The DANA catastrophe that has hit several Valencian towns and that has occupied most of the news since the end of October has been taken advantage of by numerous causes unrelated to the mere selfless help that the affected people need and will need so much. The apocalyptic scenario left by this meteorological event, dotted with multiple incompetence and its predictable political bickering, has become an improvised set for opportunists and miserable people of all stripes, who confuse us and make us divert our focus for a moment. of the immense solidarity and necessary diligence that is required at this time to try to resume normality that was interrupted in such a sudden and dramatic way, and that will still take a long time to recover.
Thousands of anonymous citizens parade from the first day to collaborate with the debris removal tasks and help in any way possible, away from the spotlight of the cameras. But there are also those who have not wanted to waste the disaster to make a profit at any price, turning the drama experienced by thousands of people into an opportunity, into an improvised set, into a monetizable event. Aware of the singularity of the moment, of the emotions and the shock that we experience seeing how several cities turn from day to night into a quagmire worthy of a dystopian film, there are those who read the moment with another filter, as a window of opportunity, who He takes advantage of anxiety to make money, inject his poison or both, which often go hand in hand.
The apocalyptic dystopia so recurring in contemporary films and novels is the scenario dreamed of by those who understand and want to present the world to us as a jungle. A scenario that allows them to play different roles and hide their complicity with the causes that made this and other natural phenomena an even greater catastrophe. Denying climate change, vilifying the public and all prevention multiplies the effects of these increasingly frequent phenomena. Vox was lucky enough to leave the Valencian government a few months ago, before this happened, but not before imposing the dismantling of the emergency unit planned by the previous regional government. Mazón’s policies respond to an agreement between both formations, and the far-right are, therefore, co-responsible for the incompetence and uselessness of his policies and his managers at the head of the Generalitat.
However, being part of the problem, the context allows them to present themselves as the protagonists of their film, exhibiting their charity with an obscene and repeated marketing campaign through their satellite organizations, making people believe that they are the only ones or those who help the most. , and that the State is useless. That is to say, neither taxes nor institutions work. It is the time for rescuers and magnanimous charitable gestures wrapped in a great advertising campaign by those who intend to languish and subjugate the State to the market. And of course, by the way, stir up racism when you can, using hoaxes that are still free today.
This battle for the story that some now believe is unnecessary must be fought so that citizens do not abandon the idea of the common as a safe space, politics as an antidote to the absence of co-responsibility between neighbors. Understanding politics not only as institutional, but as a set of values that imagine and also implement the society we want, which is created day after day without cameras by those who refuse to think that there is no future. So that the misinformation promoted by far-rightists and other opportunists does not increase anxiety, fears and irrationality at such a delicate moment, when more care and more truths are required than ever.
Among the ruins the motto that ‘only the people save the people’ emerges, when thousands of volunteers cross the bridges that link Valencia with its southern towns. There are those who have heard this phrase for the first time in the mouth of a fascist, assuming the meaning that he intends to give it in a sense opposite to its origin, to its historical use by social movements. As always, the extreme right tries to redefine everything, to usurp slogans and struggles and take advantage of the miseries that they themselves cause with their historical complicity with capitalism. The phrase ‘only the people save the people’ refers to the mutual support and class solidarity that emerges on the margins of capitalism, which puts it in front of the mirror and shows that people assume their responsibility towards their neighbors, far from the mantra neoliberal every man for himself. It is not mere charity that calms consciences or serves as propaganda, but it is a way of understanding the common as a safe space, social class as a bond against the abuses of capital.
The people save the people when they stop an eviction, not by hiring an eviction company or privatizing public services. It is, therefore, obscene that the right tries to appropriate this motto, when, if it were up to them, only those who could pay it would be saved. As happens with healthcare and with all public services. And this fight for meaning cannot be lost.
The extreme right has invested a great effort to place itself in the middle of the spotlight, trying to capitalize on the logical discontent with the institutions due to their chain of incompetence, and presenting itself as the antidote to the chaos. The same people who deny the effects of human beings on the climate and demonstrate this with their ecocidal policies, strive to capture the attention of the media by placing themselves in the role of saviors. The insistent broadcast of all help combines it with repeated pills of hate and misinformation without consequences so far. And at the same time, behind a supposedly supportive mask, they insert their agenda, their frameworks, their hoaxes and their hatred wherever they can. The extreme right has launched itself into this, as it already did during COVID, aware that, in the face of any traumatic event, society is much more vulnerable. And here we are wasting time dismantling their lies and showing that neighbors help each other without wondering where they come from or what god they pray to. Because not many of our neighbors enter that ‘town’ that they claim to save.
The dystopian society desired by the far-right has not been installed, much to its regret, among the ruins of the flood. On the contrary, it has been shown that people are much better than they paint us, than they would like. That is why we must not shy away from the semantic battle, from the meaning of the words that explain a better world. That is why the story is important, because, if we abandon this battle, we are giving away the meaning to those who manipulate the words to regurgitate them with their racist, authoritarian and neoliberal bile.
All efforts must now focus on reconstruction and protection for those who have lost everything, although we are often forced to confront the perverse instrumentalization that some try to make of this and the omission of responsibilities that some claim from the first moment.
#dystopia #dreamed #extreme #battle #story
