later, if at all.

I am reminded of my WWII combat paratrooper dad and
other sources who told me that when Japanese soldiers
lost their leaders they were paralyzed and did not
know what to do. On the other hand when American
warriors lost their leadership there would be all sorts
of men fighting to see who assumes leadership. That
is because at some level we all know that thinking
for yourself is good thing.