As a member of the ruling council
in my community, The Wally World Warriors, I have realized that in a
post-apocalyptic world, the decisions to preserve humanity don’t exactly run
parallel with being “humane.” In an ideal situation, the decisions made by the
ruling council should benefit everyone, leaving no one feel like a second-class
citizen. However, when it comes to fighting to preserve the existence of the
human race, cutting your losses can aid you in reaching this goal. I am talking
about making sacrifices.
Through many of our readings this
semester there have been sacrifices made in the fictional zombie-apocalypse
worlds. Typically these sacrifices have been heroic decisions made by
characters to help the rest of the group survive. This can clearly be seen in
Courtney Summer’s novel, This is Not a
Test, when Cary sacrifices his life so Rhys and Sloane can successfully
evade the mass of zombies. The sacrificing of a characters life has often been
synonymous with acts of heroism, which is why Cary redeems himself at the end
of the novel.
However, there is also the less
heroic side of sacrifices seen throughout our readings. I guess you can
classify it as a systemic sacrifice, since it is planned out versus
heat-of-the-moment with a heroic sacrifice. These systemic sacrifices have the
same outcome; yet usually don’t involve willing volunteers. This is seen in This is Not a Test as well, when Cary
tries to get Harrison to sacrifice himself in the beginning in order to make it
to the High School. However, it was Trace and Grace’s parents who took the bait
on that one.
A more important example of this is
in our reading for this week, World War
Z. The Redeker plan embodies a systemic sacrifice that actually worked in
meeting its end goal. As explained in the interview, “there was no way to save
everyone.” It came to a point for the political leaders of South Africa to make
a choice: lose everyone or sacrifice a portion of the population to save
humanity. The Redeker Plan consisted of having a small portion of the
population reach a safe zone, while the other portion be used as “human bait”
to lead the zombies to a secluded, isolated area for easy eradication.
All in all, in a post-apocalyptic
world, when you’re fighting to preserve the human race, are human sacrifices
needed? This is an interesting concept because there was nothing humane about
the Redeker Plan to preserve humanity. However, as a member of the ruling
council, I think the Redeker Plan is genius, pure evil genius. I guess all one can hope for is to be a significant member of society to be considered worthy of keeping alive.
From reading your response about the Redeker plan, I think you would be a huge Ayn Rand fan. I'm not judging, decisions have to be made in tough circumstances. I just question if giving up your humanity is worth making those decisions.