Electricity, since its advent, barely two centuries ago, has created more varied and colossal productive forces than all past generations taken together. The subjugation of natural forces, machines, their contribution to means of transport and the communications sector, and all their diverse applications to the life of modern society, who would have suspected that such productive forces slept in the bosom of the electric current?
At a certain moment, electricity, and even more, its practical uses in society, impressed the world. From the voltaic cell, passing through the telegraph to the light bulb until we reach a certain moment in which our houses are not only illuminated by electric lighting, but were gradually filled with domestic appliances until finally reaching the age of digitalization, where even something as fundamental as work, money, communication and transport are intimately linked to it.
As the practical utility of electricity increased people had more time available, not to mention other advantages that are simply offered by it and that something else can not offer, however, to the same extent that this happened people were made increasingly dependent, even today there are entire cities whose existence is relegated to the mere need of the facilities provided by electric power, otherwise were simply unsustainable.
Today I decided to talk about this issue, because for three days, Venezuela, the country where I live, was completely without electricity. Opinions on the cause of such an event vary depending on each person, while officials and a large part of the government's supporters accuse the United States and the Venezuelan political opposition of carrying out a sabotage, many of the opponents accuse the government for not carrying out the maintenance due to the hydroelectric power station.
Given such a scenario of confusion, in which the truth is very diffuse, and where there is no confidence in those who expose the "facts", what I especially add to this conversation would not contribute more than my simple opinion, so, not it is worth mentioning the political diatribe around the event, but rather talking about my observations during this time and about the incredible consequences that there are about the dependence and responsibility that society has today on electricity.
Before, I must say that three days does not seem like a lot of time, not at catastrophic levels at least, but it serves as a small sample of how disoriented society can be if it is taken off guard.
"Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's swimming naked."
Warren Buffett
What happened, in part, reminded me The Trigger Effect, which I saw many years ago and I don't remember it well and that I could not say whether it is good or not, but that it raised the fundamental problem that could result of something as simple as a blackout.
Oh! By the way, I almost forgot, as a direct consequence or not, the blackout also caused the absence of water service, so not only did we not have electricity but there was no water, in fact, the water problem still persists, while I write this does not pass water through the pipes of my house and none of my neighbors either of course.
Having said that, I return to what I was saying, as society becomes more and more interconnected, this time as a result of the practical applications of electricity, it becomes more interdependent, this means that the same task is every time easier to perform, because the work is divided among many people, so even people who don't know and will never work coordinate, however, this also means that if a fundamental segment fails the entire organization will also fail.
The first day without electricity and water was not so hard, because in Venezuela electrical faults are common, however, hardly presented at national level. In previous occasions when there was a failure of the electric power it affected only sectors of a city, so it was enough to leave the house to find a place with electric power, and even, when the failure occurred throughout the city was for a period that, in the worst case, extended from 6 to 8 hours as a maximum average.
So this time the main problem was the lack of communication, people were suddenly isolated from the outside world, it was just they and their neighbors, in many cases, totally unknown people. Can you imagine that? live surrounded by people you don't know, but with whom you never need to communicate until one day, suddenly, you are only surrounded by strangers who have lived next to your home for, even, decades!
At night, the bandits find the perfect moment to act, everything is illuminated by nothing more than the moonlight, while the windows and doors of the houses are often completely open in order to take advantage of the breeze and so resist the heat and mosquitoes that bother the desperate inhabitants who just want to sleep.
That's how later, on the second day without electricity, a lot of people did not even have access to the time of day, their digital clocks, cell phones, computers were not accessible, after the first day the battery of the wireless devices had simply been exhausted, no one expected the electrical failure to last so long and constantly review social networks becomes irresistible, so the coordination at the time of taking transport to their jobs, among other activities, became very complicated. Many people have become so dependent on smartphones that they have dispensed with watches, others never learned the operation of an analog clock.
By this time the food in the refrigerator begins to get damaged, so before that happens people are forced to cook and eat it, or give it to someone who can eat it so that it does not get damaged.
In Venezuela there is also a problem of cash shortage of which I have spoken about in the past, and for that, during this time most of the people could not make use of debit cards, credit, and bank transfers, so cash, which was the logical alternative, simply was not available to most people, and cryptocurrencies were much less inaccessible than they normally are. Bartering was beginning to emerge as the only viable alternative, if the problem had been prolonged for a long period of time, I think that would have been the immediate consequence.
The price of drinking water increased dramatically, experienced a rise in retail between 100% and 200%. And in some places, the magic of the market suddenly made people appear with electric generators offering to charge 10 minutes a cell phone in exchange for 5 US dollars, basically the equivalent of the monthly minimum wage.
On the third day people did not go to work anymore, or at least a few employees were required to do so, anyway it was Sunday, a non-work day for the majority. Personally I managed to avoid any vicissitude without too many problems, however, it was obvious that if the situation lasted for a period of time exceeding at least a week, it would have been very different.
What kept me intrigued during this event was, mainly, social activity. The last months, I would even say that the last two years, I used to see very few people in the streets of the urbanization. Until now I thought that was because the migration had hit the city hard, but whether that is true or not, the reality is that I saw again the streets full of people, children playing, neighbors talking, the absence of electric power took everyone out of their state of digital seclusion, and forced them to interact socially. The media, the government, and even national circumstances, all seemed far away, and everything was subordinated to the immediate and prevailing reality of the moment.
Although the "experiment" or the unfortunate disaster, taking into account that some people paid for this event with their lives, fortunately lasted very little time, it left a very clear impression: if the discovery and practical application of electricity had, and continues to have an incredible revolutionary impact on society, and that in turn places us in a position of dependence, the absence of this same force, today, would have an impact no less incredible, impressive and revolutionary than it had and has its discovery and application.
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