The varnish did not get to crack

This week the Portuguese (and Spanish) lived a strange feeling: a general ‘blackout’ ‘blackmaker’, which led with it the functioning of various electronic systems that make modern life, particularly those related to telecommunications.

Firstly, the obvious, which most of us should know: the systems that make the comfort of contemporary life are very complex and, as such, little resilient. The uniqueness of our context implies that, without exaggerated alarmisms, we must preventively have alternatives (read not dependent on electricity or electronics), at least 48 or 72 hours.

Then, to say that we recurrently do not think of these questions in advance, so we did not properly prepare with the warnings that were being made. As we have seen, an ‘blackout’ of electricity is possible. An electronic ‘blackout’ will also be.

Last year, few people will remember, there was a cyber blackout in the United Kingdom. The banking, health and airport systems were then affected, which were ‘below’ for a while. Something has changed in people’s lives in the country, I don’t believe it. Did people adjust behaviors? No.

At the same time, and more importantly, it is important to remember that the varnish of our societies is just that, a fragile layer of varnish. The current ‘social order’, as we know it, depends on these complex, very poorly resilient systems. Without them, and without alternatives designed in advance, it brings us closer to the stamp of the varnish. Signs such as the sagging of goods, understood as necessary in a situation of rupture, are negative and predict the said ‘stalk of the varnish’.

These days, which follow the ‘blackout’, there is already due political use. On the part of the situation, wanting to demonstrate leadership; on the opposition part, taking advantage of any small flaws. These use have both predictable and understandable. However, beyond the foam of politics, the important thing is to perceive the state’s organization failures, whether in the energy supply system, that we find to be a chapter of environmentalist idealism (plus one…), or Siresp, which fails whenever we need it. The recognition by Minister Miguel Pinto Luz of Siresp’s operation difficulties was what was most relevant about that day. We do not improve if we do not recognize the failures.

When the dust is based, and returning the concerns that do our daily lives, we will no longer think about those hours, nor about the concerns that invaded us.

After all, we didn’t even take a mug shower…