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We provide a forum on our website for people, world-wide, who wish to contribute to achieving our shared vision. We invite submissions of short to medium length on any theoretical point or practical experience relating to power. We will review the submission and post it (with credit) as appropriate. We are certain that we will learn through this forum; and we hope that like-minded people will begin to feel that they are indeed part of a larger, undeclared community of people working for peace, justice and freedom for all of humanity.
ARTICLES:
Speaking about "power": a week ago there was the biggest power outage in the north- eastern USA and Canada ever. There was no electricity from New York City to Chicago and north to Ottawa. It was quite surreal. When people noticed they were without power, of course they called others to check it out. "Is your electricity out?" was the question being asked for miles around. And then the news spread, by radio and television (if you could get them by using some alternative source of electricity) but mostly by word of mouth. The word spread that the "blackout" was huge. And the questions and speculation started immediately. Was this a nuclear problem? Was it a terrorist attack? How long would we be with out power? What about hospitals? And elevators in high rise buildings? And to make things worse, after a cold, wet summer in this part of the world, the temperature was soaring. It was hot! What about air conditioning? Freezers? Food! Cold beer! And everyone in his or her own way settled in for a long period of being without power. Some practical problem-solving started. People got out generators, bought up petrol (if they could find a working pump), found flashlights and candles, bought blocks of ice. But mostly, people connected with other people. That unifying power of a crisis took over. What was interesting this time, however, is that the crisis was a power outage. Computers were down. Machines were down. No Internet access; no instant withdrawals from ATMs. The entire eastern seaboard was decidedly low tech. Low tech suddenly meant high human contact. One convenience store operator who managed to stay open during the outage told a friend of mine that he normally did about 100 dollars worth of business per hours between 5PM and 9PM, when he closes the store. Deciding not to hike up his prices he did 500 dollars worth of business an hour and stayed open until midnight. His business boomed! He wasn't that surprised, however, that smokers came in droves, willing to pay premium for desparately needed cigarettes. Or that there was a run on cold drinks, matches, candles, flashlights. What surprised him was that his regular customers, dozens of neighbors who visit the store frequently and never say "boo" to one another, lingered, talking, getting to know one another. The human relationships blossomed as everything slowed down. Without computer games for the kids and TV for others, families actually sat outside in the cooling night air and played old-fashioned games like "catch,"- fathers and sons throwing a ball as darkness fell. We played croquinole by candlelight at our home. And there is speculation that there will be quite a baby boom in nine months! So what? Well, it gets you thinking about what we take for granted what we really need versus what we want. And how we might become less dependent on one source of power. Ben Hoffman, August, 2003 return to top of page
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