Readers of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged remember the way the way society slowly grinds to a stop as the creative people go on strike against the looters and moochers. Of course, while Rand made that a conscious action on the part of the strikers, what she was describing was what she saw as a girl in the early years of the Soviet system: industry and creativity strangled by the state’s attempt to “run” things “efficiently”.
The final trump of this slow-motion apocalypse is when the lights go out in New York City, not because of a transient failure but because the accumulated decay finally destroyed the power system.
With that in mind, here’s an interesting little story from Venezuela:
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A blackout hit a large swath of Venezuela on Thursday, darkening street lights, shutting down the Caracas subway and forcing President Hugo Chavez’s government to resort to temporary rationing measures.
The power outage affected the capital of Caracas and 12 states stretching across the northern half of the country, Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez said.
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