Why is there no place for lawyers in the zombie apocalypse?
We’re big fans of The Walking Dead in our house. It’s an American horror television drama series, based on a comic book series of the same name. Most of the population have become zombies and the survivors have to find a new way of survival in this post-apocalyptic world. We are not alone in enjoying the series. It attracts the most 18 to 49-yearold viewers of any cable or broadcast television series and is currently in its seventh series.
Early on in the story, it was the zombies (or “walkers”) who were the main problem. In common with every other zombie story, they are slow-moving and do that shuffle walk thing with their arms held in front of them. However, there are a lot more of them than there are survivors and the zombies are extremely keen to eat the living, or bite them – thereby turning them into zombies too.
The survivors came together in small groups to improve their chances. By the third series, it is actually other groups of survivors who have become more of a threat than the zombies. These people have a brain for a start. And in the fight for limited resources, only the fittest tribes survive.
Stories about how society reestablishes itself after an apocalyptic event have fascinated me ever since I was allowed to watch Survivors on telly back in 1975.
There were no zombies in that series – there it was a virus that had killed off most of the population – but the basic premise was the same. When you start from day one with no government to make the rules, and no police or army to enforce the rules, how and when, if at all, does civil society re-emerge?
Our 18-year-old even used The Walking Dead in his applications to university to study politics.
As he put it: “Although battling hordes of the undead is not academic viewing, the series includes elements of different political debates. As the world descends into chaos, the series portrays the state of nature described by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan.
“Fear and violence take control and for some characters life becomes brutish and short. However, as people come together to survive, some societies begin to resemble the state of nature theorised by John Locke, in which the rules of morality govern how individuals act. Meanwhile, others resemble the idyllic state of nature portrayed by Rousseau, in which people are free from an overbearing state but still conform to the unwritten ‘laws of nature’.
“The series deals with governance and who should rule, as well as economic matters such as primary goods like food replacing money and a complete change in the worth of labour as vocational trades like carpentry overtake those such as finance as the mostvalued.”
What matters in a post-apocalyptical world is what people can do, irrespective of gender. There are a number of strong women in the series, most of whom it must be said are particularly good at running fast and shooting.
Other people who are valued in this post-apocalyptic world are those who can grow food or who can fix things (like engineers or people who owned tool sheds before the apocalypse) or fix people (like doctors and dentists). And they must already possess these skills, since you can’t look anything up on the internet or watch a YouTube video.
In this week’s episode, the strongest group of survivors took away a weaker group’s doctor because their own medic was dead. And because, being the stronger group, they could.
And that’s when it struck me. Seven series into this post-apocalyptic world, they have absolutely no need for lawyers. Nobody is storming into an encampment to abduct another group’s lawyer. Noone is shouting: “Quick, we need someone to draw up a shareholders’ agreement” or “The leader of your group can’t reasonably expect you to work those sorts of hours – you need a lawyer to advise you on how to raise a grievance!”
Hywel Dda didn’t codify Welsh laws until the year 940 and the Magna Carta dates from 1215.
It seems that it will be a very long time post-apocalypse before my skills become remotely relevant. I’d best get out in the garden and learn how to grow carrots.
Bethan Darwin is a partner with law firm Thompson Darwin.