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

reply to post by HelenConway

Well you could be more accurate in the description you give...the lights are not all that go off anything electrical does not work kinda like a big EMP blast. Secondly it is not off FOR EVER even though they may believe that. It is 15 years after the power went out...i.e. no more easy food ammo is limited and nation states are beginning to form. I think it is very accurate in the basic concept that we to be blut would be regressing back in time as the power remained off. The youth would not even really remember what power was.....not to far fetched.

i disagree with the OP. We were able to grow and expand and survive back then because it was part of our linear heritage..... everyone had the skills, the materials, the animals, the knowledge..... how many horses would we now need? Do you have any wagons? Tools for farming? How many people have the skills anymore to live that way? Millions of people will die. Not everyone is Amish and used to this kind of society. Cities import their food... the millions in NYC alone would stave quickly. Multiply that over and over for all the dependent people that don't have enough land to farm. Are you prepared? Ready to farm? Hunt? Sorry. Because we reduced the animals and areas that support animals to the current extent, there is no way we can support ourselves that way. Getting the one deer a year or elk or moose... not enough to feed all the families. No 3 master ships for sailing and transportation? Don't be ridiculous. Civilization would crumble in general with pockets of people that are used to that life doing better, but on a whole...... chaos WILL ensue.

Originally posted by HelenConway
reply to post by pikestaff

 

We would be healthier and happier i believe - in the long run.

Yeah, because all the ones who are dependend on medicine to be even able to live every day now would die. There are people who's lives depend on medicine on a daily basis, you know, and of course the rest of the world would be healthier in the end, because all the others would die and isn't that's great, cuz I am one of them.

Originally posted by HelenConway

and we could relearn those skills and we have additional knowledge to bring to the plate.

I think that in certain areas of the world some groups would not thrive but 90 % plus dying is ridiculous.

What if it'd happen in October? How are you gonna grow crops during fall and winter? People have to eat every day.

I understand that you think it would be nice for mankind to live a little closer to nature like we once did, I totally understand that and I love nature so much, but I still could not survive if I'd be stranded in it, and our way of life today is SO different from back in the 1900s, and lots of people really, really don't want to go back to the times with no electrictiy and would be lost in it and certainly would not find it worth living.
There are always some who strive in any situation, but what about the rest? Is it so easy to say: "Well, some may die, but ..." don't they count at all? Even if it is not 90 % but 70 % ... my God, it is horrible to even think about that. Do you remember how many kids never turned 10 during the 19th century?

It's one thing to live a certain way if you don't know any other way, but to suddenly lose everything you know and do on a daily basis ... I don't know, I see more scared and overwhelmed people than happy ones.

And after a hundred or fifty years, when you HAVE survived and you look back, sure then it may be easier to say: "See, it all worked out well, we established a new way of living and we don't really need electricity now, who would have thought ...", sure, but what if you are in the middle of it?

Originally posted by HelenConway
yea well that would be our karma for murdering those horses and sending them to war - we would deserve everything we got for that.

Hm, I never sent anyone to war (man or horse). So why do I deserve that then again?

Originally posted by HelenConway
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.

Helen, can I ask you something? Do you like people?

With todays technology, I feel like my being is sort of global...I have good friends in japan and England I chat to daily. I read news and instant events going on all over the globe, etc.

Some years back, we got hit by a few hurricanes and it shut down the power for a few weeks. I felt like my entire being was diminished..my connection to the world.

In a sudden all electronics die situation, sure..I probably would survive without much issue...I live in the sticks right on a bass filled canal, deer and wild pig running through my back yard, little veggie garden, etc.
but to live is simply not enough anymore...I want to feel alive. our luxury and information gadgets are integrated into my general sense of self and well being.

Frankly, we can live in a cave drinking muddy water and licking rock slime...is that truly living though? naa..that's simply existing. We have all this neat cool stuff because humanity wants more.

If a person wants to live a minimalist lifestyle, there are many communities they can go off to join..toss away their smart phones, their ipods, cars, etc etc etc and live like a near caveman just fine without much bother.


In regards to the subject at hand. Initially tons of people would die..billions. the fallout would be insane..then what is left over will start rebuilding again..steam engines, coal, etc would become rapidly created to try and get something back that we used to have.
But yes, for the first many, many years, it would be total mayhem with bodies stacked high everywhere you go..anyone whom thinks this is a good idea should be ignored as a clinically insane sociopath and an enemy of humanity.
We have issues now, sure..but the answer is to invent our way out of our issues, not revert back to cave people.

Originally posted by HelenConway
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.

I feel kinda speechless. "The city would survive"? You mean the bricks on the ground and the roads and the air? You know how many people died during the bombings? How can you ignore that so easily? What if it were your family?

Because people are too comfortable with current conditions. If the lights go out so do the TV's, heat, air conditioning, stoves, refrigerators.. People don't know how to store food without a refrigerator. People can't go without seeing the new episode of Walking Dead. People can't go an hour without checking to see if they've gotten any texts. Communications would be rather hard. Trust me people would freak out.

I'm guessing you didn't live in an area seriously affected by Hurricane Sandy? I only use this as reference because I did... People were FREAKING out. I went to Wegman's (supermarket) and the line for coffee was about 400 people long..... The morning after we got hit..... Seriously? I didn't need coffee, I was out to assess damage, but I got some instant anyway; I heated it on my Esbit stove. I watched lines for the gas station miles upon miles long, meanwhile I did not run out of gas for the entirety of the time. I sat home and played board games with my friends and kept myself healthily occupied. I live in a very wealthy area yet people were stealing generators and gas... Those caught stealing those items were beaten with bats and such. I was without power for 14 days and I had no problems surviving yet all you heard all day was a mass of generators around town. I missed milk the most.

There is just no way we could possibly grow enough food and transport it to the places it needs to be,before there was a massive die off. Sure,150 years ago it was possible because first off the infrastucture needed was in place,and the populations were lower. Now, we rely on technology and electricity to be able to feed the world. Think of a large city,and it's food/water needs. How will you transport the thousands of tons of food per day needed to keep the people alive?How will you pump the water? How will you dispose of the waste? How will you provide heat?
The reality of it is a huge number of people would die,some by starvation,some by exposure,many by disease. Without sanitiation,disease will spread and without modern health care, it would claim many many lives. Would humanity survive?Certainly,many would survive and things would go on. But,things would be far from fine for a loooong time. I tried to watch the show,thought it sounded interesting,but it turned out to be so terrrible I can't watch it. I watched a little snip lastweek where there was some sort of gunfight,and it was so laughably horrible that I had to turn it away. Shame,as it could have been interesting if they had tried to make it even a tiny bit realistic.

A Revolution style event or world would be survivable for most of the world, but there would a period of adaptation for the world.

Initially, there would be conflict. Major conflict. The third world countries are used to not been able to go down to the local shop to buy their shopping. These people are going to find the transition easier as alot go without what we in the west take for granted. Getting water from wells, light from fires, walkinng everywhere, plowing fields using stock and basic living off the land are the ways of life.

The "developed" world would be hardest hit. These are people who have not got the skills to survive. Without electricity, most would not know how to store food, get light, work industry etc etc. These are the people who would resort to conflict to survive, forming gangs and basically causing trouble.

Eventually small communities would come to be. Human nature is to graviate into groups. These communities would be the ground work for the towns of the future.

You would see the return of the steam age, trains and steam ships would make a come back. The essential industry to survive would adapt, metal workers, black smiths, wood workers you name it, most would revert to how they ran before electricity was discovered.

The change would be devastating for the first decade I reckon, but humanity would adapt and endure.

Personally, I would enjoy the return to the time before electricity. Yes it would be hard, but I do feel that alot of today's society problems would be irrelivant

reply to post by HelenConway


The most ridiculous show I have ever heard of. Granted I have never seen it, but it reminds me of the Ron Paul (real life) revolution and how this show would probably have undertones mocking it, or creating a subconscious that gullible people could really get behind. TV is so stupid and unrealistic. Thats why I don't watch it. Go read a book. Get out there and interact with people. Enjoy a real life.

reply to post by HelenConway


I agree with you I don't think we would all just die if the "lights" went out. Shows like "preppers" and "survivor man" are used to get us in the mind set of not working together in a shtf type scenario.

The only way we would be able to survive is by working together. I think if the power did go out most people would feel relieved because we be more free in a sense. No credit score, no mandatory ridiculous paperwork etc...
Don't get me wrong I like electricity and the technology we have today, and I hope nothing like "Revolution" ever happens.

I think ATSers would be fine I don't know why some people want to dramatize not having power I guess they don't go camping or hiking.

The thing with Katrina was that it was a two fold disaster. The flood killed a large majority of the people and drove the rest to the superdome where the real problems started to mount up. NO ELECTRICITY, even with the rest of the country having electricity and working vehicles it was nearly impossible to get resources to those people piled up in that stadium. People were dying next to there loved ones on dry ground due to medical needs, lack of water and food. You can go to New Orleans right now and the city is functioning. I get what you are saying in the sense that we would one day get back on track and survive as a species, but go ask anyone who survived that nightmare and ask them if they are fine. That was one area of one country.

I like your positive attitude, but we would not be fine. If, IF we were lucky enough to survive through the nuclear meltdowns of all of the worlds nuclear power plants which they conveniently leave out of these shows as to not shed light on just how dangerous nuclear energy is, we would be a largely reduced population starting over from scratch. There would be a terrible time that would never be forgotten in between the shut-off and the "fine" period.

I encourage you to do a search on this very site you are on about the Fukushima nuclear power plant and educate yourself on how dangerous just that ONE power plant is to the human race. There would not be dead zones, the planet would be a dead planet. End of story in my humble opinion.

What if this tv show is just peparing everyone for the possibility that some scumbag terrorist et al will unleash an EMP bomb and destroy the current way of things? Also, solar power and wind energy would quickly replace electricity as the main form of power.

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)

well.. this senerio already took place a few of times, Y2k bug and NYC black out in 2002(?) & Katrina.

& after reading a short paperback pamphlet on urban survival, ( which was written by a very well experienced man who did nothing for a living but, Emergency Management around the world for a couple of decades);
I came to the conclusion that the only logical way to keep the USA from going into a firery spiral downward was to enact Martial Law; first would be secure & restore vital areas importance, water, food and security in local communities.

I'm definetly not an expert but logic & common sense should prevail in this type of senerio ..

this of New York or any metropolitan city, more concrete then soil, how are they going to grow food?

any large city would be complete chaos, not enough free soil to grow food.

as far as relearning old skills, do you not think your local library would be ransacked, so no books no net and no way to get seeds to grow food (even if you know how).


this applies to EVERYONE


when the SHTF you look out for yourself and family first, not help each other.


Millions would die just in the big cities.

reply to post by thedigirati


If the power goes out and the cops are at home, do you really think anybody is going to ransack the library? Look at the London riots - pretty much the only buildings left untouched were libraries.

Originally posted by Dispo
reply to post by thedigirati

 

If the power goes out and the cops are at home, do you really think anybody is going to ransack the library? Look at the London riots - pretty much the only buildings left untouched were libraries.

It's possible. Books are a great form of education and in a SHTF scenario reading could stop people from going insane. 'How to' books would be invaluable when other forms of education are gone.

The only reason why the libraries were untouched is because people are more interested in TVs and Xbox's than books.