TTAG reader Matt B writes:
I thought this applied well to the gun control conversation and something you’d be interested in. Last night I watched the film World War Z. Aside from being pleasantly surprised with something I had low expectations for, there was a philosophy portrayed by a country in the film that I thought was interesting. If you’re unfamiliar with the film, it’s a worldwide zombie outbreak. In the course of events the protagonist makes his way to Israel, the only country to survive the outbreak in its entirety due to a gigantic wall built around the entire country. They finished the wall days before the outbreak which the protagonist calls them out on as “timing too good to be coincidence.” He asks them how they knew . . .
It is explained that after Israel ignored many disasters as “unable to happen to them” they created a policy on gathered intelligence. They explain that they have a 10 man security council, and when 9 of the 10 members vote to conclude that certain intelligence (in this case the existence of a zombie virus) is false, the 10th member must operate from the standpoint of that it is 100% accurate (hence the building of the wall.) The purpose is a fail-safe to ignoring a threat.
I thought this was an interesting analogy to the gun control argument in that the thought of a zombie outbreak is ridiculous, but in the film only one country took the possibility as even having an inkling of a chance, and as a result were safe. The argument against tyranny is viewed in our present time as just as absurd as protecting ourselves from zombies, however, like the film, if the “absurd” isn’t taken seriously, we’ll be woefully unprepared when it happens. Interestingly enough, one of the things the film cited as Israel’s reason for taking anything and everything partially seriously is the Nazi concentration camps.