The price of gasoline

Gasoline will go up. Rents will become more expensive, salaries will stagnate. You will have everything much more complicated, my son: I didn't expect it either. Sometimes it's hard for me to talk to you about the possibilities that opened up for us before, when the social elevator worked, when having a degree and a master's degree seemed like a guarantee of everything. Current volatility has its advantages, for sure: you are less tied down, you learn more things, you get by and you depend more on your own adaptability. I mean, let salaries stagnate, man: they are not you. Don't you stagnate, nor let yourself stagnate. I know we all need a ground that doesn't move much, to dare to change when we feel like it and not because the flames catch us. But the ground is not you. Decadence is not you, minimum wage is not you. You'll have to work hard and not trust anything, that's for sure. When did things go wrong? I suppose with the 2008 crisis and with the coronavirus, and in our country with the Process, but they are not you either. They are facts, data, circumstances, the weatherman. The rawness with which democracy cracks will force you to have little faith in your rights (which you will have to defend more than would be normal) and to concentrate more on your duties (surviving without harming, basically). But the system is not you, bankruptcy is not you, fragility and mediocrity are not you. And as for the social elevator, my son, don't think so either: everyone knows that in reality it was always stairs.

You will have to rebuild, and I think that's good news. I took you in my arms when the previous reconstruction seemed solid, stimulating, almost consolidated. But everything can be shaken at any moment, and when this uncertain period ends, it will be time to reassemble something new. I don't know what you want to do, whether it's a family, an independent life, a business, a social project... But you will do it with one shoe and one espadrille, and they will be a better shoe and espadrille. In fact, the materials from 30 years ago no longer serve you. You don't have them, nor do they suit you. The environment is a bit more hostile, but don't be scared: it's not like everything has collapsed either. What was a lie has collapsed, or what no longer held up. From here, the new truths will be yours. The ones you decide, the ones you fight for. This is you: the new world order, the new normality, the new principle of reality. Everything will be in your language, and it will depend in large part on you, and in a very large part on your luck. Which, by the way, luck is not you either. It's a fact, a circumstance, the bogeyman. At this point, I can only recommend that you don't stop. Don't settle, always do a little more. Of what you don't like (chores) and what you do like (pleasures), always do a little more. Give more than expected. Be special and perfectly identifiable. House brand.

Gasoline will rise, and more wars will come, and authoritarianisms, and injustices that will violate even what the norm theoretically protects. You will wonder how it is possible, but the bad guys wouldn't be bad if they couldn't win sometimes. And the price of bread will rise, and the price of life, and the price of words. You will program a robot to keep me company (and dinner), and you will pay more attention to artificial intelligences than to me, but think that they are nobody. They are anonymous, they are cheap and replicable. Being a person, and being a person, will rise like gasoline. Surround yourself with people with personality. Look for the best, even better than you, and approach them. And love, and have your own castle to protect, a motive, a cause. We wasted a lot of time mesmerized by Hollywood, but you focus on China, focus on Russia and South America, while you love Europe. Rebuild this, remake this. Follow the currents and then be the current yourself. Oh: and, afterwards, help. Don't forget to help others. Remember that it's much more fun.

The price of gasoline will rise, I guarantee it. But I also promise you that the price of gasoline will go down. And that the good guys will win, and peace will return. Don't be impressed by the targets, they don't last forever. Like the gray men, like artificial ideas, like regional financing pacts. On the ground you will only find the grid, it is upwards where Gaudí happens. Therefore, concentrate on daring to be strong and on looking at what you want to build. The price of things is not you, decadence is not you. You know perfectly well who you are. Everything will be fine if you always remember who you are.