Time for a Global Perestroika

I remember this day twenty years ago, the day of the attempted Soviet August coup d'état -- when Mikhail Gorbachev was placed under house arrest and all his ideas about perestroika (reform) and glasnost (openness) were put in danger of being completely overthrown by conservative hardliners. Though Gorbachev survived (he's now eighty years old) and the putsch collapsed, he never fully regained political power; Boris Yeltsin took the reins and almost simultaneously the Soviet Union broke into pieces. 

Yes, that was all in 1991. I was in England doing a library internship for the Central Architectural Practice of English Heritage thanks to a USA-ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) award.  Afghanistan was plunged in civil war and British troops were returning from the Persian Gulf War, parading through the streets of London.

If the world felt surreal twenty years ago, it feels -- and looks -- far more so now.

The model that emerged during the final decades of the 20th century has turned out to be unsustainable. It was based on a drive for super-profits and hyper-consumption for a few, on unrestrained exploitation of resources and on social and environmental irresponsibility. . . The current model does not need adjusting; it needs replacing. I have no ready-made prescriptions. But I am convinced that a new model will emerge, one that will emphasize public needs and public goods, such as a cleaner environment, well-functioning infrastructure and public transportation, sound education and health systems and affordable housing.

-- Mikhail Gorbachev, "Time for a Global Perestroika" (2009). Is anyone else so optimistic out there?

Today's Rune: Fertility.