What happened in Valencia this week is typical of the nineteenth-century blast furnaces of the Victorian era; Where before the disaster was local, globalization amplifies its effects, but everyone is caught in the same circumstances: working
Sometimes you have to redefine your concept of what a country is. We tend to think of a Nation-State that catalyzes a political-social reality that serves the interests of the privileged classes both within and outside its borders. And it is not a bad definition, because in essence a State is nothing more than a tool to perpetuate the imposed order of private property. What happens when the world seems to end is that it is that same State that, for a few days, puts itself at the service of everyone.
Well: almost everyone. I am an anarchist. I think it is no secret that if he had been born in the 19th century he would have been a good candidate to shoot Cánovas del Castillo. What happens is that this shitty world has turned utopians into nihilists and chimerists into neoprophets. By being practical – and conforming – we can leave behind this idea of the apparatus of repression for a while and begin to understand the State as a shield; against slavery and disease; like a shelter from the wild world out there. Assuming this premise, accepting taxes and death as part of our lives, an idea: it can also be an entity in which good people are the majority. The State is that thing that, yes, can tap your mobile phone and make you spend the next 25 years in a cell; but he is also the only one capable of pulling a car out of a ravine and taking you by helicopter to a hospital, curing you of cancer – without selling your soul – or, for example, sending you an alert to your cell phone when the sky is going to fall. fall on top
In September 2023, AEMET warned of an episode of cold drop – non-Levantines call it DANA – with high destructive potential. It is somewhat redundant, since cold drops have killed more people in the Levant than the civil war; but the Government issued a telephone advisory to all citizens advising them to stay at home and take extreme precautions. That afternoon took three lives; It is hard to admit that there are times when, no matter how careful you are, your fate is sealed, but the death toll did not increase precisely because everyone knew the risk involved. Some columnist – with more face than bust – commented on the old Twitter that “what the hell is that Orwellian beeping no matter how much it rains.” There were crazy people, just like now, denouncing AEMET, Morocco, NASA – I think – and setting targets left and right.
What happened this week, just over a year later, is the dystopian and oversized replica of what happened in 2023. It is the scenario that we all imagine would occur without that orwellian beep. And it has happened. I would not know at what point in this premise it is possible to advocate – through editorials – for the need to reduce state functions, limit resources; Do whatever it takes to save a life. And I am no longer talking about means: it is shameful that the 160,000 soldiers of the army have not been mobilized. It is shameful that even the municipal body of librarians of Alcalá la Real has not been mobilized to help in Valencia. I’m talking about the economic interest behind the emergency notification arriving after the end of the workday, conveniently late depending on who. This catastrophe began in the Industrial Revolution, when, using coal, we forged climate change and, in the process, strengthened capitalism. What happened in Valencia this week is typical of the nineteenth-century blast furnaces of the Victorian era; Where before a coal boiler burst, a mass of warm air now bursts and floods a region; Where before the disaster was local, globalization amplifies its effects, but everyone is caught in the same circumstances: working. For some, this “oppressive State” is only economically oppressive – if that –, but they do not want anything more from it than that: oppression. Everything that involves saving lives, avoiding harm, doing good, is secondary. Except now, in the midst of the death count, they wonder where that one was. orwellian beep.
#Orwellian #beep
