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!!!”
In another case, power was out for a week following another tornado incident a few years later. The only thing missed was the ability to use the well water. But in this case, a store of water was kept safely aside for just such an incident.
So what is the difference between these two events?
In the first example, it showed that the people were not prepared. It never dawned on them that the way of life to which they had accustomed would ever stop.
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. Yet here we are today with videos on demand through our handheld devices.
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. Today it is almost unthinkable to have a landline.
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. Now having a cellphone is considered a necessity.
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.
In one short generation, any older technologies or simple ways of living were lost.
In one short generation, any older technologies or simple ways of living were lost. Hand pumps for water lay rusting in old barns. Getting your food off the land instead of a grocery store is unknown except for those in rural areas.
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 man had existed for millenia without all the conveniences electricity provides would suffer.
Future reality…
Electricity will come to an end. That is a certainty.
When it will happen isn’t.
How it will happen is up for debate.
But what goes up at a rapid rate will come down equally as faast.
And the advent of our modern age has grown lightyears ahead of our predecessors in a very, very short period of time. In less than 150 years.
In the not too distant past…
Back in 1859, telegraph lines were burned up when a large flare from the sun hit the earth. The headphones of telegraph operators were blown off their ears. Telegraph lines still ran even though all the power that normally ran through them was lost. An astronomer named Carrington discovered, by accident, the reason for the sudden problems in the electrical lines when he spotted an unusual bright light coming from the sun. He was the first to actually observe and document a large solar flare, or Coronal Mass Ejection, from our friendly, warm sun.
In 1965, the entire east coast went into blackout phase when another CME was sent to earth. 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.
The electrical grid…
Our electrical grids are already operating at full capacity today. And the infrastructure is far behind the demands of our culture.
Charging the “green energy” electric vehicles takes more energy that our systems can produce in place today.
A simple snow storm brought the entire electrical grid down in Texas a few years back. And tornadoes tripped out wind farms in Oklahoma a year or so ago, leaving customers without power for quite some time.
In other words, we are dependent on a very fragile, very modern system upon which man has never before depended for survival.
So what is the solution?
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 canned their garden produce, never thinking about being a “hoarder”. It just made sense to live in the season. One ate what grows in season in their local area or what they grew in their backyard gardens. While the season for abundant food was ongoing, canning, dehydrating, and other forms of preserving foods allowed them to prepare for the months that nothing in nature grows – a season called “winter”.
People who live that way are not “preppers”. They don’t stockpile years worth of food and supplies. They just live by the seasons, and prepare to make it one more year when the harvest is not there.
That was how mankind lived for thousands of years.
A change in perception
Today people are not taught to live their lives in season. They are dependent on getting foods that only grow a few weeks at the beginning of Spring (like baby lettuce and tender asparagus) in the middle of winter from their local grocery stores.
Heaters run full blast in the winter, air conditioning in the heat of summer, keeping the environment in which they live the same temperature year round.
Yet in the midst of all of this, there still exist some who are learning that all these conveniences aren’t necessary for life. They are the minimalists; the ones who don’t buy anything unnecessary for a year; who don’t haul their cell phones and smart watches around everywhere they go.
They are the ones who are learning to live the simple life.
Challenge yourself.
Learn the old ways. Start living simply.
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?