In this context, I'm reminded of the music of Viktor Tsoi and his Soviet rock band, Kino. Through his lyrics, Tsoi captured the essence of civil disobedience long before the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, leaving a lasting imprint on me.
The East German rock scene wasn't quite at that level of open rebellion yet, though there were powerful exceptions. Tamara Danz and her band Silly released their legendary album Februar in 1989, taking a direct stance against the SED regime. Looking back, it's astonishing that the state apparatus allowed that record to be published at all.
Yet Viktor Tsoi leaned out of the window even further, advancing the culture of civil disobedience. Today, I see a very similar movement emerging in Germany: a growing refusal to bow to the mandate of endless economic growth. A sticker from the System Delta initiative captures this sentiment perfectly: "GDP – RIP." Gross Domestic Product as the sole metric for human progress, success, and prosperity is dead.
