Why assessing the state of the world is harder than it sounds
&gt; <i>Yet many people, like Milanović, have fond memories of bygone years, and wonder if reports of their awfulness have been exaggerated.</i><p>I was born in Romania in ‘82 and was 7 when communism fell. Yet I can remember vividly that ...<p>We were suffering of cold in winter, as the centralized heat was on and off, we had regular electricity blackouts and my parents, both with university degrees, had jobs and working their asses off on lower salaries than factory workers and couldn’t find or afford a babysitter so at 4 years old I was left alone at home, during blackouts so in the dark at around 19:00 o’clock too.<p>In those days people relied on families in such situations of course, grandparents making the best babysitters, however the communists forcibly moved a lot of people to the cities and distributed people where they were supposedly needed, so a lot of families were uprooted and split.<p>I also remember my parents listening to Radio Free Europe, with the volume barely audible, in order for the neighbors to not hear us. Paranoia of “informants” was at an all time high and any resistance and conflicting opinions were long since crushed.<p>You know, “1948” the book is actually boring me, compared to what actually happened in real life. Turns out that in order to do massive surveillance of the population you don’t need technology at all, as you can recruit a massive army of informants that can listen and send regular reports on their neighbors for free. And it doesn’t need to be efficient either, all that matters is for paranoia to set in, which will ensure compliance of the population.<p>My father was a party member of course, you had to be insane to not be one. But in private he hated communists with all his heart, just like his father before him; my grandfather who fought in WWII and then had his land confiscated.<p>The communists were responsible for raising the standards of living somewhat, compared with the period between the two world wars, plus there’s this myth around that everyone had a roof over his head back then; which is why some old people feel nostalgic. It was all in a global context of economic growth of course, progress being inevitable.<p>But people remembering miniskirts were in a position of privilege. Yes, we had happy moments and life went on, but at least during the eighties there was this constant tension and hunger that you could feel, so thick that you could almost cut it with a knife.<p>Then the revolution came and we killed our dictators. Unfortunately people are dumb sheep and power was grabbed by former communists. We are far better off today, we have a better quality of life, we are part of the EU, but unfortunately this wave of populism has hit us as well and the ruling administration seems determined to destroy all progress we’ve made in the last 28 years. And people being stupid, still vote for them, just like they were cheering during our former communist congresses. Sometimes my cynicism takes over and I’m thinking that we deserve whatever is coming.