Those old enough to recall the collapse of the Soviet Union will remember how time seemed to accelerate, as established truths toppled like dominoes. Addressing Congress in February 1990,1 Václav Havel captured the moment: “The human face of the world is changing so rapidly that none of the familiar political speedometers are adequate,” he said, describing a breathless disorientation when he added, “we have literally no time even to be astonished.”
History sometimes lurches away from the deeply familiar into an ill-formed “new normal.” But it also has a way of lingering, leaving elements of What- had-Been deeply interred—in the earth and the national psyche—to be rediscovered in the course of the Yet-to-Come.
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