Fast-forward a few months. It happened. Trump is The President of The United States. The country spirals out of control in a matter of days with riots and what not. On his third day in office, Trump hits the big red button and nuclear holocaust ensues. Much of the planet is a wasteland but there is still plant life around to sustain life. Pretty much everyone is dead or about to be. Oddly enough, this scenario isn’t as far-fetched as it should be. To prepare for this event I have selected a few people to be on my post apocalypse squad.
From the class it’s a no brainer. I’m taking Jordi. He has mentioned in class that he likes the walking dead. No doubt he has gone through some doomsday scenarios in his head. I also wouldn’t put a doomsday shelter past him either. Given these reasons, I think his preparation for an event such as this would make him extraordinarily valuable.
From our readings, I would take Kenneth Lay, former Chairman or Enron. He is a master of deception and lies, something we will certainly need in order to fend off unruly people we meet along the way to salvation. He sent out an email claiming Enron was in fantastic shape merely weeks before the collapse. That’s just stone cold. I need that cold-blooded instinct to disregard others on my voyage. This could backfire on me if he chooses to turn on me, but I’ll take my chances.
Finally, if I could chose anybody else to take with me on my post apocalyptic journey, I would chose Bear Grylls. This guy was literally built for this scenario. He is resourcefulness personified. He pretends he is stuck in the woods alone on a weekly basis. What kind of sick puppy does that. This is the kind of lunatic I need with me. He knows how to safely prepare food the old fashioned way, what not to eat, and how to hunt. No brainer. I don’t bring much to the table here so I’m just a huge liability to the group. Luckily, my group is skilled enough to carry my dead weight.
The World is Flat? 
I like this post a lot. Especially Spencer’s point about Bear, the dude was made for this. He probably dreams up doomsday scenarios in his spare time when he’s sleeping on the open tundra. With the Enron dude…what if he decides he wants to deceive you? How do you keep him in check? The world may never know.
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Its funny, the Economist listed “A Trump Presidency” as its number 6 most pressing global threat. I cant help but chuckle at that. What exactly are people so afraid of with Trump? I highly doubt hed be pressing any big red buttons any time if he were elected president. Any yes, this is becoming increasingly likely. Its hard for me to believe that Trump becoming POTUS would do anything more to spiral the country out of control or cause violent riots than what we have already and recently seen. Regardless, interesting choice with Kenneth Lay…he could certainly prove useful.
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When Trump says crap like he would order the military to target the families of terrorists on purpose, and THEN, when it is pointed out the military WILL NOT follow illegal orders, he says “oh, for me they will,’ he is crossing a line from bombastic blow-hard to scary tyrant.
I kind of agree with you that the institutional strength of the military will actually insulate it from his impulses to megalomaniacal actions.
I don’t know the Economist’s reasoning, but it may be in part not so much his direct actions but how his statements might rattle China or others (ISIS, Iran) to act pre-emptively or change their military posture just creating a greater baseline of risk.
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I totally agree about your choice of Ken Lay. He would be a great person to swindle others out of supplies, but I also agree that you might need to watch your back. Ken would turn on anyone given the chance.
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It’s an incredibly interesting insight to see how many people chose Enron execs when we definitively condemned them earlier (or at least I think we did)… What is different now? are we tying our morals and ethical theories solely to the societal structure of today and fraudulent accounting? Does the name of the game really change that much for our ethics when everything goes to pot?
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I think Ken Lay is too risky to trust. After the apocalypse I would want a team that I can completely trust, not someone who lied to his company, shareholders, and general public. My guess is that when you are about to die, he would be scheming to kill you and eat you for dinner. He would make sure to cover his bets and ensure that he wouldn’t be the first to be killed.
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Well, Lay was good to you if you were on his side.
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Loved your post – it definitely put a funnier spin/perspective on things than the more rational approach I did. Might have to put this team together sooner rather than later as the election comes up…
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Hilarious and entertaining take on the prompt! When it comes to fighting for survival, you really can’t recruit a team member much better than Bear Grylls. As West mentioned above, the man has basically been training for this type of situation his whole life. Most definitely questionable that he enjoys throwing himself into dangerous situations and chooses to place himself in the middle of the woods with minimal resources as a career path, however undoubtedly would come in handy if the word ever comes to an end.
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Suck up. 🙂
I don’t have a doomsday shelter, but I do have some outdoors skills. But my bad knees might be a liability.
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I am utterly amused by the idea of Ken Lay for his deal-making skills. Very insightful.
Of course, you kind of overlooked internal tensions. Ken and I might not get along. I might bug him about his choices as Enron CEO until he up and leaves the group. 🙂
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Couldn’t agree more with @pkrebs101 here. Kan Lay is not one to be trusted, he’ll be just as likely to stab you in the back as he is to the victims that he schemes to help your team. Although I do like the idea of having Jordi and Lay in a group together, could be good entertainment for the trip if you guys don’t die.
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