Powerless

I've always been afraid of a nuclear holocaust or a zombie apocalypse that would bring the world we know to an end. I realize now that our society doesn't have to suffer as serious an event as that to fall into complete and utter chaos. A freak October snowstorm was enough to bring the state of Connecticut to it's knees, due to the large number of power outages that kept people in the dark for up to 10 days.

My husband and I were among those without electricity.  Sure, it was an inconvenience, mostly because I work at a call center for the utility company that was responsible for restoring the more than 800,000 homes and businesses without power, but it was not the end of the world.  However, that is the way most people treated it.  For 10 days I spoke with some of the rudest, most indignant, self-centered human beings I have ever experienced.

Sure you're powerless, sure you're just one person, sure you can't change anything... but you don't have to be miserable about it as well.  Lydia Lunch

To say that most customers that I spoke with felt "powerless" is ironic.  They were sitting in the dark without electricity (power) and they were not being given a lot of information as to when they could expect to have it back, making them feel extremely frustrated and ... powerless.  I understand, I get it.  Everyone needs more information, more communication.  In fact, you can never give too much information or communicate too much in a crisis of this nature.  The state was paralyzed by the damage caused by the October Nor'easter.  Trees blocked major roads and power lines were down everywhere.  People lined up in their cars outside gas stations, sometimes waiting hours just to fill their tank and a 1 gallon can with gas to feed their generator.  I lived out of an overnight bag for days, shuffling between warm houses and work.  It was not a fun time but there is no good reason to lose your decency or sanity for what everyone knew would be a temporary event.    

Human Nature


Most of the phone conversations at my job during the power outage started with the question: do you have power?  


"I'm sorry you'll have to clarify that question for me sir/ma'am.  If you are asking if I have power where I sit right now, well, yes, I do, because we're running on generator backup at this call center to have the wonderful pleasure of answering your phone calls.  If by that question you mean to ask if I have power at my home, well, no, I don't.  Not that it really matters because I've been chained to my desk and not allowed to take breaks or go home because your phone calls are relentless and redundant."


The second question was usually: when is my power going to come back on?


"I don't have that specific information for your area, but because of the extensive damage, we are anticipating an outage that may still last several days." (Translation: stop thinking about when you will get your power back and be resourceful for a change.  Thomas Edison didn't harness electricity for you to sit on your ass and watch television and not contribute to society.)


Their response: that is unacceptable, you must know something, let me speak to your supervisor!


Let me share a little call center secret.  When you ask to speak to a supervisor, you might be transferred to a supervisor, but most likely you are just being transferred to another representative who has just as much information as the last person you spoke to, and probably doesn't have the power to change anything.  So, accept what you are told in a situation like this and just deal with the fact that there really is no specific answer.

Then there were the people who just had to be difficult.  Many of the people I spoke to were just ignorant bullies.  They lodged threats against the company, myself, and my fellow employees who were really trying as hard as they could to restore power.  One man I spoke to said if we didn't restore power on his street, he was going to climb the pole outside his house and do it himself.  (I don't know about you, but most ordinary people can't do that without putting their lives in danger.  In his case, he may or may not have been missed.)  Then there were the people who outright threatened to kill themselves if the power didn't get restored within a specific timeframe.

Not only did some of these people get arrested for making such threats, they really showed their true weakness.  Darwin believed in natural selection; the idea that only the strong will survive, evolve and persevere.  This experience reinforces that principle.  If you are not strong enough to withstand a little more than a week without electricity then you are the part of the herd that will be thinned.  I realize that there were many people who could not do for themselves during this situation.  A lot of people who I spoke with said they were handicapped or disabled.  To that I say: you picked up the phone to complain to me that you have medical needs and require electricity, that means you can dial 911 if you need emergency care.

However, there was one woman who restored my faith in humanity.  She told me she was 91 years old and to get by she was bailing buckets of water from the creek behind her house and using some of it to flush her toilets and the rest of it she boiled for bathing.  She was also putting snow in plastic bags and placing them with her perishable food items in a cooler.  For all I know she was also chopping down trees for firewood and making candles out of beeswax, but it just proves my point that the independent and the strong will find a way to survive.  I only hope that more people learn to follow her lead.