Power and Composure

People couldn't understand why there were riots over power outages this week. Earlier this month, I experienced a 38-hour power failure. Among the effects of long power outages are that work can't be done, there may be a loss of water, not to speak of warm water -- no lights, no communications, no cooking, no TV shows -- food spoils, gates won't open, security is down, shops close, traffic slows, and so on and on. Money and opportunity trickle away. And people lose their composure. Ideally they shouldn't, or so it is said.