''Revolution'' - the new TV series, 'turning the lights off' would NOT lead to mayhem...

Originally posted by HelenConway

Originally posted by DjembeJedi

Originally posted by ohioriver
reply to post by HelenConway

 

I agree. And no the store shelves would not be empty for long. We transported goods in wagons for a long time before cars.It would actually create more jobs too.

I disagree ...
The possibility of us going back to the 1800's type of existence would be no problem IF the majority of citizens STILL had the knowledge of our Great-Grandparents..BUT most do not..Big cities such as NYC or Chicago as in the premise for Revolution..Have a excellent point the large cities would most certainly become Death traps! If Katrina or Sandy taught us anything, Is do NOT rely on the Govt for help...we will be on our own if the power goes out for good and MAYBE in 10 + years we would see some semblance of a normal society..

edit on 3/31/2013 by DjembeJedi because: (no reason given)

Yea it would take a bit of adjustment - but our grandparents and great grandparents skill can be rehoned / learnt.
The govt / military / police would still exist.
We would all be fine.

"Adjustment" = mass casualties.
Our entire societal infrastructure is based on electricity. We are not talking about simply lighting our homes, but completely restructuring society. There would be a huge loss of services (i.e. starvation) and a prolonged period of panic. tens of millions of deaths would result.

I agree that eventually we'd get back to local farming using lanterns and whatnot. But to discount the scenario is simply a matter of ignorance. The issue is a real, and grave scenario.

Originally posted by Sozen94

Originally posted by HelenConway
reply to post by Sozen94

 

You think young people are that damaged and brain dead ? Wow.

My generation have been bad bad parents to your lot then ... [ hangs head in shame.]

All I can say is sorry.

You didn't answer my question! And could you tell me why you think young people are so innocent? Believe me when I say they aren't.

Just the other night I had a car full of teens I have never met in my life drive past me giving me abuse for no reason and getting out of their car to start a fight with me. They prey on people they think are vulnerable, lets just say they misjudged me! Do you really think people like them will change for the greater good when they lose their luxuries and their quality of life plummets?

I sincerely hope you don't put that much faith into people.

No I don't - I do think they will be the first to be - lets say disciplined - by the community..

Originally posted by ohioriver
reply to post by HelenConway

 

I agree. And no the store shelves would not be empty for long. We transported goods in wagons for a long time before cars.It would actually create more jobs too.

The population was much smaller back then. Logistically, it just wouldn't be possible to do it on the scale that we need to now by horse and cart.

Choas is the ensuing nature of a large part of us. But, we also have many level headed,that can make a difference. I have viewed several regular & cable channels,throught out my life time,where people with these type of survival skills exist. Wood builders,with their own hands can build practically anything! Holistic healer that can heal,either with energy or herbs. Small farmers that have survived big farms.
Large part of our infrastructure is going to suffer,but what doesn't,in a global callapse.

I believe that the lights going out would cause mayhem. We are too uncivilized as is, people shooting up schools, babies being shot while getting their diaper changed, people getting stabbed in line at department stores. If we can't be civil to each other now why would anyone think we will be civil if the shtf?

People are kept mild mannered right now because they are too busy looking at their iphones and tweeting their lifes away. Right now everyone can go get their t.v. dinners at the store, they can turn on the news and pretend that everything is a...ok. Take that away and chaos ensues. Martial law would come and go eventually even those willing to take orders at the beginning will give up and go be with families (not until too many people died though)

Yes many many years ago people lived that way and in the end we would make our way back too but not after many died. We can farm but where????? Not as much farming land as there are mouths to feed.

Originally posted by HelenConway
We survived for a long time, most of our species life time without electricity, and we did fine.
We would just live like we did in the 1800s - it would be good for mankind IMO.

Sure, except in the 1800s we didn't have nuclear power plants all over the world that, without any more electricity, would irradiate the entire planet and kill everything.

Originally posted by HelenConway
Has anyone been following this TV series:

Revolution is an American post-apocalyptic science fiction television drama series loosely based on the 2009 novel by American writer William R. Forstchen. It was created by Eric Kripke and produced by J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions for the NBC network. It debuted on September 17, 2012, and airs on Mondays at 10:00 pm (ET). en.wikipedia.org...(TV_series)

The premise is - the lights go off, FOR EVER and the world goes mad ! As if..

We survived for a long time, most of our species life time without electricity, and we did fine.

I mean we conquered the known world, built houses, made machines, textiles, plowed our fields with no electrcity. Hell we even had ocean going liners - no electricity does not mean no steam or sail power.

So why oh why do people think the world would go crazy if the lights went out.

We would just live like we did in the 1800s - it would be good for mankind IMO.

edit on 31-3-2013 by HelenConway because: (no reason given)

We survived a long time without electricity, before there was electricity. That is the exact reason why I believe Revolution is a probable outcome. People are too dependant on electricity now...I mean...would we post little pieces of paper on a billboard somewhere putting up our ideas of conspiracy theories?

reply to post by superman2012


I don't know - what did we do in the 1980s and 1990s ? I did not get the internet until 1997 - used to chat on compuserve - most people were after me.

There was no chaos then .. ish

reply to post by brandiwine14


That is a very depressing picture. In the war in England they used all the available land for growing food. They dug up the parks - gardens etc etc. We could do the same again and use tower blocks for vertical gardens.

Granted there may be ' problems' to begin with .. you know it may happen .. losing the power.

Originally posted by trollz

Originally posted by HelenConway
We survived for a long time, most of our species life time without electricity, and we did fine.
We would just live like we did in the 1800s - it would be good for mankind IMO.

Sure, except in the 1800s we didn't have nuclear power plants all over the world that, without any more electricity, would irradiate the entire planet and kill everything.

I don't know if they would irradiate the whole planet - but there would be dead zones.. but then again cherobyl has turned into a vibrant nature reserve - from what I have read.

The show is not necessarily realistic, but it is right, there would be mayhem. All our modern institutions and infrastructure depends on electricity, technology and computers. From the police, to the fire department.

If they were to go under, there would be chaos. I doubt the probability of the government collapsing, but all over the world, states would collapse, economies would crash, people would be launched into severe poverty, communication would be severed and the global system, so dependent on globalization, would fall apart.

People would survive - yes, they have done so for thousands of years without electricity. But it doesn't mean millions if not billions would die, including yourself. Modern medicine is so dependent on technology and electricity for instance. The water system and irrigation too. We are a society dependent on technology.

reply to post by HelenConway


How would you know you have gone into a dead zone? no working gieger counter...heck before you found out you may be bleeding through your eyes.

HelenConway:

...turning the lights off' would NOT lead to mayhem!

The Revolution series dealt with the expulsion of electricity out of man's useage, nothing that required electricity was available. The loss of electricity was not a slow decline, but literally an instantaneous switch off. If such an event were to occur to the world today, most developed nations would certainly experience mayhem, especially in the cities and large towns where agriculture is not even thought about. In such places the mayhem would descend swiftly and destructively and would over the days and weeks intensify to unparrelled scales, the streets would turn both anarchic and riotous. It wouldn't be a civil war, it would be a chaotic scramble to survive.

The intial few days would be bewildering and confusing to most city and town people. No Light and no heat; no refrigeration; no hot or cold water due to the pumping stations not working, no toilet. No television or radio (batteries don't work remember), no internet, no mobiles or any form of instantaneous communication available.

This is just your house alone, you now have to factor in the rest of society, not only that but the institutions of society are just as equally stalled. All the emergency services, hospitals, fire, police, and all military have no electronic means at their disposal, nor do they have any transport apart from bicycles and horse drawn wagons. They will not be able to keep order as they will not know where to go to do so, although I would surmise contingency plans are in place for the breakdown of society, but how could they implement them in an organised manner without communications? On top of this, each nation's economy nose-dives to the stone age. Your stock markets are gone, banks don't work, there's no trading and no goods being ferried anywhere.

The loss of electricity as depicted in the tv series is nothing more than a sci-fi fantasy, but there are real natural threats to our electrical systems that put them at jeopardy. Severe and extreme weather systems can knock out huge swathes of a country, but the most prominent of the threats would be those rare coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares of unprecedented scale that the earth experiences every so often. If one was to hit during a weakend planetary magnetic phase (like the one our world is undergoing right now), it would be capable of knocking out electricity trasmission nationwide.

Of course, electricity would be restored, but how long would it take? If power was not restored within a week you will start to see sections of society breaking down, and don't forget, areas will be prioritised over others.

So, what do you do? What does anybody do?

Originally posted by HelenConway
reply to post by superman2012

 

I don't know - what did we do in the 1980s and 1990s ? I did not get the internet until 1997 - used to chat on compuserve - most people were after me.

There was no chaos then .. ish

Yes, but imagine a bunch of people who aren't prepared in any way, suddenly finding themselves with no power. No car, no heat, no air conditioning, no refrigeration, no washing machine, no water at the tap, no sewer services, etc, etc, etc.

Yup , anyone living in a big city will most likely die once the food runs out (ie: no more humans to eat) , as far as growing food in parks etc in the citys, well it takes atleast 3 to 4 months to grow anything and that's if the soil is any good , then you need seeds and the right kind of climate, if it happened in say October in New York then you would get nothing to grow until spring, by then there would be few people left to even start a garden, they would either starve to death or freeze to death.
Glad I don't live in a city, everything is great when the support systems are working , but all hell would break loose if one system was gone ie, power, food etc.

Originally posted by superman2012

Originally posted by HelenConway
reply to post by superman2012

 

I don't know - what did we do in the 1980s and 1990s ? I did not get the internet until 1997 - used to chat on compuserve - most people were after me.

There was no chaos then .. ish

Yes, but imagine a bunch of people who aren't prepared in any way, suddenly finding themselves with no power. No car, no heat, no air conditioning, no refrigeration, no washing machine, no water at the tap, no sewer services, etc, etc, etc.

They would survive - they would organise.

Imagine what would happen if 1 million bombs dropped on a city ? It would survive - London did and it was destroyed by a million bombs in 5 years. Japan also - survived.

People would get through it - the smart ones would organise, the others would follow.

Don't forget disease...

Although it may be possible to reproduce modern medicines and vaccines if you have the skill set and the formulas, but it wouldn't be possible to MASS produce them.

HIV and AIDS is only being kept in check by drugs.
Then there is malaria and typhoid, and the next serious flu.

And while we are getting around to adjusting to the new way of life, what's going to happen to all our garbage? It will rot in the streets, the sewers will overflow and people will get sick from the filth.

Nuclear facilities will melt down all over the world, and now that precious natural resources are becoming more precious, nations that think quickly will go to war to acquire the resources they need.

I might be the worlds best authority on how to make antibiotics out of an old sofa and a can of beans, but I'm quite busy right now trying to feed my starving children to go on a lecture tour teaching others what I know, besides, I don't have a horse anymore. I had to kill him for food last week.

While it may be possible for a person to adapt and to survive by relearning the old ways, its not going to be possible for us all to do so. 30 million people in new York, how much dried food do you think they each have stored up? (Actually not that big a deal because of all the nuclear sites in the US going hot within the first two weeks)

Remember Chernoble? The grain Industry of most of eastern Europe was almost wiped out by the cloud. The price of bread increased all over Europe for a decade.

Not everyone is adaptable. Suicides of otherwise perfectly healthy young people would most likely increase. Oh and these are the very people we need to work 18 hours a day cultivating food so that we don't starve to death.

Hard to see how we would survive in the long run as a race. Short term chaos, mid term, misery.

reply to post by redshoes


In the long run they would be just fine - just like they were up to 1900 or whenever main stream electrcity came online.

Shorterm -- mixed picture. The smart and the organised would be fine and those willing to work well within a community.

reply to post by HelenConway


Anyhow If it does happen I know that you will be a good person to have on my team Helen you have a sweet soul and I would be glad to help you

Originally posted by HelenConway

Originally posted by superman2012

Originally posted by HelenConway
reply to post by superman2012

 

I don't know - what did we do in the 1980s and 1990s ? I did not get the internet until 1997 - used to chat on compuserve - most people were after me.

There was no chaos then .. ish

Yes, but imagine a bunch of people who aren't prepared in any way, suddenly finding themselves with no power. No car, no heat, no air conditioning, no refrigeration, no washing machine, no water at the tap, no sewer services, etc, etc, etc.

They would survive - they would organise.

Imagine what would happen if 1 million bombs dropped on a city ? It would survive - London did and it was destroyed by a million bombs in 5 years. Japan also - survived.

People would get through it - the smart ones would organise, the others would follow.

Yes people would survive because they had help from other people that had power. Remember your own hypothetical situation. That isn't the same as what you were talking about.