Today’s societies tend more and more towards palliatives. Research has led to good health, as new entrepreneurs try to avoid pain. It’s about enjoying, laughing, experiencing. The emotional palette is drawn to positive emotions. Invasion of the guts 2020/2021 deepens the wall of modern values: seize the day (enjoy the day)
In 2022, Argentines have fervently embraced this model of global behavior under the post-pandemic slogan “I want to live now, I don’t care”. Between the famous ecstasy of the World and the exhilarating sunny summer they managed to prolong that vibration until it became inevitable. Reality arrived and the illusion ended.
It will be useful to advance the figure of 2023 by drawing an analogy with the famous concept developed by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm. Recognized as one of the great global figures in his field, he defined the 19th century as “the long century” that spanned from the French Revolution, in 1789, to the beginning of World War I, in 1914, until the 20th century. as a “short century”, which began at the critical moment of the war and with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It began barely 77 years ago.
Regarding the logic of his thinking, that is, by dividing temporality according to the course of events, not only according to the calendar, we could say that 2022 was a “long year” that began on September 21, 2021, when all economic the beginning of the action to announce the end of the pandemic, which ended between March 1 and 2 2023, when the huge black and the violent threat of Lionel Messi seemed to strike at the same time. Few things are more symbolic than being left in the dark, disconnected and in clear danger of the popular idol that has long given Argentines their greatest collective joy.
The year, according to this system, has already begun, then it will be a “short year.” In principle, it would be concluded when the electoral process is decided, in October or November. We may christen this the year of Cinderella’s performance. In March “the nineteenth strikes and turns the float into a pumpkin.” It ends and the magic spell is broken. What remains clear is nothing less than the unquestionable truth. The comprehensive progressive degradation that proceeds from economy to security passes through culture and expectations. Citizens no longer speak of a downward spiral, as they did a while ago, but of a depravity that has broken unusual limits and thresholds.
The two significant events that last week shook Argentina’s society from its necessary denial – turning its head elsewhere to heal the mechanism – I promise that it will not be the only one.
Since the attention is focused on individual gestures and on each political act, it is unsuccessfully trying to calm the anxiety that will only grow, at least until the initial definitions, which will only arrive in May, is in the economy where there can be new manifestations of explicit realism. are formed It will be convenient to balance the memory and vigilance of both fields, because although they always influence each other, at this time they do so in a very fragile country. The vessels communicating between them today have so many hypersensitive terminals that any alteration in one can cause disruption in the other.
The third element that shapes the system is naturally social humor. To think about the dynamics of things in the abstract, as if done without people, is to ignore the central and determining factor in the flow of collective consciousness. After all, there are people who, as citizens and as consumers, knowingly and unknowingly intervene to try to shape, according to their desires and expectations, that reality that they judge today as heavy, harmful and hopeless. They will be the ones who buy, they will be the ones who vote. Finally, there are those to be chosen.
They know, perhaps like never before, that this will be a very difficult time to fix things and that it will take time. You don’t even think about the future. It is enough to come face to face with the present, now without so many cases to be careful. When the new school fees arrive or the rent is renewed, it is suddenly understood what the increase is around 100%. Things cost twice as much as last year (hopefully). Periods, without half measures, without urban ratios, without percentages. Double is double. they all take It was already perceived in the daily purchases of food, clothing, or fuel, but gradually it has a certain anesthetic effect. The characters are so lost that it is difficult to do the math. The synthesis is as linear as the one that hurts: “Everything goes up, all the time.”
The numbers are already beginning to show that things are ending as they were. In 2022 the call to live with inflationary acceleration is interrupted. Many or few, “burned weights” and short-term consumption has become the best way to “decline from reality”. That desire is still there, and passes from a long year to a short year, now begins to meet the restriction as a term. “Burn your powers” while you’ve got them.
In the first part of last year, sales of basic products – food, beverages, cosmetics and cleaning – grew by 6.8% measured in units compared to the previous year. The last quarter of 2022 fell 1.6%. In January 2023, the contraction was repeated: -1.6%. In the area of personal services, the drop was much steeper: -9%. All according to the latest data from Scentia.
If we look at the macroeconomics, INDEC announces that the recovery received in September 2022 will slow down after a brutal 10% drop in 2020. comparing against the same month of the previous year (1.2%). The latest REM (Market Expectations Report) issued by the Central Bank projects 0% growth and 100% growth this year.
Add to these, among many other variables that exacerbate the uncertainty and complexity, is a severe drought, the risk of which has been estimated at the beginning of the potential loss of income anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000 million dollars, and today both Rosario and CREA see closer to 20,000. million The best mission is “only” 15,000 million dollars.
The beginning of the year will indeed be “short”, but the intensity could be seen as “eternal”. Restaurants, recitals, theaters, tours and pitches continue to try to escape the bubbles for a while, albeit smaller and more distant. In all others there will be no choice but to be opposed. It is one thing to want, another to be able. You will note this tension across the board.
For companies, it will be cumbersome and difficult to “match the highest”. That’s where you “tie the deal”. For consumers are forced to make a perpetual choice between themselves as to what they modify and what they leave behind. Let not the citizens be afraid, they say that the definition of the rest is ad. Whether they like it or not, they must deal with this dark matter from which they fled in order to survive the “long” year. and they will no longer be able to escape. In the “short” year that has just begun, they will have no choice but to make a case. lucidity, temperance, and prudence, not only to pass through it, but above all to think carefully where they will.
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