BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
Eons ago when I was still in school and the Cold War was just starting to thaw but the threat of nuclear exchanges was still a fairly common worry, we had a scenario in one of my classes. I don't recall if it was Pscyhology or Civics or what, same guy taught several of them.
Anywho, the set up was you had a bunker that could support so many people but had more people than that at the gate. I don't recall the exact numbers any longer, but I think it was something like 9 people could live in the bunker for the required time to let radiation get back to safe levels and you had 20 people. Students were assigned a role and the idea was you would debate and have votes of who had to leave. I was told I would be "the carpenter" since I was working construction at the time. As part of my role, I wore in my actual tool belt, complete with a framing hammer.
I don't recall all the roles any longer, either. I do remember:
1) Middle aged male carpenter
2) Male doctor in training (graduated pre-med, currently in medical school)
3) Male doctor in his mid 70's
There were assorted females and one gay guy (this was when being gay was still a pretty big deal and AIDS was still new and in the media constantly). One of the females was known to have slept around, but I don't recall if she was officially a prostitute or not.
I remember the main arguments being do you take in the "loose girl" who may bring in an STD and do you keep both doctors, given the old guy is probably going to hit end of natural life span soon but young guy isn't fully trained. Our class elected to keep both doctors. The gay guy and most of the non-child-bearing-age women were tossed without much debate. Guys with 'useless skills' for the new world as a bunch of 18-ish year olds imagined it were tossed. The banker never had a chance. The architect was solidly in. I think the architect may have been female as well, don't recall.
What I remember most is the "loose girl" was played by a girl in the class who was really shy and who, looking back, was probably bullied by the other girls. She was not someone I'd paid much attention to in school, but I could see just the real stress the debates on her (really, her character) were causing her. Things were pretty heated, but as the character had no skills so the debate was basically "can make babies" vs "may have an STD". I had been 'elected' the judge earlier, mostly due to the symbolism of my hammer as a gavel I believe. The vote was cast as our time limit ticked down and she was to be put out of the bunker. She was tearing up, and again this was just a scenario in a nice safe classroom where everyone involved was pretending to be someone else. The argument continued, despite the vote, and two boys stood up to physically take her out.
I took my hammer up and told them I'm brain the both of them if they didn't leave her be and the instructor called the scenario. I'd broken it, and I think he finally realized the toll it was taken on the particular student he'd assigned to be the 'loose girl'. I had meant the threat 'in character' and everyone realized that (today I'd probably be expelled for having the hammer in the first place) but the idea of physical force and coercion vs a nice orderly vote broke the scenario anyway and became it's own discussion.
I don't expect the bunker scenario to ever play out for me in reality, but I still have the hammer.
Anywho, the set up was you had a bunker that could support so many people but had more people than that at the gate. I don't recall the exact numbers any longer, but I think it was something like 9 people could live in the bunker for the required time to let radiation get back to safe levels and you had 20 people. Students were assigned a role and the idea was you would debate and have votes of who had to leave. I was told I would be "the carpenter" since I was working construction at the time. As part of my role, I wore in my actual tool belt, complete with a framing hammer.
I don't recall all the roles any longer, either. I do remember:
1) Middle aged male carpenter
2) Male doctor in training (graduated pre-med, currently in medical school)
3) Male doctor in his mid 70's
There were assorted females and one gay guy (this was when being gay was still a pretty big deal and AIDS was still new and in the media constantly). One of the females was known to have slept around, but I don't recall if she was officially a prostitute or not.
I remember the main arguments being do you take in the "loose girl" who may bring in an STD and do you keep both doctors, given the old guy is probably going to hit end of natural life span soon but young guy isn't fully trained. Our class elected to keep both doctors. The gay guy and most of the non-child-bearing-age women were tossed without much debate. Guys with 'useless skills' for the new world as a bunch of 18-ish year olds imagined it were tossed. The banker never had a chance. The architect was solidly in. I think the architect may have been female as well, don't recall.
What I remember most is the "loose girl" was played by a girl in the class who was really shy and who, looking back, was probably bullied by the other girls. She was not someone I'd paid much attention to in school, but I could see just the real stress the debates on her (really, her character) were causing her. Things were pretty heated, but as the character had no skills so the debate was basically "can make babies" vs "may have an STD". I had been 'elected' the judge earlier, mostly due to the symbolism of my hammer as a gavel I believe. The vote was cast as our time limit ticked down and she was to be put out of the bunker. She was tearing up, and again this was just a scenario in a nice safe classroom where everyone involved was pretending to be someone else. The argument continued, despite the vote, and two boys stood up to physically take her out.
I took my hammer up and told them I'm brain the both of them if they didn't leave her be and the instructor called the scenario. I'd broken it, and I think he finally realized the toll it was taken on the particular student he'd assigned to be the 'loose girl'. I had meant the threat 'in character' and everyone realized that (today I'd probably be expelled for having the hammer in the first place) but the idea of physical force and coercion vs a nice orderly vote broke the scenario anyway and became it's own discussion.
I don't expect the bunker scenario to ever play out for me in reality, but I still have the hammer.