Perhaps that’s not fair. Perhaps it’s a distrust of electrical appliances and not electricity itself, but many places I go it is not enough to turn off the appliance. The device must be unplugged as well. I think at the root of this is a need to make sure the machine is not stealing your electricity even while it’s turned off. There are times, of course, where such a suspicion is well-founded. Anything you can turn on with a remote control is never truly off. But here it goes deeper. No czech would ever admit this, but they really don’t trust the stuff.
OK, I have to qualify that. The latest generation is different. Fully indoctrinated into Western culture, they see the benefits of change but have not inherited their parents’ skepticism. The Czechs did not experience Blitzkrieg the way the Poles did, but there is a new blitz on and the old, impervious, skeptical czech nature that I love so much will not survive. They will buy their blenders and their cars, go to their office jobs, and become just like the rest of us.
The Media blitz is erasing the Czech identity more effectively than the Nazis ever could.
Actually, on most American appliances, if you read the fine print in the instructions, you will find instructions to “be sure this appliance is unplugged when not in use.” I’m guessing that there’s actually very little risk, but if there should be a short-circuit within the appliance, especially when no one’s home, there could be very bad consequences. That risk may be even higher with 220V than with the American 110V.
And I noticed during the year we lived in England that there was much more worry about the safety of electricity in general — for example, light switches in bathrooms had to be pull-strings rather than wall switches, and the strings themselves had to be non-conductive.
I’ve just read in the newspaper that the vacuum cleaner at Five O’Clock Somewhere may be subject to a recall. There’s a defect in the on-off switch that can cause the thing to burst into flames, even if it’s switched off. The advice for people with a recalled vacuum cleaner: DO NOT leave this appliance plugged in, and do not use it.
It’s been sitting in the living room, plugged in, for about two months.
I’m sure that there’s a tale of socialism and the nanny-state behind this fear of ‘lectricity. I’ll be sitting here awaiting the PSA which must be coming shortly. All hail big mother!
/tugs tin-foil hat down a little snugger.
Actually, the socialist nanny-state probably produced a lot of shoddy appliances.