The Elbonian Zombie Virus

Thursday, April 28th, 2016

The Elbonian Zombie Virus is a thought experiment of Scott Adams’:

Imagine that the tiny nation of Elbonia suffers a Zombie Virus outbreak. Luckily, the virus does not spread easily, but prolonged personal contact with an infected zombie increases the odds of transmission. Once infected, the Elbonian becomes a zombie killer. As it turns out, most people are immune to the virus. Over 99% of the public have no risk of catching it. But 1% is far too many zombie killers.

Imagine we have no way to detect this Elbonian Zombie Virus infection before symptoms occur. And let’s say that the problem started in Elbonia and so far has not gone beyond its borders. There is no cure for the Elbonian Zombie Virus. So what would world health organizations do?

For starters, they would quarantine the entire nation of Elbonia to limit the damage. This is obviously unfair to all uninfected Elbonians but it is also the only practical way to protect the rest of the world. Once the quarantine is in place, the professionals can get to work on a cure.

Now here’s the interesting part. What is the functional difference between the Elbonian Zombie Virus and radical islamic terrorism?

Comments

  1. Tim says:

    The one thing Islamists understand is force. Osama bin Laden’s 2001 remark that, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse”, explains well the Islamic mindset.

    You want to impress or stop the Islamist? Demonstrate overwhelming strength. Diplomatically you get the Islamist world to isolate itself with one simple communication followed, if necessary, with one demonstration of overwhelming force.

    The communication is thus: “If another terrorist attack happens in the West it will be followed by the biggest explosion Medina or Mecca has ever seen!” Communicate it to the world and back it up with a big crater somewhere for show and tell.

    There will be countless lives saved by this one simple act.

  2. Thought crime! How dare you!

    Of course unlike the virus Islam my in the end prove to be the one thing that saves western civilization from low birth rate extinction.

    http://theanti-puritan.blogspot.com/

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