“Our protocols have not been sufficient or our message has not penetrated. Because on Tuesday morning, when the red warning had already been activated for several hours, life in the city was absolutely normal. As if nothing was going to happen, as if there was no risk at all. Logically that’s the first thing to examine. Why our message did not arrive”. These are the words of José Ángel Núñez, head of AEMET in Valencia. He verbalizes them on TVE’s Canal 24 Horas.
We are not used to self-criticism in the golden age of social networks. In the speed with which we consume virality, chorus messages win. These forceful, dramatic, epic and, above all, very self-confident phrases. Abbreviations where the thick stroke sweeps away the complexity of reality. Abbreviations in which doubt does not exist.
It helps that algorithms reward instant simplicity that goes straight to the conquest of the most excited emotion.. Such agitation awakens in us an exacerbated feeling that can blind us. It even prevents us from opening our minds to discover contrasted arguments, that require more effort of understanding than a fear, a fright, a prejudice, a conspiracy or a violent anger.
This brings us to the paradox of disinformation. The demagogues who give opinions without knowledge transmit astonishing certainty, while the scholars of science transmit questions. The AEMET launched red warnings, but its Valencian head prefers to reflect on what they did wrong to plant medals on his lapel that are no longer useful for anything. Questioning what went wrong is the way to learn from mistakes.
This is the difference between preachers and science. Some keep on going on and on, thinking they are know-it-alls, driving social divides and reheating heads. verify facts. And they do not stop doubting. But we have become unaccustomed to doubt. We even squeak at those who take the time to doubt. The world upside down. When without the honesty of doubt we grow more slowly. Or we get stuck in trenches that prevent us from moving towards a sustainable and constructive future. A future in which we all enter.
