Breaking the mirror of civilisation
Imagine sunny Spain or sophisticated France, centres of European culture, suddenly plunged into darkness. The electricity goes out for several hours. Bank terminals become useless plastic boxes. Smartphones, those digital idols, are silent like abandoned oracles. There’s a water vending machine nearby, but contactless payment doesn’t work, and there’s no cash in my pocket. Man, armed with artificial intelligence and smart devices, stands helpless, like a primitive creature before a thunderstorm.
This is not a dystopian scenario, but a reality that Europe has experienced in the recent blackouts. These few hours without power exposed the fragility of our digital world, where progress is not a staircase to the stars but a treadmill that keeps us moving without moving forward.
A satirical letter from Hell: the demon Balamut advises…
My dear Gnusik!
Take away their electricity and their gods will fall. Smartphones, the internet, banking apps are their new icons. Give them the illusion of omnipotence, let them see progress as a saviour, and then turn off the lights. They will destroy themselves begging for Wi-Fi to come back.”
In the spirit of C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, a modern demon might describe our dependence on technology in this way. The progress we are so proud of is not a sword, but a chain. It promises freedom, but it holds us captive to conveniences we have no control over. The most ingenious trick of evil is to convince people that they are omnipotent by holding a gadget that depends on an outlet.
Analytics: the fragility of digital civilisation
1. Financial paralysis
In a world where 90% of transactions are cashless, a power outage stops the economy like a heart attack stops the heart. Imagine: you’re in a supermarket, but the terminal is down. There is no cash – it seems as archaic as parchment scrolls. People are standing in queues, unable to buy even bread. In 2023, according to the European Central Bank, only 14% of transactions in the eurozone were made in cash. We have deliberately given up autonomy for convenience, but what do we do when convenience disappears?
2. Psychological vulnerability
Losing access to a smartphone or the internet causes symptoms similar to clinical anxiety in millions of people. A 2021 study in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that 73% of young people experience “nomophobia” – the fear of being without a phone. We have lost the ability to be alone with ourselves, to have fun without a screen, or to navigate without Google Maps. Technology, which was supposed to free our minds, has become its prison.
3. Social illusion
Social media promised to bring us closer together, but it has only delivered superficiality. We have hundreds of “friends” in our contacts, but when the battery dies, we are left alone. The power outage in Europe showed that people don’t know how to communicate without screens. Neighbours who have lived next door to each other for years suddenly become strangers. Technology has replaced deep connections with a surrogate for interaction, where a like means more than a conversation.
Progress like a treadmill, not a staircase
We do not climb to the top, we run in place. Progress without an ethical basis is not evolution, but an illusion. Every new gadget, every smart device promises to make us happier, but instead we become more dependent. Philosopher Zygmunt Bauman called this “liquid modernity” – a world where everything is temporary, unstable, and dependent on fragile systems. The power outage is not just a technical problem, but a metaphor: we have built a civilisation that is wired.
For extremely intelligent readers, the question is: is progress without a spiritual and ethical core real progress? Or have we simply replaced old idols with new, even more demanding ones? And most importantly, are we ready for the moment when our digital gods leave us?
Time to rethink priorities
Large-scale power outages are not just an inconvenience, but a wake-up call. They remind us that our dependence on technology makes us vulnerable. Here are some steps that can help us regain our autonomy:
1. Financial stability: Keep cash on hand for emergencies. The cashless world is convenient but unreliable.
2. Psychological autonomy: Learn to spend time without gadgets. Read paper books, meditate, talk to people in person.
3. Social depth: Invest in real relationships. Friends who help in a crisis are more valuable than thousands of followers.
Technology is a tool, not a deity. We should use it, not worship it.
Author: Aleksandr Potetiuiev
