I remember a conversation I had once with a fellow employee a few years back. He was constantly getting the latest and greatest technology, updating and upgrading every year. His photography was dependent on his ability to manipulate the photos. Like most people today, he did not actually have the talent to create beautiful photographs by eye. And he enjoyed making silly photos from serious ones to amuse his friends.
One day I asked him what would happen if all the electricity in the world were to disappear. What would he do then? Everything from stocking and checking out of a grocery store, buying gas, etc. was all dependent on electricity. Even the ability to get to his high rise condo required an electric elevator. And, since he didn’t store any extra food for more than a few days, his supplies would quickly disappear.
He blinked.
Then he said, “I guess I’d go to your house!” To which I replied that he needed to find a way to fill his gas tank first…
Our world today
Our society and everyone who wants to keep tabs on anything or anyone in the world depends on electricity. Our entire economy is leaning heavily on that fact.
One writer said that our society has replaced the importance of water with the importance of electricity.
What if…
So what if all the electricity were to go out in the blink of an eye? What would people do?
We can look no further than real life examples that occurred when a tornado took it out years ago in Atlanta. One young lady came to work saying how she’d never been so bored in her life. The internet and computers were down over the weekend. Others jeered the power company workers as they tried to fix the lines. “You aren’t restoring our power fast enough. One week is TOO LONG!!!”
Our power was out for a week one year following another tornado incident. The only thing we missed was our well water. Right as the last of our water stockpiles were almost gone, the electricity popped back on. It was like Christmas!
What is the difference?
So what is the difference between these two events? Both times the character and mindset of the individuals were revealed.
In the first example, it showed that the people were not prepared. Just like those who live as if death will never come, when it or the possibility of it, strikes, they have little time to alter their viewpoint. And they are shocked that it would even come at all!
The second showed that they were prepared, living as if the electricity were not a certainty. They prepared for the “just in case” inevitability. When the power went out, their alternative lifestyle just kicked into gear.
Reality…
Electricity isn’t something new. But harnessing it for our everyday use is recent.
In reality, we have had electricity for general public use for only the past 130 years or so. That is a relatively short blip in the history of man.
The White House had the first light bulbs installed in 1891. But the average household couldn’t afford such an expensive innovation for another 40+ years.
Televisions became popular among households of the upper middle class around the 1960’s. And those were black and white picture screens. Color televisions and color broadcasts didn’t become commonplace until 1972.
Telephones were in quite a few households, but switchboards and party lines (shared lines) were the only way they could be used. It wasn’t until around 1945 that there were 1 in 5 people who had a landline. And in 1998, one phone was available for every man, woman and child in the United States. A mere 24 years ago or so.
Cell phones were large, cumbersome bricks. They cost about $4,000 in the early 1970’s. They were charged by the minute at about 39¢ per minute. They were too expensive for the average person. They weren’t affordable by the masses until around 1992. That was only 30 years ago or so.
Today…
The young adults of today do not realize that their parents didn’t have cell phone, laptops, smart watches, or even microwaves. These young adults grew up after the explosion of technology already happened. Unless they lived under a rock or in the rural areas, they would never have guessed how novel all this really is.
What that means…
In one short generation, any older technologies or simple ways of living were lost. Unless the young people were lucky enough to be taught the old ways. Or they were curious enough to find out how things used to be done.
Today, if electricity were turned off, those who forgot what it was like without it would suffer. Those who never knew what it was like would suffer. And those who refuse to believe life eve existed without it would suffer.
Future reality…
Electricity will come to an end. That is a certainty.
When it will happen isn’t.
Our sun affects our planet. When it releases major solar flares (Coronal Mass Ejections, or CME’s) or a coronal hole sweeps past us facing the earth, it affects our planet. It is electromagnetically connected to the earth. It charges the earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere, trickling down connectively to the very mantle of the earth. (See the Thunderbolt Project, https://www.thunderbolts.info or search YouTube for associated videos, and https://suspiciousobservers.org or associated YouTube videos.)
Everything from earthquakes to interruptions with cell phone services are touched. 40 out of 49 satellites recently failed, falling to earth when a minor CME caused their orbit to slow unpredictably. They dropped from the sky like falling stars.
Even our bodies are electromagnetically controlled. The experiments with 5G and higher has shown to be everything from problematic to detrimental to the animal physiology. Brain function is affected, being an organ vulnerable to electrical impulses from external sources.
So…
When the sun decides to send us a large enough CME, it takes out our technology. Telegraph lines were burned up when a large flare hit the earth back in 1859 with the Carrington effect.
The entire east coast went into blackout phase when another CME in 1965. Many were left stranded in elevators. Restaurants locked doors to prevent customers from not paying when their cash register systems went out.
In 1989, not to be outdone, the sun took out global communications and the Hydro-Quebec power grid. It went offline in less than 90 seconds. And it caused the cessation of all trading on the Toronot Stock Exchange.
July of 2021, the sun sent out a large X-class flare, one considered of the highest, more powerful magnitude. It took created a radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean and along the coastal regions.
Still not convinced?
According to How Stuff Works (https://science.howstuffworks.com/solar-flare-electronics.htm), if a large enough CME were to head for the earth, we’d be in big trouble. Today, our magnetosphere, which shields us from the electromagnetic energy of the sun, is weaker than at the time of the Carrington Effect. And we are far more dependent on technology that we were back then.
If that isn’t enough, these major solar superstorms have, historically, taken out such simple devices as magnetic compasses and telegraphs. But our world now is dependent on a very fragile system of delicate electronics. The magnetic forces of such a storm would cause large transformers and the power grid itself to fail.
The electrical grid…
Our electrical grids are already operating at full capacity today. Our demands for such luxuries as devices to heat up hand cream, charging the “green energy” electric vehicles, and even the internet itself would take a hit. Radio signals, cell phone and satellite communications, and the satellites themselves would all be affected.
The challenges to get these systems back online isn’t an easy one. Right now, if a large transformer in a major substation were to go out, it would take an average of 6 months to get a new one. If it could be ordered. And if the country that manufactures it doesn’t decide to shut down – or can’t produce them because they, too, have no electricity to make them.
So what will you do?
Are you prepared to go without the conveniences we have today? Forget about insurrections and government overreach. None of that will matter when the lights go out.
Do you have a game plan? Or did you ever consider such a thing would occur, like our technologically depend world would collapse? Remember that even gas can’t come out of the ground without a pump. And if the computers in the pumps fry, I wish you the best of luck – especially if a hundred other people are trying to get gas out of a little hole in the ground along side you. (Pretty tough sucking that stuff up when it gets to the bottom of the tank, by the way.)
Do preppers have the right plan?
Maybe. Maybe not.
There are a lot of people who have lived a simple life for decades, refusing to give up the old ways. They often times live with both the modern and the old systems along side each other. They have always composted their food wastes. They have candles for emergencies. They know how to make more. They make basic necessities from minimal supplies, never thinking about being a “prepper”.
They’ve always stored food because it was cheaper to buy in bulk. They can their garden produce, never thinking about being a “hoarder”. It just made sense to live in the season. You eat what is grown during the seasons that plants produce edible foods. When the season for growing food is ongoing, you prepared for the months that nothing in nature grows. We call that “winter”.
That was how mankind lived for thousands of years.
Perceptions today…
But people who live that way are not “preppers”. They don’t stockpile years worth of food and ammunition. They just live by the seasons, and prepare to make it one more year when the harvest is not there.
There are those who never thought about living in season. They are dependent on getting lettuce and asparagus in the middle of winter from their local grocery chain. If a scenario of no electricity were to occur, they wouldn’t see it that way.
Today’s society would demonize those who think ahead. Like the ant and the grasshopper, they would see themselves as being owed what others have worked hard to get. And they would have the full backing of our government in that effort as well.
Farm bill…
On Friday, March 16, 2012, the National defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order signed by then President Obama, allows for the confiscation of any and all private property. No due process would be needed. It would be enacted under the Homeland Security Office as an order in any State of Emergency the government decides to enact. At any time, for any reason it considers necessary, as well.
“Section 201 (1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;” reallocating resources as the agencies of the government decides. That includes both food and water for people and animals.
But that will be difficult if the electricity goes out. All records of anyone existing would vanish in a heartbeat. But if enacted while the electricity is still running, those who decided to go the prepper route may be in for a rude awakening. And their stores will disappear…if the hungry crowds don’t find them first.
So back to the original question…
Could you live without being tied to the electrical grid?
You don’t have to stash hundreds of pounds of food and water away. For most of us, we don’t even have the space to do that. For others, it isn’t a practical reality.
Financially, a lot of these preparedness ideas thrown about today are way above most of our paychecks. Storing food, material goods, precious metals would be nice. But practically speaking, would be untenable for most of us.
And buying a solar power generator is just silly if the sun will take it out anyway. Or take out the things it’s supposed to power up.
What can you do today?
Learn the old ways. Start living simply. Challenge yourself.
How long can you live without ever setting foot inside a supermarket? Can you bake your own bread? What if you don’t have wheat or yeast? Can you cook on a wood burning stove, or make one from scratch?
Do you know your neighbors? Who can you depend on to work toward a sustainable lifestyle, even in the midst of the city?
Hard questions.
But the reality is, electricity and everything that is dependent on it will one day go away. We are long overdue. Our technology has taken a meteoric rise on the historical scene of our human existence. And what goes up fast always falls equally as fast – sometimes faster.
Think about it. It’s never too late to make a game plan. Try new things that are old technology. They are always more difficult and take longer to do. But, in the end, provide a real sense of accomplishment.
Are you ready to try?