Just a purely speculative, fun thread for this Halloween night. Would an anarcho-capitalist society be able to deal with a zombie infestation properly? Would it be able to deal with more efficiently than a state run society? If so how?
Lets just state some basic guidelines about what type of zombies we’re dealing with here:
They can spread the virus only through contact (bites, scratches, other open wounds.)
The Zombies are as strong and fast as average humans.
They are also bloodthirsty as well and will do anything to get a meal.
These zombies tend to be more resistant to normal pain (if they’re shot in the leg, they’re still going to keep advancing towards their prey. Headshots are instant kills however).
Now I can think of a few obvious advantages right off the bat. Most likely people in an ancap society would be more heavily armed, or likely to have weapons. PDAs would probably be more efficient than local police in dealing with these situations. In the case of a massive outbreak, I’ll confess a national army might be more efficient than these PDAs however.
Other questions arise as well. Containing the virus and developing a possible cure are just a few problems I can think off the top of my head.
An Ancap society would probably wait for Congress to convene, thereby containing all the zombies in one building. Then the local townsfolk would show up with torches and burn them out.
What feeds a zombie outbreak is a large unarmed populous. Because the threat spreads geometrically inside of a population, a large military is not well suited to defending against it. Defense is needed at the local level. This is best achieved by a highly distributed defense (in each home) combined with a swift reaction to any defensive failures. This would require a continual door-to-door patrol to identify where containment of the outbreak has been lost.
A society that values preparedness and the individual right to defend oneself will have a great advantage in such a situation. A single armed individual in each home could reduce the chance of infection greatly.
Another major factor is the time it takes for infection to turn a zombie. The longer the “germination” the more distributed the infection will become before it is recognized. If the germination is short, it will be easier to contain the outbreak within the city or town where it starts. A large military will have the containment advantage, but it will be faced with a larger zombie population and a faster growth rate.
A large military will also have the “kill anything that moves” advantage over the individual. It will have no qualms with destroying large numbers of civilians in order to contain the outbreak. This is both an advantage and a drawback. It may increase the likelihood of containment, but it may come at a higher cost of life than an AnCap approach.
Besides this, I stick with the “people would be armed” argument (when they film the next installment of the 28 days later franchise in Switzerland we’ll know they’ve decided to switch to comedy). Those who would be armed would rush to get a weapon delivered at their home. One would make million by delivering shotguns to former wussies.
A big factor in the initial stages of the zombie outbreak is the government cover up of information (World War Z used this as a big plot device). Absent a government to cover things up and more free media, the citizens would be much more informed earlier and better able to prepare.
Sometimes I wish there really was a zombie outbreak so all my knowledge of this subject could be useful.
How would any of us deal with a zombie epidemic? We are all a part of this so called society, so it’s us that this would be affecting. We better have a good solution.
At the time of any known outbreak insurance companies would already try to protect their customers from any health risk. If the outbreak spreads to actual people, and there becomes an unknown number of who are affected (could be as small as 1-2 people on the loose) PDA’s would do their part to make sure those who are affected don’t reach anyone else. At a wide spread zombie epidemic the affected regions would be cut off and delt with by PDA’s and any voluntary means. You would also see people who have an abundance of weapons arming others.
This would be faster and more efficient than the government, and there would be no guess work as what’s to happen next since there wouldn’t be one single entity hoarding the information of any further possible risk, or raising any scare tactics from the situation to it’s advantage.