Gas falls below $3 across Northern Minnesota

(GRAPHIC: A. Segal, Creative Commons)

(GRAPHIC: A. Segal, Creative Commons)

There’s a strange phenomenon happening amid the high-churn noise of the Information Age. Events of just a few years ago are quickly forgotten or, as a former president might have said, “misremembered.”

Such is the case as, today, stories of gas prices falling below $3 across much of Northern Minnesota hit the front pages and newscasts of the region’s media. You don’t have to be a particularly old journalist to remember writing stories about how crushingly difficult $3 gas would be for our economy, and how $4 would end life as we know it. Now, having hit $4 gas several times in recent years, $3 gas seems like some kind of miracle. SO MUCH CHEAP GAS!

In Europe, gas costs twice as much, sometimes more. Yes, the taxes are higher, but that’s because many European countries don’t subsidize automobile infrastructure to the enormous degree that America does.

We know this $3 gas is a temporary price fluctuation. We know that it will return to $4 or perhaps higher, that this event will be horrible, that the current or future president will be to blame. People will scowl at the gas pump, and millions of identical conversations will be built around the phrase “Can you believe it?”

YES! I CAN BELIEVE IT!

Meantime, let’s all consider the psychological factors at play in today’s triumphant gas price news. Remember this day. Remember $4 gas. Be prepared for $5 gas. Maybe it’s not all about politics. Let’s pay attention to where we are, and why we’re here.

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