You're right, I'll consider fair use for the next island-wide blackout
There's always a humour and sense of dread with automatic systems persisting after humanity disappears, the 7 trumpets of the end times are the abandoned alarms and pre-scheduled phone alerts of the raptured
If your hands are tied, it's better to tell the people that your hands are tied. Many will understand.
When you say you did something by your own free will, be ready for the backlash and don't try to pull the "pragmatism" card after denying that it was due to external pressure.