What if you had no electricity
Imagine there was no electricity anywhere in the world from right this moment. What would your life look like, how would you handle it and what negatives, problems, or benefits, do you think you’d encounter? Would it be good or bad?
It was July 16, 2022 and I, like every night, was in a bar drinking alcohol until I got drunk—I can't believe Jack left me for that bitch—I kept repeating to myself ad nauseam.
All the other customers avoided me, I guess after going to the same place for several weeks I had created a reputation for being crazy. Of course, that night would be different, as a strange man would enter the scene of my pathetic life.
He walked in as if the world was his own, no humility whatsoever, he had pride and arrogance all over him. He sat at the bar right next to me, ordered a whiskey and drank it dry.
As I looked sideways at his arms full of muscles and tattoos—but who am I kidding, someone like him would never turn around to even look at me—I thought.
I was in the middle of that when the television started to broadcast a news item announcing that there were multiple power outages in cities all over the world, leaving them completely cut off from communication. That made everyone in the bar start thinking about conspiracies or large-scale terrorist attacks - it's impossible for electricity to fail out of nowhere, why is it happening all over the world simultaneously - I heard the bartender say.
Then I was about to go home when suddenly the lights in the bar, and also in the surrounding streets, went out. In complete darkness the customers begin to lose control.
Being a person who suffers from nyctophobia I began to suffer an overwhelming fear that made me lose my orientation and if it wasn't for some arms holding me tightly, I would have surely ended up on the ground trampled by the crowd.
I only remember that I lost consciousness and that when I woke up I was in a room with a couple of flashlights on. When I looked around there was the man from the bar with a gun in his hand, I didn't understand anything, but my fear was growing more and more.
He tried to calm me down to explain that he was just trying to help me, that things were going to get much more complicated, he mentioned that there was a worldwide conspiracy for chaos to take over our society.
—This is crazy, something like this can't happen—I said, almost shouting.
—It's a survival strategy, so that only the strongest will be victorious, that way the owners of the world won't get their hands dirty—he said with great conviction.
—I don't understand what you are saying.
—That we will end up killing each other and if you don't control that fear of the dark, you will be an easy target.
I began to imagine life without something that is the basis of our modern civilization. Traffic would be hampered, water pumps would not work either and we would run out of water, the food we keep in the fridge would start to spoil, in buildings we would not be able to use the elevator, in hospitals the situation would be chaotic and so many other things like the economy would be affected. There would be no benefits, only calamities.
On the verge of tears I explained that it was impossible for me to handle my fear of the dark, that I needed to see a source of light.
I began to suffer a panic attack that made me want to leave the house, I ran to get to the door as a mob of people looted everything around them in the street. The tattooed man was right, we were destroying ourselves.
Then out of the darkness appeared two men who tried to attack me, but the tattooed man appeared and shot them.
Again we went back to the house to take shelter and I thanked him for all he had done for me, there with him I understood that I had to change my actions if I wanted to survive in a new world without electricity and lawlessness.
This is a little fictional story with hints of reality that I created for the Weekend Engagement concept, I really suffer from fear of the dark. In a world without electric light I would be lost, I would only have to learn to control myself. But I assure you that it is not easy for a person with phobias.
