# A decade of The Walking Dead...why is the world still so shitty? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [March 18, 2021, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142 "2021-03-18T02:28:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/41 "2021-03-18T18:31:55Z")
i do like the ringo series. at least in the books people learned things and applied the knowledge. in walking dead they keep doing the same dumb stuff over and over. i stopped watching after glenn was killed. for a while i would read recaps, then i stopped doing that. for sure i would be living in some really good housing on an island or gated community. treehouses would also be a good option. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/42 "2021-03-18T20:24:48Z")
How long did it take again for Europe to recover from the fall of the Roman Empire? Why does China always slide back into corruption and anarchy? The first half of the 20th century proves that enlightened civilization is the exception rather than the rule. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/43 "2021-03-18T20:40:11Z")
Good housing as we understand it would be a bad choice. With no gas nor electricity we would want a smallish place easy to keep warm in the winter and keep cool in the summer. It has to be easily defensible…not just from zombies but from other humans. Live on an island? Where would you get water? Where would you grow food? Lots of people are forgetting their history. If a group managed to build a comfortable community it would become a target for other less fortunate groups. We forget how secure having a military and a police force makes us. Viking raiders, barbarians, neighboring civilizations are no longer a threat. A breakdown in society changes that. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/44 "2021-03-18T22:30:53Z")
I agree with most posters. I can suspend disbelief that the zombies exist. If you can’t accept that, then the show isn’t for you. But soon after the damage had been done, you would have had a “The Stand” type of response. Find the guys who know how to run power plants and get them back online. Get your pilots together to use the B-52s to start carpet bombing areas. Get radio broadcasts and internet back up. Instead we have a show that wants to portray the scrappy group of survivors against another evil group, win, and then rinse and repeat. I was hoping for a show that followed all of civilization. Fear the Walking Dead was supposed to give us more insight into how the zombies took over, but utterly failed to do that and became a show about a different scrappy group of survivors… ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/45 "2021-03-18T22:36:45Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Fear the Walking Dead was supposed to give us more insight into how the zombies took over, but utterly failed to do that and became a show about a different scrappy group of survivors… Yeah, I had high hopes that show would have focused on what IMHO is the best part of the zombie apocalypse. The gradual unwinding of society. They did that for like one season then it was back to all dirty clothes and AR-15s. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/46 "2021-03-18T22:41:59Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > They did that for like one season then it was back to all dirty clothes and AR-15s. Not even, they showed the beginning then skipped over the interesting part. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/47 "2021-03-18T22:45:27Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Not even, they showed the beginning then skipped over the interesting part. I opted out after the 1st season because they skipped over the part that had been promised. And I didn’t like any of the characters. When the characters I like the most are the whiny teenagers there’s a problem. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/48 "2021-03-18T22:46:33Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I opted out after the 1st season because they skipped over the part that had been promised. And I didn’t like any of the characters. When the characters I like the most are the whiny teenagers there’s a problem. Yup, same exact reason for me. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/49 "2021-03-18T22:48:21Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > How long did it take again for Europe to recover from the fall of the Roman Empire? 0 years. By the time the _Western_ Roman Empire finally fell, it had mostly been divided into numerous smaller states. True, it took a while until society became as organized as it was under the Romans, but civilization never actually collapsed - it merely transitioned. (It also became arguably more benign; you’d probably be better off as a French serf than a Roman slave). ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/50 "2021-03-18T22:55:54Z")
Here’s my theory on The Walking Dead: Remember, EVERYONE is infected with the Zombie Virus. Everyone. It’s why everyone will turn at death whether bitten or not. So, OK, we know the virus affects that dead - but maybe it affects the living, too. Maybe it makes the living stupid, careless, and more prone to violence than they were before infection. No one in-story notices this, because they’re all affected. It would account for a lot. > [@madsircool](#): > > Live on an island? Where would you get water? Where would you grow food? There’s probably a sweet spot regarding island size where it’s small enough to clear off any resident zombies (and keep up with anyone who subsequently dies), is large enough to grow/gather/hunt food on, and sufficiently distant from shore to make it reasonably defensible from other human groups. I’m thinking of some islands I’m aware of in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, or maybe further north into Canada. Harsh winters will also discourage too many other humans, marauding bands, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/51 "2021-03-18T23:00:35Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Live on an island? Where would you get water? Where would you grow food? Plenty of islands are big enough to have ample water and agricultural land. There are probably lots of islands in the Caribbean and Pacific where people are doing OK. They would just have to have protocols in place to promptly dispatch with blow to the head anyone who died. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/52 "2021-03-19T00:06:08Z")
I was thinking islands around the Great Lakes. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/53 "2021-03-19T00:19:30Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I opted out after the 1st season because they skipped over the part that had been promised. Indeed. And it was advertised as the whole point of having that spin off show. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/54 "2021-03-19T02:02:45Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > The first half of the 20th century proves that enlightened civilization is the exception rather than the rule. Most people most of the time are peaceful. If we really were Hobbesian we would name the peacetime periods, not the wars. Anyway, I wasn’t trying to imply that the walking dead guys should be working on the next Sistine Chapel by now. Just that the show would be more interesting IMO if it showed a bit more of the social dynamics we’d expect to see by now. Larger and more stable communities. Markets scaling up too. Entertainment – places you could go to dance, and laugh, and flirt. And more sophisticated attempts to make use of all the technology lying around. For me it would be more interesting, but it would take us to a place where just being “handy with the steel” is no longer the only factor determining your survival. Suddenly being good at making things, or trading things, or organizing become skills that put food on the table. Some viewers might find that too close to home. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/55 "2021-03-19T02:42:59Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > And even if they don’t rot they certainly don’t heal, and everything we do damages the body. They should all be basically immobile by now. I read something a while back that basically shredded the whole zombie concept. As you said, there’s no healing. That means that the little micro-injuries we get all the time won’t heal. The zombies will all be blind within maybe two weeks, more likely one, as dust and tiny scratches injure their eyes beyond repair, without tears. Which is another thing: water. Zombies don’t drink. So their unblinking eyes will dry out incredibly fast. Their other body systems will follow. Also, do they have digestive processes? It doesn’t appear so. In that case, the body is going to run out of energy in just a few days, since they have no way to replenish it and they don’t seem able to burn stored fat (they seem to just rot or dessicate). Just wait 'em out. Before long we’ll be on top again. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/56 "2021-03-19T03:48:12Z")
I don’t understand the posters who are fighting the zombie concept itself. Reanimating corpses is already impossible. Surely the thing that person _already died from_ should kill them! You obviously have to imagine something supernatural for the concept to even begin. Talking about rotting and drying out is silly. On the other hand, if it’s a rhetorical thing to say “Of course zombies are unrealistic, so everything can be unrealistic”, I disagree. Writing an entirely alien reality is extremely hard to do (or watch). It’s much better to have a simple premise and then use real-world logic around that. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/57 "2021-03-19T09:43:22Z")
The problem is that the only purpose of the show for about 12 of the 16 episodes of a season is to navigate to that point where someone gets surprised by a zombie then struggles for it for about a minute up close so we can admire all the effort they put into the makeup on that zombie. Oh and Daryl then appears from nowhere, shooting it in the head with an arrow and grunts then walks off. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/58 "2021-03-19T11:27:58Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > I wonder if it’s due to ideology? I really don’t want to hijack the thread, so I’ll phrase it delicately. It just seems to me that a sizable proportion of the American public basically believe that people are inherently bad and it’s only the thin blue line, and supernatural wrathings, that keep us in check. > > If the writers are coming at it from that angle, then it’s not bad writing from their POV, it’s a realistic depiction of how craven humans ultimately are. I had a similar take, that the movie appeals to a certain subset of people who see other subsets of people as subhumans who need to be popped in the brainbucket so they can take their stuff and start a new society. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/59 "2021-03-19T14:51:52Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > You obviously have to imagine something supernatural for the concept to even begin. Talking about rotting and drying out is silly. True. The only way the zombies could still be active is due to supernatural forces. The problem is that they have always been presented as having a scientific origin by a virus. The also make a point that the bodies are rotting. They just rotted to a certain point, and then stopped rotting for the next 10 years. > [@Smid](#): > > Oh and Daryl then appears from nowhere, shooting it in the head with an arrow and grunts then walks off. That’s another magical element; Daryl’s inexhaustible supply of arrows. He often fires them into a mob of zombies where they will be impossible to recover. He retrieves some, but it often looks like he’s fired dozens, way more than would fit in his quiver. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142/60 "2021-03-19T14:56:50Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Because people are the real monsters. Exactly. I was not a big fan of it but **DesertRoomie** was until Negan showed up. “I want to watch people vs. zombies, not people vs. people.” I put it into the definite fantasy bin when they could clear the kudzu off an automobile that had been sitting there for three years and it would start right up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-decade-of-the-walking-dead-why-is-the-world-still-so-shitty/938142.md?page=4)