The birthday of democracy
Greetings, comrades folks! One could say that today is a very symbolic day for my society. On this very day, exactly 22 years ago, democracy exploded here in Bulgaria. Well, not exactly. But it felt like it at the time, at least for a while. One thing is for sure. Things haven't been the same ever since. Even if only prompted by events abroad, we did do our best attempt to erase and forget the past, sometimes with more success, sometimes with less. But the idea was there. However, some things just can't go away like that. It could take several generations for a society to completely shake off the legacy of the past, especially if that system had been instilled into the brains of people for decades, ultimately distorting the very culture of said society, and the mentality of its people. No, good things don't just happen overnight.
Really, we've gone through all sorts of hardships for the last couple decades, all sorts of transformations, and we've experienced what it's like to learn the lessons of history within a very compressed period, and catch up with what the rest have achieved in many decades, but learn it all the hard way. We saw the ugly face of " wild capitalism", while we were kicking out the memory of communism. We saw the Al Capone era being played out right in front of our eyes. We saw what hyper-inflation means, what queueing for bread with food coupons means, what "baseball-bat business" is - we've seen it all. But, turns out it was all worth it. Hell, it really was!
And probably all that remains now to remind us of that "Time Long, Long Ago", is the various memorabilia remaining from the commie times, which are gathering more dust as the time passes, only to fuel the feeling of nostalgia of the fading older generation. And of course the awesome anecdotes from the time of the "Sotz" (as we called socialism), which were being whispered under the breath; the sharply humorous and penetrating caricatures of the Sotz leaders that were being spread around like apocrypha; and the stinging lyrics of Vysotsky, the genius "Bard of Freedom".
In memory of all those who have fallen victim of the communist regime, and those who dared to raise a voice against it (and pay the price for it), and all those who've been working really hard to heal and rebuild a deeply wounded society, I'm having a minute of silence.
But then again, it's macro time!
Really, we've gone through all sorts of hardships for the last couple decades, all sorts of transformations, and we've experienced what it's like to learn the lessons of history within a very compressed period, and catch up with what the rest have achieved in many decades, but learn it all the hard way. We saw the ugly face of " wild capitalism", while we were kicking out the memory of communism. We saw the Al Capone era being played out right in front of our eyes. We saw what hyper-inflation means, what queueing for bread with food coupons means, what "baseball-bat business" is - we've seen it all. But, turns out it was all worth it. Hell, it really was!
And probably all that remains now to remind us of that "Time Long, Long Ago", is the various memorabilia remaining from the commie times, which are gathering more dust as the time passes, only to fuel the feeling of nostalgia of the fading older generation. And of course the awesome anecdotes from the time of the "Sotz" (as we called socialism), which were being whispered under the breath; the sharply humorous and penetrating caricatures of the Sotz leaders that were being spread around like apocrypha; and the stinging lyrics of Vysotsky, the genius "Bard of Freedom".
In memory of all those who have fallen victim of the communist regime, and those who dared to raise a voice against it (and pay the price for it), and all those who've been working really hard to heal and rebuild a deeply wounded society, I'm having a minute of silence.
But then again, it's macro time!