We live in a time period in human history where we are provided luxurious conveniences that no King, Queen, Pharaoh, or Emperor have ever experienced.  Think about that for just a minute!  Do you realize how incredibly fortunate we are to be living in this era of human existence filled with technological advancements and convenience?!   Can you imagine a life without electronics?  We’ve grown so dependent on electronics that 90% of us would die without them. Don’t believe me? Read on.

Could We Survive Without Electricity?

Never in the history of our planet has the human race been so dependent on technology.  Modern Western civilization is highly mechanized, industrial, and disconnected from the natural world.  Our ancestors' ability to fashion tools, create weapons for hunting, clothing, shelter, discover fire, and develop farming techniques separate us from all the other forms of life on our planet.  But too much over reliance on technology and allowing it to permeate every facet of our lives cannot be good for us as individuals or civilization as a whole.

Electricity provides us with the energy to power the technologies we use every day.  They give us heat, light, energy, transport, entertainment, communication, food, water, and more.   Let's face it. if you live in the Western world you simply cannot exist long term without electrically powered technologies of some kind or another.  Our society is helplessly invested in an elaborately interconnected system.  We need power for the farms and factories that produce our food which are sold to businesses and other industries for processing and or distribution, transported to supermarkets and stores which require us to use transport of some kind to get there and then bring them home, cook them, and refrigerate most of them.  Every link in this chain requires electricity and the majority of it comes from a single point of failure: fossil fuels produced outside of our country. 

What Would Happen If a Global Disaster Hit?

What would happen if a global disaster disabled our ability to produce electricity either through an EMP strike, terrorism, war, or an environmental catastrophe?  This goes beyond simply how do I power my smartphone or laptop.  The question is how do I feed myself and my family?  Those people who need medications to keep them alive would have very little time left.  In winter, the elderly and infirm would not survive the frigid temperatures.  While it's certainly true that more and more of our energy is beginning to come from other sources like hydroelectricity, nuclear, and others, it doesn't change the fact that if there was ever an emergency and the centralized businesses and facilities that produce our power were disabled or destroyed, our lives would become excruciatingly difficult.  With no electricity powered water treatment plants, millions of people would die from lack of clean drinking water.  Supermarkets will be trashed, looted, and emptied within hours leaving food reserves at a minimum.  Where the hell will we get our food from?

Due to our reliance on volatile regions such as Russia and the Middle East for gas and oil, such an outcome isn't beyond the realms of possibility.  The resources we call upon to cope with our problems and emergencies all require technology of some kind: a phone to call the police, the petroleum in the police car or fire engine or ambulance, the electricity powering the hospital and all of its machines. There is a major devastating nuclear or environmental disaster in a country and no one can leave because how the hell are airports and aircraft going to operate.  Without electricity or auxiliary power, it would be virtually impossible to maintain civic control law and order. Rioting, looting, crime, and even murder would be impossible to police as people become ever more desperate to survive. Propane heaters, stoves, and a sudden massive increase in candle usage would no doubt cause widespread accidental fires which the already overstretched emergency services will be unable to deal with.

Blinded by the Rat Race

The purpose of this article is not purely about scaring the hell out of you by presenting a possible nightmare end of the world scenario, it's to highlight our lack of preparedness and our inability to be prepared.  Because we live in a consumerist society driven by the desire to obtain money and wealth, shortsightedness is an essential part of how capitalism works and why economies fail - because greedy powerful people pursue short-term profit over long term stability.  This means that in our hyper-competitive corporate working world there's simply no time to question the status quo.  You either find a job, do the bidding of the man, fall in line, don't ask questions, be a team player, conform to the rules, do your work like a good little drone, and pay your bills.  Drink your coke, eat your fast food, and consume your television or you'll fall out of the system and die and we'll find someone else to do your job. 

There's no alternative. We're simply too busy working for the man, struggling to put food on the table, and hold our lives together to question how trapped we are.   No one questions anything.  No one has a back-up plan in case all our technology fails us and the lights go out. Very few people know how to function, make their own clothing, purify their own water, or survive without power.  When you commodify everything and make electricity generation a product to be sold at the market you will never create a sufficient reserve supply of it because the market only demands what people need now, not what they need in the future.  As James Burke said in the 1978 series ‘Connections’ in the episode ‘the trigger effect,’ “when you get stuck in an elevator and the lights go out you hit a button on the wall to ask for help or use the phone if there is one.  You sit there and wait for technology to save you.”  Human beings nowadays are simply not independent enough to know how the hell to get by without technology.  

With Every Convenience Gained, Skills were Lost

Yes, humanity survived for hundreds of thousands of years without electricity but that was before we built our entire civilization around consumerism.  From the layout of our cities, our suburban developments, how we dispose of our waste, the infrastructure we use, our dependence on the web for all our answers, we've become conditioned to look for others to provide for our needs.  Yes, we could possibly return to more simple times and manage to survive, but the more and more we fall down the rabbit hole of technological dependence the harder it will be to climb back out of it again.  

In fact, given the sheer weight of humanity's numbers in the face of such an enormous disaster, it would likely mean that only a small fraction of us would survive.  Look at all the technologies and devices around us they're also simplified and appliance-like. You'll invalidate your warranty if you open them or try to figure them out.  Many things nowadays aren't even built to last.  They're designed to function only for a predefined period of time.  So very few people know how things work.  Only a very small number of specialized individuals can repair and resolve the kinds of technological issues we'd be facing in such a disaster scenario. But for all of our ingenuity innovation and brilliance, we've simply developed a system that we are trapped within.  And it just so happens it's being held together by the tiniest most delicate thread.