Throughout the ELE Series, psychology and sociology are used. Did you notice how the characters lose a grasp on time? This happens when cut off from our usual world. People who have experienced natural disasters understand how the perception of time changes. They were cut off due to lack of electricity. People who went abroad in a war understand this as well. The same goes for those who participated in an archaeology dig in a jungle.

It goes further than perception of time passing. For a few books, the characters perceive nothing exists beyond their immediate world. They remain unaware of the world until Book 4. The phone calls via the hacker’s yacht reveal that it still exists out there. For some, their relatives outside of the Zone remain alive. It is a very emotional revelation.

Alas, it goes further. The Us vs. Them grows extremely strong with the group. It is the grounds for survival. They value the lives of their own group tremendously, but dehumanize their enemies. They see outsiders as having no life value. This blossoms in Book 7. Mullen, Eric, and Kanesha kill people in the desert who did not attack them. They do this to gain their food, water, and supplies. They see their actions as merciful. Whoever lacks the food, water, and supplies will die in the desert. The young trio felt no qualms about killing. This shocks Mazy’s family.

A fan in the Facebook fan group challenged the author regarding the morality of what the young trio did. He saw their behavior as “out of character.” Is it for their given situation?

The fields of psychology and sociology tell us it was logical behavior for them. Their situation and recent past experiences influenced their actions. The people with the supplies were “other” and “out group.” Their lives did not matter as much as the lives of the young trio and the people they were responsible for, Mazy’s family.

The young trio had been exposed to a massive amount of humans killed, if not directly participating in these events. They were also exposed to the remains of humans laying around. By the time of the desert, the young trio were thoroughly desensitized to the deaths of humans. This was further illustrated later on when they couldn’t kill a chicken. They were not desensitized towards the deaths of animals.

Where does this stuff come from?

The Stanford Prison Experiment proves that people’s mentality goes in this direction. Indeed, it happens very quickly.

Us vs Them

Desensitization

“Desensitization is the process or treatment by which repeated exposure lessens emotional responsiveness to a negative, aversive, or positive stimulus,” says Bryan Bruno, MD, medical director for Mid City TMS. “Desensitization can occur with anything, including death.”

In order to adapt and continue living our lives, our brains have a psychological inclination to desensitize to disaster.—from “Are We Becoming Desensitized to Mass Death?“

How to make killers—killology

21-year-old West Texas Army Pvt. Steven Green described shooting a man who refused to stop at an Iraqi checkpoint: “It was like nothing. Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody, and it’s like, ‘All right, let’s go get some pizza,’ ” he told the military newspaper Stars & Stripes.

Conclusion

The behavior of the young trio was in character. They had changed from their experiences. No longer were they the young civvies attending college or recently graduated. Even what initially appeared as pretty benign characters had grown into killers. This showed that anyone can become a killer if the given circumstances exist. All those circumstances existed for Mullen, Eric, and Kanesha.

What would have been out of character is if they never changed despite the circumstances and experiences. Hollywood likes to do that. They did that with The Walking Dead. A highly sensitized lead male eventually says, “There’s too much killing.” By that time, he’d hardly be aware of how much killing there was. People killing each other would have been a Tuesday for him. Hollywood gave no reason for why that character would re-sensitize, which requires repeated exposure just as desensitizing required. Where’s he getting this repeated exposure from?

However, they also had human teeth biting through horse hide. Horses stood around while weird people crowded them. There was some insanity regarding a tiger. People fell down for no reason among a myriad of other unrealistic items. Folks must realize that Hollywood does not give a flying fat rat’s ass about realism. This is including with morality.

Repeated exposure to killing and death would make people as rough as they were in previous, less privileged centuries. Any realistic story would show this truth.

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