Exactly four weeks ago, Spain and Portugal, and the South of France were plunged into darkness. All lights were shut off. Cities lost power. The mobile network collapsed. Traffic came to a halt. The large power cut wasn’t just a disruption of infrastructure - it exposed a deeper societal vulnerability. It exposed how our society can no longer function without power, a mobile network, or digital access (12). Electricity nowadays underpins nearly everything: from heating, food systems, banking, and communication to transportation and healthcare. When it disappears, so does our ability to function (3). But this isn't just about electricity — it’s about how we’ve come to be so deeply dependent on these systems. Systems that we ourselves barely understand. Nevertheless, our basic needs are mediated through technology.

What does that say about European societies? About our adaptability and flexibility to respond to disruption? How do we exactly adapt when these largely dependent systems fail, and what should we actually do to respond and prepare better in the future?

The age of convenient living

After the lights went out on Monday evening in Spain and Portugal, confusion and disorder quickly set in, especially once digital access was lost. Within a few hours without electricity, as one headline captured it: ‘The people in Spain and Portugal behaved like headless chickens’ (‘kippen zonder kop’) (4). But why did this happen? Legal scholar Tim Wu explains that in 21st-century developed societies, the pursuit of convenience and comfort - finding more efficient and easier ways to handle everyday tasks – has profoundly shaped both our personal lives and our economies (5). This shift began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the introduction and marketing of labor-saving household devices such as the electric vacuum cleaner, microwave, washing machine, and convenience food, which are now extremely accessible worldwide. In short, the industrial ethos of the factory was applied and adapted to everyday domestic life, promoting the belief that convenience could liberate people from labor, allowing more time for leisure, learning, and hobbies (6). Since the 1980s, convenience has increasingly shifted toward technologies like Instagram and Facebook, which reduce mental effort by streamlining our individual self-expression, rather than encouraging us to choose between diverse ways of being (7). And today, this trend shows no signs of slowing down and only seems to be increasing further.

The cost of convenience

Resisting convenience in developed societies - for example by washing your clothes by hand or not owning a cellphone - has become so rare that nowadays it almost seems irrational, and has come to require a special kind of dedication (8). But while technologies that simplify our lives certainly offer new possibilities, they also risk stripping away the struggles and challenges that bring meaning and purpose to life. What was once designed to liberate us can gradually limit our choices when we increasingly let convenience make our choices for us (9). Wu suggests that this might explain why countercultures opposing the convenience revolution often seek self-expression and living in harmony with nature, rather than constantly trying to eliminate its inconveniences - by growing their own vegetables, for example, or repairing their own motorcycles.

We are increasingly disconnected from nature and distanced from our own adaptive abilities (10). Few people—especially people living in urban areas or younger generations raised in digital environments—still know how to navigate without GPS, grow their own food, or repair devices.

Besides that, our dependency on convenience has simply made us less flexible and able to deal with the inconveniences and challenges that are part of life, and central to the adventure (11). The lack of exposure to challenges and discomfort, and society's growing belief that we shouldn’t have to struggle, has limited us in building resilience and character (12). Another contributing factor is our culture’s growing belief that life should always be easy and comfortable (13). This mindset is also increasingly mirrored in ‘helicopter’ parenting, where children are shielded from any form of struggle or discomfort. As a result, we begin to view difficulty not as a natural part of life, but as something to avoid. Yet, it is precisely these challenges that foster growth. The modern obsession with convenience overlooks the fact that difficulty is a fundamental part of the human experience—shaping who we are (14).

Dependency on control systems: creating a crisis

Nowadays, our dependency on convenience services results in a dependency on digital infrastructures. You could even say that we are dictated by it (15). Even outside blackout moments, our digital infrastructure quietly underpins crucial societal and economic processes (16). And because we have become dependent on these conveniences, what is seen as progress and liberating has turned into a vulnerability. When systems fail, we are paralyzed, and the consequences of this are socially disruptive. The recent blackout in Portugal and Spain made this painfully clear: transportation, trains, and metros came to a halt, airports shut down, cash machines stopped working, and fears arose that failing security could lead to looting (17). Chaos erupted in the streets as pedestrians narrowly avoided traffic accidents, sirens blared nonstop, and the Spanish Minister of Interior declared a state of emergency (18, 19).

Our conveniences, and now dependencies on modern systems, electricity, and the internet, have made us fragile and are becoming a growing issue now that our societies are under more pressure (20). This pressure is created through an increase in digital disruptions in the Netherlands and abroad, often due to cyberattacks, but also because of human errors, software glitches, or damaged servers and cables (21). Since our societies are now built on these digital structures, these incidents can disable vital services such as payments, public administration, electricity, and healthcare. The more alarming part is that these systems are increasingly intertwined, causing one fault to bring down the whole web (22, 23). Meanwhile, Europe grows more reliant on big tech companies outside its borders, and growing geopolitical tensions rise where digital tools are used as weapons of influence (24, 25). And also, our electricity grid itself is more vulnerable. While the shift from fossil fuels to green energy can be seen as something positive, it has digitized our power networks (26).

Relearning flexibility

So, how should we respond? Governments are increasingly giving attention to investigating ways to strengthen digital and physical defenses, with a focus on improving cybersecurity and creating digital backups (27). The former UK Minister of Government Policy calls for a dual strategy: not only enhancing digital and physical defences, but also developing fallback systems—such as backup generators, paper maps, and physical records that mitigate the impact of technological failures. These measures are meant to reduce the impact and help prevent future crises from escalating into disasters (28). But maybe our first step should be a more personal one: re-examining our dependencies and underlying conveniences that quietly shape our lives and make us vulnerable. This does not imply stockpiling buckets of water, storing months of food, or keeping three cars full of gas (29). Rather, it implies an invitation to reflect critically on the systems we rely on. How do they impact us, how do they limit us, and what challenges do they pose? Maybe it's time to allow more space again for discomfort and challenges in our lives, which ultimately make us more resilient. Because resilience is not built in ease, but in adversity. Shall we?

This article is part of The Outside World, ftrprf’s very own research center.

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