The Walking Dead, Survival Rule: Actions Have Consequences
By Liam O'Leary
Tales of the Walking Dead episode 6
Don’t make rash decisions.
As I said earlier, all of the strange, supernatural things that happened to Idalia and Eric sprang from one rash decision. The moment Eric jumped from his chair and yelled at Alma, he set himself and Idalia on a course for disaster: It caused Alma’s heart attack, which led to her falling and hitting her head, then to her death, then the hauntings the pair suffered, and finally, their decent into madness, and their deaths. One decision made out of anger and impatience sent Eric and Idalia’s lives crashing down.
The worst part, though? It could have been avoided.
Had Eric just listened to Idalia and not pressed his luck with Alma or thought for a second about how the situation looked to her, he wouldn’t have flown off the handle, and all three of them could have kept on living.
This is why we can’t let ourselves make decisions out of anger, impatience, panic, or hastiness because, when you do that, you’re not thinking about the long-term consequences those decisions may have. While quick thinking, thinking on your feet and being able to react to changing circumstances are important in a zombie apocalypse, those are far different animals than what we’re talking about. Those aren’t rushing into situations without considering what the next step might be, those aren’t reacting out of blind fear, and those aren’t born out of simplistic, knee-jerk reactions. Rash decisions, on the other hand, are.
You really do need to take a minute to think about what the next step is (Or likely will be) once you’ve done something. If you just take a minute and think, you’ll often realize that whatever hasty course of action you were about to take won’t work out well for you and cause you to reconsider that idea and prevent disaster. Imagine for a minute that you’re driving along a highway at night, and see a cop roll up behind you. If you were to freak out and slam on the gas, the cop is going to assume you’re doing something sketchy and chase you. Would that work out for you? No, it would only make things worse.
Life is short enough as it is, don’t make it shorter by making rash decisions.