Our responsibility reaches
as far as we are willing to see.
Therein lies an ethics of survival.
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In the past days I thought more and more about how one would prepare for a partial, i.e., local, breakdown of the electricity grid. (What many call a «blackout», which it isn’t.) I’m not thinking about a (nationwide) blackout in the proper sense of the word, with power plants decoupling themselves from the grid and a nationwide shutdown of large parts of the infrastructure like utilities, sewage, electricity, banking, retail, etc., thereof. The difference: A power outage is local and can be restored in days or weeks; a blackout is a nationwide shutdown (of infrastructure) that is not fixed in days or weeks but takes years. I don’t think that preparing for a blackout makes any sense.
So, how to prepare for a power outage that may last for, say, two weeks? That is: How to get around the two follies of a) antisocial prepper behaviour, and b) succumbing to the fear and panic in face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles? The first creates egoistical attitudes; the latter probably leads to paralysis.
If I start to think: What do I need to purchase and store in order to survive two weeks, what I do is look for items and food stuff that may carry me (or me and my family) over a certain stretch of time. I can do that, but then I fall into the first horn of the dilemma – I turn antisocial and take part in creating a bleak atmosphere of shortages and fear. I begin to think in terms of my own survival while forgetting others and take part in creating a climate in which the law of the jungle is not far away. But if I don’t want to create (or take part in creating) such a climate, I either ignore what is going on, and with that potentially dangerous situations, or refuse to think at all, by which I fall into the second horn of the dilemma.
My way-out with regard to both is to ask: How do I need to prepare in order to be best capable of assisting and supporting others?
What then comes into focus is preparation and storage of stuff that not necessarily benefit me, but may prove invaluable to others.
My shortlist of stuff is:
• hygiene products, esp. with the needs of women in mind, i.e., not just soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, but tampons, sanitary pads, diapers for toddlers as for the old
• cleaning agents, not just antiseptic and multipurpose cleaner, but cleaning fluid for contact lenses
• water cans: Authorities usually recommend storing about 28 litres per person for two weeks. But people need to take into account not just the water needed for drinking and cooking but for all hygiene like washing clothes, flushing the toilet, individual hygiene
• small gadgets and games for children; books and personal memorabilia (photos on paper, not stored in your devices) for older people, to fend off boredom
The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that being able to maintain personal hygiene – for yourself, those around you, but also the place and environment you happen to dwell in – is most important: for self-esteem as for the ability to act compassionately and to fend off egoism. Then come stuff to pass the times of insecurity and boredom, i.e., times without a perspective.
Food, candles, money, etc., they all seem to me to come far later in the list of priorities when we think about preparation from the perspective of others instead of our own.
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