1989

I watched Atomic Blonde this weekend. I loved it, but something about it was making me profoundly sad. The sadness lingered past the movie and last night it hit me what it was.

That year, 1989, was the last time I really felt truly positive about the world. This was the year the Berlin Wall fell. It seemed like we won the Cold War. It seemed like all the Communism was going to admit failure and go away. In my naivety, I thought things were just about to get so much better.

That wasn't the case. The fall of Communism unleashed chaos in the Easter Block states. Civil wars, destruction, genocide, rise and fall of dictators, and all other assorted hells began and in some cases really never ended. People suffered under communism and suffered more when it pulled away.

I bet people felt that same kind of hope after WWII. They thought that ending Hitler would make things better without understanding what allowing the USSR to take so much of Europe would do to it. The problem is that even when you end something evil, good doesn't just show up and rule. Other evil is always looking for ways to worm its way in. That's the nature of humans, I guess.

I missed that feeling I had in 1989, that moment of security and hope about the state of the world, the state of the human race. I guess I was just at that age where it all seemed possible. I can safely say I have never had that feeling again.