My late adolescence coincided with one of the most powerful cultural movements of the last century: punk. I was about sixteen years old when entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren brought together a bunch of guys called Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Sid Vicious to form the legendary band the Sex Pistols. So, I belong to that generation whose formative years were spent listening to drunken shouts and cries proclaiming with enormous stage presence and conviction that there was “no future”. 

 Now that punk has faded and become relegated to the role of an aesthetic influence or reference, history is repeating itself. A growing number of voices are saying the same thing: that young people are once again doomed to a life with “no future”. 

 That’s why I think it is both relevant and timely to take advantage of this IMPULSA Forum to listen to what is being said on this matter by two intelligent and informed people I know very well, and for whom I have a great deal of affection, respect and, even, admiration: Risto Mejide and Toni Segarra. I want to hear their opinions on this really negative vision that has spread among large swaths of our society and I want to listen to the advice they would give me if I were eighteen or twenty years old and had my whole future ahead of me. I am convinced that their starting positions will be closer to mine —I am an inveterate optimist— than those of Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious. But this is something we will have to confirm, or not, on Friday 26th in Girona. 

 I invite you to listen to them, as I know them well and I am sure that they will give us an excellent, lively and enlightened conversation. Without a doubt, those of us who are there are sure to learn something. 

See you in Girona!