Sunday, October 21, 2012

Choice Blog 2: The World of "Revolution"


For my second choice blog I have decided to write about a new TV show called “Revolution”. My friend had me watch a couple of episodes over the weekend and my mind was blown by the ideals this show shares. “Revolution” starts with what our world relies on today- electricity and technology with energy sources. One night, the electricity and power sources all over the world were wiped out. No cell phones, no computers, no electricity, no cars, and no planes work. Then it fast forward fifteen years: the world literally works like it does in “The Hunger Games”.  There are no countries; governments crumbled and neighbors turned on each other. The only way to survive is through living in the countryside while hunting, farming, and scavenging for food.
The theories in this show about today’s world captured me. I always realized how much we depend on technology, but this show really made it hit home. Cars don’t work. Boats don’t work. Planes don’t work. How the heck do we travel? People are forced to travel by food and horse. There is no GPS that works- we would have to go back to paper maps. At least we would know that those were very accurate.  Those who were in different continents are forced to stay there. We do not have wood ships anymore so you would be a sitting duck. Imagine not being able to see your family again just because you took that trip to Italy at the wrong time.
There would no longer be infrastructure: money would not mean anything. An example from “Revolution” is a guy that use to work for Google. He had 60 million dollars in the bank, but when the lights went off it was all worthless. People go back to bartering or trading gold and silver; basically tangible currency.
When the lights turned off in “Revolution”, neighbors turned on one another. Friends turned on one another. Family even turned on one another. The world was in complete chaos. Some people could protect themselves with guns; however, once they ran out of bullets, they were screwed. With no one continuously making guns and bullets, those items became remarkably valuable. People went back to using muskets, knives, swords, and self-defense combat to protect themselves. This in itself shows how without electricity, we would set back hundreds of years. Imagine breaking into a museum, taking a musket and gun powder from the 1600s, and having to actually use that. And you would probably have to fight some guy for it because he had the same bright ideas as you. Weird.
 People live like they did in the 1600s. There are not factories to made food products like ketchup or toilet paper. You would have to go back to raw foods and leaves. “Revolution” makes references to Target and any other big company that play a big part in our lives. Imagining a life with no grocery store, or place to buy clothes is a very foreign idea. It’s very hard to imagine. Characters who were young during the blackout don’t even know what Google or a Target is. A scene showed two kids who found a trailer with an old refrigerator that held old items like peanut butter and syrup in it. These kids had no idea what they were looking at. Again it’s hard to comprehend. Any food that would need to be stored would go to waste. I have to admit, it is slightly depressing thinking about a world without ice cream.
A bigger problem is health. Doctors, pills, and medicine became ten times more valuable. Along with no factories making toilet paper, there would be no more pill making. The son in “Revolution” has asthma and the only way those people know to stop an attack it is by a homemade remedy of herbs. The son runs into a lady that has an inhaler and he has no idea what to do with it. Plus, there is no more hydrogen peroxide to clean wounds- with all the hand-to-hand combat, if you are stabbed in a fight there is a higher risk of infection and the tools you would need to stitch yourself up would not be sterilized. Any internal injuries like being stabbed in the stomach would be incurable as well. After a fight scene in “Revolution”, one of the men is stabbed in the stomach (like above) and he and his comrades are aware that he will not live. Instead of dragging out the hours he had left, he resorts to a poison that kills him in his sleep. If you were to get a major injury you would be done. There is no hope.  Also, there are no x-ray machines if you break your arm, no CAT scans for concussions, no hospitals or ambulances to come rescue you. You are alone.  
After watching a couple episodes, it got me thinking what I would want in my community of people to be most successful: a gun smith for defense would be preferable, an architect for houses and a protective wall around my area, a doctor for health reasons, a teacher of any kind to educate children the basics, a martial arts master to teach people to defend themselves, farmers and hunters, and a seamstress.  Wow that’s a long list. I realize how lucky I am to live in the community we have today or how needy we are.
All of this technology is at the tip of our fingers and we do not even appreciate it. We do not realize how fortunate we are or how thankful we should be to those who got us where we are today.

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