The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: We ARE stronger together

5) When The Chips Are Down, “Rule By Fear” Implodes

There are people who think that using coercion, intimidation, bullying, and fear is the best way to keep people in line. In the latest episode of The Walking Dead, Beta proved that method to be a failure.

Why? Well, when it came down to it, Beta”s style of leadership did nothing to ensure loyalty to him, and so, at the end, he had nobody.

Now, to be fair, that also had a lot to do with the fact that Daryl and Magna picked off the last of his troops, but, I think my point stands.

You see, even before the siege began, Beta had begun scaring off other Whisperers with threats of killing them for even daring to say he had succeeded to Alpha’s position, Whisperers who might have been there to help him when he was confronted by Negan and Daryl.

If you want a good idea of how poorly Beta’s leadership ultimately was, look to all the other hostile leaders we’ve seen in The Walking Dead: The Governor, Gareth, Negan, Alpha, hell, even Simon. What did they all have in common? Their groups respected them.

Sure, some of them were feared, like Negan, and Alpha, but, to the same end, they were also respected. For example: In season eight, when Negan was trapped outside of the Sanctuary with Father Gabriel, and walkers were threatening to burst inside, the workers refused to take Simon’s orders, and demanded to see Negan. They would not do anything unless Negan himself said so. That was out of respect.

All of these leaders had troops who stood by them to the bitter end, not because they were afraid of them, but, because they respected them.

Beta, on the other hand? In the end, he was alone. For all we know, there may have been Whisperers that Daryl’s team hadn’t found yet, but, we wouldn’t know about it because no one came to help Beta. Why should they have? He was just as likely to kill them as Daryl was, so…what’s the incentive for helping him?

When the chips are down, when you really need it, what brings people together, what rallies them around something isn’t fearing it, but, respecting it. If you insist on ruling by one, and not the other, when shit hits the fan, you’ll find you have nobody to stand with you, and in a zombie apocalypse, that makes you the weakest person, the easiest prey.

And that’s your Survival Rule Of The Week! Hopefully, you’ve learned why, in a zombie apocalypse, we’re better as a group than we are by ourselves. If you like this and want to find out more tips to survive the zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also get it at Amazon here, on iTunes here!