# Zombie Apocalypse College Course



## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

http://www.imperfectparent.com/topi...offers-course-on-surviving-zombie-apocalypse/



> Forget studying silly things like engineering or economics, what your college bound student really needs is a course on surviving a zombie apocalypse.
> 
> Fortunately, Michigan State University has a new course offering that fits the bill. "Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse: Catastrophes & Human Behavior" is a new seven week online class put on by MSU School of Social Work professor Glen Stutzky, according to the Mother Nature Network.
> 
> ...


This actually sounds fairly interesting and useful. Doesn't appear to go into the prepping but discussing the social aspects definitely has value and may push some to look further, thus discovering being prepared.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

I hope your right culexpipiens, but based on the fact that it is being taught at a University by a sociology professor I can imagine that the course will go something like:


1. No decent person needs guns to survive any disaster. 

2. Just stay put until the government comes to save you.

3. Zombies, Monsters, Ron Paul and the Tea Party aren't real.


Congrats, you have completed the course and are now $5,000 deeper in debt.


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## hillobeans (May 17, 2012)

If I was going to MSU, I'd be all over this course. Sounds pretty interesting.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

I'd take that class.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Sentry, I dug a bit more and it looks like they're not going the "wait for the gov" route, but instead are treating this somewhat seriously.

The site for the class is at: http://socialwork.msu.edu/online_electives/?page_id=23 and there is a "preview" video of the class... kind of lame... but it sounds very much like the teacher is going about this legitmately. It appears to be mostly a "what has happened in the past and how did this affect society" along with a zombie and/or CME hypothetical event for current discussions.

Video is at

http://vimeo.com/37219344

From the course site,



> Zombies are a popular metaphor for apocalypse both in popular culture and mainstream academic pursuits, even being used by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for teaching emergency preparedness. This course uses current research and science on Catastrophes and Human Behavior together with the idea of a Zombie Apocalypse to learn about the nature, scope, and impact of catastrophic events on individuals, families, societies, civilizations, and the Earth itself.
> 
> Throughout the history of the planet, there have been events so severe and on such a scale that they have brought about the collapse, destruction, and even the end of entire societies and civilizations. Some have been biological-like the Great Plague of the 14th century, which claimed the lives of nearly one-fourth of the European population. Others have been geological-such as the great 1556 Shaanxi (Shensi) earthquake in China, killing nearly 1 million people. And some originated from space-like the asteroid impact some 65 million years ago that quickly led to the extinction of 70 percent of all living species on the planet, including the dinosaurs.
> 
> ...


At the very top of the course page, "Registration for this course is closed." Don't know if that means it is filled already or hasn't opened yet.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Nice.if they had an NRA firearms instructor in there somewhere,it would be perfect!


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## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

Sentry18 said:


> I hope your right culexpipiens, but based on the fact that it is being taught at a University by a sociology professor I can imagine that the course will go something like:
> 
> 1. No decent person needs guns to survive any disaster.
> 
> ...


Outstanding! :beercheer::cheers:


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

> Sentry, I dug a bit more and it looks like they're not going the "wait for the gov" route, but instead are treating this somewhat seriously.


Okay, it does appear to be more legit than I gave it credit for. When I went to college I started out going to school for Sociology / Criminal Justice but had to switch to Public Safety Administration / Psychology due to high volumes of stupidity and liberalism in the Sociology department. Their motto was (and is) those who cannot do or reasonably comprehend, teach.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Sentry18 said:


> I hope your right culexpipiens, but based on the fact that it is being taught at a University by a* sociology professor* I can imagine that the course will go something like:


No, it's worse that you thought. He's not a sociology professor, he's a social work professor.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

CulexPipiens said:


> but it sounds very much like the teacher is going about this legitmately. It appears to be mostly a "what has happened in the past and how did this affect society" along with a zombie and/or CME hypothetical event for current discussions.


The course does sound interesting but there's a problem. The question, or theme, underlying the course is well suited for an investigation and a historical overview of similar situations but the problem lies further downstream and in this case the problem emerges from the way the question is analyzed and the lens through which solutions are sought. This course if offered by the Faculty of Social Work so they're not going to be considering solutions like:

Quarantine all lepers on an island; or
Quarantine all Typhoid carriers into a hospital; or
Quarantine all AIDS patients into a hospital; or
Quarantine all zombies in San Francisco.​
because these solutions are "uncivilized." The range of permissible options gets restricted by liberal orthodoxy. How about the solution of making zombie hunting the preferred solution? How about targeting zombies with flame throwers? How about arming the population and having them go zombie hunting?


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Bobbb... I somewhat disagree... it sounds like, besides what they offer, that you will work in groups with fellow students to come up with your own solutions. This seems to give a lot of ability to range anywhere from "armed compound stay the *#@*& away" to "run for the nearest FEMA camp".



> Students are assigned into Survivor Groups located throughout the United States and must face the challenges of living and surviving together during a catastrophic event.


The solutions or survival would then depend a lot on group dynamics... which is pretty much what it is really like in a situation.


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## worldengineer (Sep 20, 2010)

Their was a teacher at my campus that taught this once. He normally taught Sociology, but decided that instead of class one day he would make a powerpoint about "Surviving a Zombie Apocolypse" It wasn't done as a serious learning exercise, but more what seemed like fun or a joke of some sort.

I think he may have had an idea of introducing prepping in a way that wouldn't frighten people but to amuse them.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

CulexPipiens said:


> Bobbb... I somewhat disagree... *it sounds like, besides what they offer, that you will work in groups with fellow students to come up with your own solutions.* This seems to give a lot of ability to range anywhere from "armed compound stay the *#@*& away" to "run for the nearest FEMA camp".
> 
> The solutions or survival would then depend a lot on group dynamics... which is pretty much what it is really like in a situation.


On the basis of the course description there is no way to definitively determine what the bounds of acceptable positions would be.

I'm basing my position on my experience with academia. If some student started to advance the position of internment camps I'm pretty confident that class discussion would suddenly incorporate the injustice of Japanese-American internment during WWII. The implicit rationale here is that this is a bad option and the student shouldn't be considering internment. If another student advanced the solution of Zombie genocide then readings and discussion on Rwanda and the Jewish and Armenian and Ukranian genocides would materialize in order to drive home the point that Zombie genocide is a wicked choice.

I'm pretty sure that there would be an ongoing effort to humanize the Zombies, to empathize with the Zombies, to find a way of living with the Zombies, ways to prevent the "otherization" of Zombies because this is what liberal academics are all about. Social Work faculties, as well as Sociology as well as, well even History departments are now almost entirely composed of scholars who work in race, class and gender and that's the lens through which they filter history. Military history is a forgotten topic. History which is all about dead white males and their ideas is like sunlight to a vampire regardless of the fact that dead white males and their ideas and actions were the principal components of historically significant events.

So I'd be very surprised if some student got an A+ for a paper which advocated Zombie genocide but I can't be sure that the professor will act as I predict, so all I'm really offering here is a "he said, she said" type of position to counter yours.


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