Saturday, February 08, 2014

What If?


There was a vivid lesson that could be drawn from the "Rodney King verdict" riots in Los Angeles. It was reported that at one point the police, whose resources were stretched, pulled out of certain neighborhoods. You could see well-armed store owners patrolling outside of their grocery stores in order to discourage arson and looting.

You might call it a pre-broken windows moment and the message was clear: you can't always depend upon the emergency services mechanism kicking in when you need it. It reminds me of a comment a fire chief made when he described what it was like to live out in a distant rural area: "It would take the sheriff's deputies a good while to respond so you had to be prepared to shoot it out with the bad guys until they arrived."

I often recall those examples when reading stories about the vulnerability of America's electrical grid. We smile at pictures of wild-eyed survivalists who are perfecting their rattlesnake recipes while preparing for long-term anarchy. Equally strange, however, may be those of us who assume that if the grid went down for weeks or months, the government would be able to quickly restore order and common essentials would be available.

2 comments:

LA Grant said...

Michael, on the mark comment.

Michael Wade said...

Thanks, Larry.

Remember the old line: Optimists buy gold. Pessimists buy lead.

It can help to ask, "What if?"

Michael