"The world is falling apart and we fall in love," Elsa said to Rick in Casablanca. Today, as the world collapses, we clean the toilets, cook the food, telework - if we can - we found virtual schools and look at our partners as if we had never seen them before because, in fact, we have never been able to see them as now. At the same time, those who traverse this desert alone caress his body as if no one would ever touch it again. And the desires that throbbed in us are threatened if not annihilated by the current circumstances. Intimacy has suffered a blow as great or greater than the economy. And subjectivity has been erased from the public and political debate with the naturalness with which everything that is personal is always silenced, as if it did not exist. Rather, as if we did not exist.
Erasing the intimacy of public life allows to eliminate from political action an endless number of personal situations and even a large number of people. And this fact turns politics into a seriously ineffective system. Since the state of alarm began on March 14, politicians, philosophers and opinion leaders have become mere mercenaries. A single question became the center of all analyzes: the stock market or life. And from that moment on, numbers replaced people and statistics, many times, reality.
Before the crisis broke out, the elderly had been wiped off the map. It took us an inexplicable time to protect nursing homes not because of lack of experience or knowledge but because the old ones were residual economy before Covid-19 and that's why no one thought about them. With the old men already forgotten, we decided to isolate the children first. This measure was taken because it was inevitable and with everyone's agreement. However, after locking up the minors, there have been hardly any words about childcare. As if the children were a matter exclusively for their parents and as if they all had parents. People with mental illness also disappeared in this crisis, at least until some of their caregivers publicly called for help or respect. About those who go through solitary confinement, not a word. They have enough to be alive and free of contagion while the confinement lasts. Their bodies and their sleeplessness do not seem like a political issue. Of the women who suffer sexist violence, no one remembered when preparing the measures, as if everyone had a safe place to take refuge. The drug addicts overcame their addictions and no special measures were taken in this regard. The system then simply waited for us to behave like heroes. Heroes, yes, devoid of subjectivity and tenderness, a kind of hero who has never existed in history, by the way.
At a time like this, citizen care should be a priority issue. I consider urgent the creation of a Ministry of Intimacy that deals with providing answers, guidance, solutions and comfort to citizens. I want, for example, that if a family depends on a subsidy that they cannot collect because their face-to-face appointment with social security has expired, that family can receive a solution to their problem. And I do not mean that I speak to a machine or fill out a form made in a hurry that half of the time does not work and makes those who try to complete it feel useless, as well as what happens today. I say that there is a person on the other side who can help, capable of responding and making those who depend on the subsidy feel humanly relevant, for example. There are so many subjectivities out there — in there, rather — that their attention requires specialized social engineering. The effort and confidence sustained by each citizen are essential to get out of this crisis. So paying attention to privacy is now a matter of R&D.
Meanwhile, when it comes to using technology, governments seem obsessed with another bandit question: spying on people or not. At the same time, we have all discovered that smartphones are now staple mutual care tools. Why have people care not been sophisticated as much as technology allows us? I mean giving answers on social networks, activating specialized YouTube offices with expert technicians and professionals, InstagramTv at the service of all people who need basic information. How is it possible that in the current circumstances, there are free live zumba classes from the first day and not even a specialized phone has been created to deal with grief. I cannot imagine all the practical and spiritual doubts that affect people who lose a loved one in the midst of this horror. It should be politically relevant to fire the people whose lives we defend. Let those who lose someone know that their community provides them with a space of rite and comfort.
Paying attention to the personal costs little money, requires professionals who are available, and there is also the right technology to do it. Doing the right thing would be quick and easy. However, it is neither done nor required because we have surrendered to the numbers. But let no one be fooled, we will get ahead thanks to the people. That is why it is crucial to preserve their privacy and meaning. Numbers, like us, have souls. We should act for once accordingly.
Nuria Labari is a journalist and writer.
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