"What a shitty world he left us!"
It is the most repeated generational accusation. And they are right. boomers We have failed. Democracies are failing, the climate crisis seems unrelenting, authoritarian leaders dominate geopolitics, a climate of war is returning, social inequalities are becoming bloody, educational disarray is growing, ideological and religious polarization is advancing hand in hand with new dogmas, cultural wars are driving away dialogue...
Faced with this dystopian moment, in This confusing and unequal world told to young people (Octahedron), journalist and, recently, teacher Víctor Saura, has set out to shed some light. In the face of escapist anger, he attempts to offer keys to understanding, to critique with knowledge of the facts. He also tries to overcome the cliché that "all politicians are the same" (and all journalists, and all teachers and adults...) and to go beyond the individual response. The fact that at 33 he had a son with Down syndrome has only reinforced his lucid and compassionate outlook: it has forced him to the humility to relearn many things and to understand the complexity and fragility of the world. A sensitivity that is reflected in the book.
The world doesn't turn in circles, that's clear. Saura analyzes it with a pedagogical vocation, to be understood by everyone, young and old, especially regarding the globalized economy. Without downplaying its contradictions and inequalities in the slightest, he notes that, if we look at the global data (mortality rates, poverty, literacy, feminism, etc.), "the past was always worse." The fact is that expectations, riding on the ideological and technological promises of the 20th century, are far from being fulfilled, especially in a West that is losing its footing because it is forgetting its fundamental humanist and Enlightenment values: liberty, equality, and fraternity.
But what do young people here see when they imagine their concrete future? Well, that the social elevator has broken down and meritocracy has become distorted. Effort no longer always pays off. The ambient pessimism is contagious, also in the economic sphere. And psychologically: it is easy to fall into apathy and indifference. Although what we do best is collaborate, it seems we've entered a regressive phase, a jungle-like every-man-for-himself, doomed to compete without rules or regulations, where the law of the strongest, the most cunning, or the most unscrupulous once again reigns. Why should I pay taxes? The goal: to have as much money as possible, period. Speculators and fraudsters are running riot. What they don't achieve is that they've brought it on themselves. Civility? Solidarity? Empathy? Wow!
This is the mental framework gaining followers, with the housing crisis as a paradigm, the basic necessity most exposed to the free market, as young people are all too aware of, a portion of whom (especially boys) are becoming a breeding ground for the nihilistic discourses of the far right.
Saura gives clues on how not to fall into the ultra-simplistic trap. Be especially careful about misinformation, as toxic to the mind and spirit as poor nutrition is to the body. He knows from his own experience that journalism isn't pure (it's pressured and conditioned), but that there are vast differences between media. Out of self-interest, he recommends making the effort to choose a healthy information diet. "Are you sure the free content you consume was chosen by you and not by an algorithm?" he asks. He also warns about trench media and journalists: "Journalism, when it engages in activism, is no longer journalism; it sets itself up as an uncritical propagandist." Conclusion: "Be wary of dogmas and dogmatists, of sects and sectarians, of those who preach easy solutions to complex problems, of those who only know how to criticize. Be critical, not critics."
In any case, whether well or poorly informed, life continues and will continue to be uncertain. And brief. It will still end in death, no matter how much Putin and Xi, wielding iron-fisted power and floating in their imperial dreams, flirt with eternal youth. With Trump's invaluable help, they'll leave our world in shambles.
