THE ELECTRICAL APOCALYPSE
In my book, STARBOARD TACK: The Free Nation Makes a Course Correction, I describe a What If scenario that we may soon be living:
“In 2024, the Democratic Socialist would become the new junior Senator from New York and the Storybook’s wife would become the President of the Free Nation. The Storybook would be the Vice President. It would be a Free Nation in name only from now on.
This would set the scene for State control of the final non-governmental sector of the economy, Energy. There would be no bottom-up revolution to implement a new Socialistic economy and put free-Market Capitalism in the ash heap of history. No, it would be a top-down Socialism with elitists in control of every facet of Free Nation life. The leader elites would grow rich. But the effect on the nation as a whole would be immediate and disastrous.
Since the presumptive goal was central planning and control of energy by the government, the first task was to put the climate experts in charge of the individual tasks. They outlined the immediate tasks to restrict CO2 emissions by implementing a Carbon Tax. Then all drilling in Federal lands was suspended and no further development was allowed. All new pipeline permits were denied. The cost of gasoline, diesel and natural gas started to rise. A special tax was applied to the sale of any combustion engine land vehicle manufactured in the Free Nation. Some auto manufacturing plants converted to electrical vehicle production, but most auto plants closed and released their employees. Their employees had been promised a subsistence check from the government, but the purchasing power of that check declined with the increase in energy costs. No new nuclear plants would be permitted, and older plants would be closed as replacement parts and nuclear fuel became scarce. All coal production was curtailed so the coal-fired power plants went off-line permanently. Without fossil fuels for manufacturing, farming and mining, the cost of solar panels and wind turbines rose exponentially. Disposal of old panels and turbine blades became a problem. Without fertilizer from fossil fuels and fuel for farm machinery as well as the now Government supported anti-GMO movement, crop yields would drop to bare subsistence levels. There would be no seasonal surpluses now. Meat and meat replacements from plants would be luxuries available only to the rich.
The Free Nation implemented a Medicare for All program. Its administration had to implement Life Continuance Evaluations on each citizen in order to reduce the burden of the growing elderly population. There was an unfortunate help in this regard as older, previously controlled diseases were re-introduced through the now open borders and the false propaganda on the side-effects of vaccinations. Both the young and the elderly suffered in mass.
The economy would tank even further. Energy prices would go off the chart. The prices of consumable goods would place even the minimalist of staples out of reach of the middle-class. The Bear would chortle as the Free Nation citizens lined up for their ration of toilet paper. Residential construction would stop. Then, the Bear would invade the Ukraine and China would swallow Hong Kong, invade Taiwan and then both Koreas.
Would there be a real Red Dawn? In the film classic Red Dawn, Soviet, Nicaraguan, and Cuban troops begin landing on the football field of a Colorado high school. In a few seconds, the paratroopers have attacked the school and sent a group of teenagers fleeing into the mountains. Armed only with hunting rifles, pistols, and bows and arrows, the teens would struggle to survive the bitter winter and the Soviet K.G.B. patrols hunting for them. History has now changed that possible scenario. It is unlikely. Unlikely to be Soviets, Nicaraguans and Cubans that is. It could be a something different, perhaps a land, air and sea invasion from China and North Korea with help from Russia and forces from the Middle East. The land phase would be preceded with a tactical nuclear EMP attack that would disable the national power grid and disable all civilian and some military communication networks. The Free Nation had made many enemies to include the members of the Take Party. The Take Party had pushed through legislation to disarm private citizens. There were no hunting rifles or pistols now. The citizens were unarmed (presumably). Only the criminals had weapons. The Heartland appeared to be very weak indeed. There were probably no armed Minutemen behind the rocks and trees now. The Free Nation had even disposed of its nuclear arsenal. It was very vulnerable.
In the movie Red Dawn, trouble arises when the teenagers kill a group of Soviet soldiers on patrol in the highlands of Colorado. Then they wage their own guerrilla warfare against the invading Soviet troops under the banner of “Wolverines!” They will eventually overcome the invaders. In Hollywood, it usually works out. Maybe because all the weapons had not been confiscated by the State in the movie. Or perhaps because Freedom meant something before the State took control of all life activity.
There would be no change in global temperatures and little rise in sea levels due to the use of fossil fuels. The truth of the cause of Climate Change was obvious. It had more to do with the variation in the sun’s solar output than with humankind’s prolific use of “Carbon.” But that wouldn’t matter because India and Pakistan would use nuclear bombs on each other over the Kashmir region. A nuclear Iran would launch at Israel in the final Jihad. A nuclear winter would follow. So yes, the Climate would indeed change and it would certainly be due to human activity.
So now, the “Free” Nation and the World would follow the plot of another novel made into a Hollywood movie, “The Lord of the Flies.” The theme of this movie points to the inherent evil of humankind when there are no rules. On the other hand, the Nation could descend to an organized chaos of warlords and feudal subjects. There could be roaming bands of thieves preying on the unarmed weak. Another Hollywood movie plot for a box office disaster comes to mind, “The Postman.” Somehow, the possibility that Freedom is still to be found rejuvenates the People to band together and fight the oppressors. A typical happy ending.
But perhaps there won’t be a hot war at all. Maybe the Free Nation will just become George Orwell’s 1984 and Big Brother, China, will become the real Big Brother through an economic takeover. The Chinese would be the masters of the banks, monetary policy and the global economy. Then black, white and brown skin colors will mean very little in the Communist scheme of things other than to define the lowest class of workers. There would be no Free Press, only State communications. The New World Order would be fully secular. Atheism would be the new religion, that is, no religion at all. The ultimate goal of the Take Party would be achieved, but their rank and file would not benefit. They were in the Gulag or dead.”
Prior to the events triggered by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the preceding scenario would have seemed unlikely. In America, we thought we would never see a supply chain shortage, disruptions to energy, scarce clean water, a temporary restriction of travel, assembly and other individual rights that would last for over two years. But with the Pandemic we saw all of these happenings as well as an invasion at the southern border of the United States. If an army of two million soldiers crossed our border, that would be all-out war. But if they claim to be refugees seeking asylum, regardless of the truth of the matter, they are waved in much like the January 6th protestors, but these invaders don’t go to jail, just the January 6th citizen protestors get that privilege. The illegal invaders get bussed and flown to their destination of choice in the middle of the night.
While politicians were distracted with political prosecutions resulting from the events of January 6th, an infrastructure bill was forced through that was more welfare than infrastructure. It has supercharged the rate of inflation. But does the bill include an investment in hardening the national power grid sufficiently to defend against an EMP attack? You know, the actual infrastructure that keeps American’s safe and well? Probably not.
The preamble of the U.S. Constitution states that the federal government has five responsibilities. One of these is to “provide for the common defense.” Defending the electrical grid is one of those responsibilities.
We found this difficult to read, Martin, because your possible scenarios are so prescient, in fact, unfolding before our very eyes. Having read 1984 and Lord of the Flies while in school, back in the early 1960s, we were horrified but thought that could never happen in the country of the free and the brave. And movies like Red Dawn were entertaining, but who would dare attack America, the world's greatest superpower? And yes, America has been through difficult times like the Great Depression, all the wars of the 20th Century, ups and downs in the economy, but never have we felt so helpless as individuals about what is happening -- a stolen 2020 election that no one seems motivated enough to fix; an engineered global pandemic and questionable "vaccines," that are more DNA altering drugs with insufficient research rather than safe, effective and vetted vaccines; law enforcement and judicial administrations that let rioters, arsonists and murderers walk free with little bail, but keep patriots in jail for over a year without a fair and speedy trial (even being charged with a crime); abortion bills that would allow even the intentional death of newborn babies and policies that eliminate undesirables; a failing economy -- some say is part of the global plan -- on and on. Your headline, in our opinion, is correct. The primary issue is not political but spiritual. We believe a global war in the heavenlies is underway, one that if Christian churches would engage with as much commitment as our forefathers did after the Pearl Harbor attack to mobilize citizens and bring the might of the United States -- and now the global church -- against the real enemies, then we might find hope. Otherwise, God's judgement will come upon an apostate nation in moral decay and any efforts for a political solution will be too little too late.