The
recent reports of “Zombie” style attacks from Miami and elsewhere
are an interesting case of Government preparedness testing. The
internet meme of preparing for the coming Zombie apocalypse has been
doing the rounds for at least 10 years to my knowledge, and yes, I
have my own, and it has reached a point that it has come to the
attention of the intelligence communities. It is widely known that
Governments are highly interested in new ways of controlling
populations and increasing powers and controls that limit freedom,
and this is just the latest experiment to assess the effect of
modified information release as a means of control. The idea of
re-animated corpses feasting on the brains and bodies of the living
has been a staple of schlock horror movies for decades and it is one
which inspires a level of fear that goes beyond any sense of
proportion. The history of the zombie goes back a lot further than
that, through the ideas of Voodou witchcraft and black magic. The
image of the controlled zombie created by a mixture of herbs and
magcal incantations resonates with these latest attacks being linked
to the designer drug “Bath salts”.
A
little background. The attack in Miami occurred on Saturday 26th
May 2012 and featured a naked man attacking another man and appearing
to tear chunks of flesh off his face with his teeth, eating the flesh
in a manner strongly reminiscent of a zombie attack from a Romero
film. This attack was almost certainly caused by the attacker being
under the influence of the narcotic cocktail known as “bath salts”
leading to a psychotic break. The attack ended with the attacker
being shot multiple times by police officers and dying at the scene.
A gruesome and horrific act certainly, but also an opportunity for
authorities to explore the effect of the release of a media scare
story, and monitoring the way a meme spreads via the internet.
Reports suggest that in the days following the report of the attack
the frequency of search engine enquiries for the term zombie
apocalypse increased by over 5000% and website for companies
supplying survivalist equipment reported significant increases in
traffic. The meme spread via Facebook and youtube far more quickly
than similar stories of murder and mayhem have, and it is this
phenomena that has let to the suggesting that it was being used as a
test of public perceptions of threat and how these can be used.
The
results are in as far as the intelligence community is concerned, and
there is clear evidence that this event is already being used to
increase control of the American public. There have already been
several large scale raids of drug production facilities and freedom
of movement has been curtailed in the area alongside increased stop
and search powers. What is slightly troubling is that these erosions
of freedom have been accepted far more readily than is usually the
case. My prediction? We will see an increasing number of attacks of
this type over the next six months culminating in the passing into
law of new powers for the police and the establishment of a more
closely integrated national guard rapid response force with powers to
introduce martial law in localised areas. We will also see an
increase in powers for disaster response units, including curfews,
house arrests and detention without trial. What worries me is that we
are going to accept these powers because the thought of a Zombie
apocalypse, no matter how unlikely, is a meme that just will not go
away.
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