Noticing a pattern yet?
"We the people" or, more appropriately, "we the zombies" are the enemy in the eyes of the government.
So when presented with the Defense Department's battle plan for defeating an army of the walking dead, you might find yourself tempted to giggle, however, in an age of extreme government paranoia, this is no laughing matter.
The DOD's strategy for dealing with a zombie uprising, outlined in "CONOP 8888," is for all intents and purposes a training manual for the government in how to put down a citizen uprising or at least an uprising of individuals "infected" with dangerous ideas about freedom.
Rest assured that the tactics and difficulties outlined in the "fictional training scenario" are all too real, beginning with martial law.
The strategy manual's primary methods of launching a zombie counter-offensive involve surveillance, military drills, awareness training, militarized police forces, and martial law.
Notice the similarities?
As I point out in my book, Battlefield America: The War on the American People, if there is any lesson to be learned, it is simply this: whether the threat to national security comes in the form of actual terrorists, imaginary zombies or disgruntled American citizens infected with dangerous ideas about freedom, the government's response to such threats remains the same: detect, deter and annihilate.
To return to AMC's Fear the Walking Dead: it's the police state "tasked with protecting the vulnerable" that poses some of the gravest threats to the citizenry. Indeed, as David Sims writing for the Atlantic points out, "the military doesn't really have a plan except to crush any potential threat." Sims continues:
The latest episode, "Cobalt,"
revealed the military's endgame: With the zombie situation deteriorating, they
plan to flee and wipe out everyone they leave behind, at this point motivated
only by the need to survive, rather than to protect. Countering that is the
family unit that has forged new bonds in the crisis. These organically loyal
communities, the writers Robert Kirkman and David Erickson argue, are the only
kind that can survive in such a world" More than anything, Fear the
Walking Dead is a drama about occupation, the breakdown of society,
and the ease with which seemingly decent people can decide that might makes
right. Like any dystopian fiction, it's easy to dismiss as fantasy, but remove
the zombies and Fear could be taking place in dozens of
real-world locations" This is happening here, Kirkman and Erickson are saying,
but it could happen anywhere.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).