What happened in Valencia this week is typical of 19th-century Victorian blast furnaces; While before the disaster was local, globalization amplifies its effects, but everyone finds themselves stuck 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 this is not a bad definition, because, in essence, a state is nothing more than a tool for perpetuating the imposed order of private property. What happens when the world seems to end is that it is this same State which, for a few days, puts itself at the service of all.
Well: almost everyone. I am an anarchist. I think it’s 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 is happening is that this shitty world has transformed the utopians into nihilists and the chimerists into neo-prophets. By being practical – and compliant – we can leave behind this idea of an apparatus of repression for a time and begin to understand the state as a shield; against slavery and disease; like a shelter from the wild world. Starting from this postulate, accepting taxes and death as part of our life, 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 cell 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 the hospital, curing you of cancer – without selling your soul – or, for example, sending you an alert on your cell phone when the sky will fall on top.
In September 2023, AEMET warned of a cold drop episode – non-Levantines call it DANA – with high destructive potential. This is somewhat redundant, since the cold drops 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. This afternoon cost three lives; It’s hard to admit that there are times when, despite all the caution you exercise, your fate is sealed, but the death toll did not increase precisely because everyone knew the risk involved. One columnist – with more face than bust – commented on old Twitter: “What is this Orwellian beeping, no matter how much it rains? There were crazy people, like now, who denounced AEMET, Morocco, NASA – I think – and set objectives left and right.
What happened this week, a little over a year later, is the dystopian, oversized replica of what happened in 2023. It’s the scenario we all imagine would happen without it. Orwellian beep. And it happened. I don’t know how much of this premise it is possible to argue – through editorials – for the need to reduce state functions, to limit resources; Do whatever it takes to save a life. And I’m no longer talking about means: it is shameful that the 160,000 soldiers of the army were not mobilized. It is shameful that even the municipal body of librarians of Alcalá la Real was not mobilized to help Valencia. I’m talking about the economic interest behind emergency notification arriving after the end of the workday, conveniently late depending on who. This catastrophe began during the Industrial Revolution, when, using coal, we forged climate change and, in doing so, strengthened capitalism. What happened in Valencia this week is typical of 19th-century Victorian blast furnaces; Where before a coal boiler burst, a mass of hot air now bursts and floods an area; Where before the disaster was local, globalization amplifies its effects, but everyone finds themselves stuck in the same circumstances: working. For some, this “oppressive state” is only economically oppressive – or even that – but they don’t want more than that: oppression. Everything that involves saving lives, avoiding evil, doing good is secondary. Except now, in the middle of the body count, they’re wondering where that one was. Orwellian beep.
