…Rules Go Out the Window

Which apocalyptic themed movie was too real for you?

For me, it was a campy film from 1962: Panic in Year Zero!

Some of the dialogue comes to mind:

Ann: “I can’t get over it. After all these years, I thought I knew you, but you turned out to be a stranger – robbing and mauling people like some kind of cheap hoodlum.”

Harry [after reluctantly robbing a store clerk who wouldn’t take out-of-town checks]: “We’re fighting for our lives, Ann! The main highways are completely choked. They’re spreading out on all the roads… Every footpath will be crawling with men saying ‘No matter what, I’m going to live!’ That’s what I’m saying too… my family must survive.”

Ann: “Intelligent people don’t just turn their backs on the rest of the world.”

Harry: “Under these conditions, intelligent people will be the first to try!”

Ann: “Getting your son to hold a gun on a man…”

Harry: “Drop it, Ann!”

Rick [to Ann – his mother]: “We’re on our own Ma! No rules, no regulations, and no laws.”

Harry [sternly, to Rick]: “Don’t write off the law. The law will come back. I just want us to be around when it does.” (24:07)

The movie is disconcertingly realistic – with the devastation of Los Angeles in the opening of a nuclear war, the challenges faced by the Baldwins as they head to what safety they can offer a glimpse into one of the most worrisome aspects of any breakdown of law and order: desperation.

I have touched on this with a previous answer I later turned into a blog post: Post-War Perils, and I still stand by “militia/armed mobs” as being one of the most dangerous aspects of any post-apocalyptic scenario.

“Order and justice” at the whim of an armed enforcer is neither order nor justice as we presently know these concepts. The former is often facilitated by either bigger ego and/or bigger weaponry: “if there is a problem in following the rules – our rules, then dissent will be handled with draconian measures to preserve our order.” As soon as established rules of law are cast aside, the weasels will emerge from the woodwork and set out to establish and maintain that which they feel is necessary for their newly-consolidated power…

In the fictional case of the Baldwins, they become the mob and the victims of panic. They mete justice and are targeted for what they possess… they wrestle with their own ethics and the necessities which will help them survive… they are forced to be resourceful as well as anticipate those wily and determined enough to survive at any cost.

They become desperate.

What truly chills me on the ideas floated in this movie is the fact that, no matter how long ago the script was written, this fundamental component of our nature – survival – is timeless and will always come into conflict with the values and rules which govern any society.

A character from William Forstchen’s One Second After held a similar and interesting observation following the breakdown of American society after an EMP attack wiped out any and every electrical circuit:

“Poor kids,” Bill sighed. “Strange when you actually think of it. What’s happened, it’s what many of them have wished for, for years.”
[…]
“They don’t get it yet. If this is as bad as I think it is… they’ll be the first to die. They don’t know how to survive without a society that supports them even as they curse it or rebel against it.”
[…]
“Once they run out of food, then the reality will set in, but by that point, anyone with a gun will tell them to kiss off if they come begging. And these poor kids, if they have food, the ones with guns will take it. They’re used to free clinics, homeless shelters when they need ’em […] No idea whatsoever how vicious the world can really be when it’s scared and hungry.” (p. 127)

It is naive for anyone to think that, after the controls and structure of society break down, everyday life will be simplistic and somewhat challenging. To quote Mike Muir from his Infectious Grooves days:

Now you can’t use your college education
When you’re swimming in your own perspiration
You broke all the rules you know
Now all the rules go out the window

I truly hope that we never get to that point. It will be messy, deadly, and a true nightmare… but even then, I still hold onto to vicious optimism that things will eventually right themselves again and with a keen appreciation of the lessons that were forced upon us during that time.