Anarchism: It just might work. The traffic lights and everything else in Toronto went down at 4:10 p.m. By 4:20, the complex intersection at Spadina and Harbord was running more or less as usual, without lights, police or anyone in charge. The columns from all directions seemed to agree on timing. They’d wait about the normal length of a light, then flow or stop. I found this more impressive than the volunteer traffic cops described in many news reports. Good for those guys, for taking charge in the public interest. But how about the ability of large numbers to regulate themselves without someone in control at the top? It made me wonder how high a degree of top-down social co-ordination is really necessary in our oh-so-complex society. Could people often organize themselves on their own, though they rarely get the chance? This wouldn’t apply to places like airports or hospitals, but that’s because of the technology involved, not some human need for hierarchy.

Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War was a rare test case for anarchist theory in a modern city &#0151 and even that fairly successful experiment was ended swiftly by Franco’s fascists. But I don’t think the blackout’s brevity speaks against it. I was amazed at how quickly people found, or reverted to, common social instincts.

Social disorder and chaos: Toronto CBC radio host Andy Barrie asked a guest about prospects for these, right after a report on a surly mood among Air Canada passengers at the airport, who had just learned all flights were cancelled, shortly after being told they would be departing.

It seems to me that people react to this kind of news the same way they respond to noise from the apartment next door: a lot depends on how you feel about the source. Disdainful news from Air Canada doesn’t exactly emerge in a vacuum. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had awful experiences with them lately. Comparably, people will be patient and forbearing about bad news and lengthy deprivation if they feel that those bearing the message are competent and sincere. You don’t have to go back to the Blitz for examples. It’s a question of what you find more striking &#0151 the fact that many people grow bitter and mean under severe pressure, or the fact that many others don’t.

At the top, opportunity always knocks: Within minutes of the blackout, the Bush administration was revisiting its old energy proposals (drilling in Alaskan wildlife refuges, greater tax breaks for oilmen) that had stalled in Congress. Credit them with opportunism. Hours after the attacks on 9/11, senior people like Donald Rumsfeld were demanding that those be used as an excuse to make war on Iraq — and got their way.

As for consistency, our own Energy Probe is always called to comment in these crises. Could they please fashion something beyond their earnest call for free markets in energy? They always look a bit baffled as they explain that, um, it must be that markets aren’t free enough yet. I expect them to come up with one new wrinkle in time for the next outage.

Information is comfort: I’ve never believed information is power. But about 10 p.m., when I finally got a radio working thanks to six D batteries a neighbour scrounged, a sense of comfort flooded in along with the jabber. It wasn’t the sparse info, or the commentaries from CBC producers calling in contentedly from porches across the province. It was more due to a feeling of community &#0151 like the sense that at least some of our technology was working and some people were planning to stay up all night trying to find out what happened even if the rest of us drooped off. Like sighting a distant campfire on a dark night . . .

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Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright and critic. He is a strong advocate of left wing causes and writes a regular column in the Toronto Star.