"We are using an abandoned office to stock supplies that you and your team members will use to survive the zombie apocalypse. Your team will be the first out of the seven teams to go. The rule is simple, each team member can bring one item each out of the room, you have five minutes, good luck"
It was zombie lab day and the class was full of energy, anticipation would build as our professors would tell us to strategize and figure out what kind of items we would obtain while in the room. My team, Django, would be the first to go.
Our strategy was simple, defense, everyone knows that a good defense is a good offense. (Defense mechanism, get it?)
The five minutes started. Having been a football player, and also having two football players on my team, made this possibly chaotic experience more composed. football players are used to having to think on their feet, however, usually they only have 2 seconds to make a decision, today we had five minutes.
We quickly found two weapons, a water bottle, a first aid kit,and a water purification system. These items were, in our opinion, the best, and would make our team look attractive to other teams. Which was a goo thing because we want other teams to be envious. When others are envious of us, the cling to us. That was our mindset.
We had found all of our items within 2 minutes, and that's when it happened.
My mind told me.
"Your the first group, use it to your advantage. Find every weapon you can and hide them so other teams can't get them."
So I did, and I told my teammates to do it to, and they did.
As silly as this exercise was at first, it just became so real. I had become the product of the evil people we have seen throughout the television series The Walking Dead, I had purposefully sabotaged the teams that would follow Django, giving them no chance to survive if a zombie had attacked them. I don't know what I was thinking.
The next couple of days would pass, I kept thinking about this exercise. It's just a game right? You would have done the same thing, right? I would be haunted by thoughts on how to justify my actions, but, when I take a step back and LOOK AT what I did, I was embarrassed. Did I not think of the fact that there are people, live people, in the groups that would follow. Did I make the conscious decision to emotionally disconnect myself from the idea that these people have a desire to survive just like me.
The next lab day would come where we got a chance to discuss last weeks exercise.
"Whoever hid all those weapons..."
I was waiting for a shaking of the head, maybe a response like, "Did you think about the other teams that would come after you, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!"
But instead I heard, "Whoever hid all those weapons where no one could find them, GENIUS"
How could an action so selfish, so evil, so sabotaging of others be glorified? It was in this moment of glorification where I was assured that what I did was the right, that YOU would have done the same thing. That is the kind of world we live in.
Will McDonough
It was zombie lab day and the class was full of energy, anticipation would build as our professors would tell us to strategize and figure out what kind of items we would obtain while in the room. My team, Django, would be the first to go.
Our strategy was simple, defense, everyone knows that a good defense is a good offense. (Defense mechanism, get it?)
The five minutes started. Having been a football player, and also having two football players on my team, made this possibly chaotic experience more composed. football players are used to having to think on their feet, however, usually they only have 2 seconds to make a decision, today we had five minutes.
We quickly found two weapons, a water bottle, a first aid kit,and a water purification system. These items were, in our opinion, the best, and would make our team look attractive to other teams. Which was a goo thing because we want other teams to be envious. When others are envious of us, the cling to us. That was our mindset.
We had found all of our items within 2 minutes, and that's when it happened.
My mind told me.
"Your the first group, use it to your advantage. Find every weapon you can and hide them so other teams can't get them."
So I did, and I told my teammates to do it to, and they did.
As silly as this exercise was at first, it just became so real. I had become the product of the evil people we have seen throughout the television series The Walking Dead, I had purposefully sabotaged the teams that would follow Django, giving them no chance to survive if a zombie had attacked them. I don't know what I was thinking.
The next couple of days would pass, I kept thinking about this exercise. It's just a game right? You would have done the same thing, right? I would be haunted by thoughts on how to justify my actions, but, when I take a step back and LOOK AT what I did, I was embarrassed. Did I not think of the fact that there are people, live people, in the groups that would follow. Did I make the conscious decision to emotionally disconnect myself from the idea that these people have a desire to survive just like me.
The next lab day would come where we got a chance to discuss last weeks exercise.
"Whoever hid all those weapons..."
I was waiting for a shaking of the head, maybe a response like, "Did you think about the other teams that would come after you, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!"
But instead I heard, "Whoever hid all those weapons where no one could find them, GENIUS"
How could an action so selfish, so evil, so sabotaging of others be glorified? It was in this moment of glorification where I was assured that what I did was the right, that YOU would have done the same thing. That is the kind of world we live in.
Will McDonough