Millennial Thoughts from Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

       Where is that fragile line between different cultures, different       religions, different national or personal identities?       - Agnieszka Holland THE 19th CENTURY politician Metternich, a champion of Western European isolationism and Austrian xenophobia, is credited with saying that Asia begins at the Landstrasse, that is, at the street that leads out of Vienna toward Hungary. Over the last two hundred years of our millennium, Central and Eastern European countries have struggled to overcome this deep prejudice and reclaim their place in Europe independent political and cultural entities. And while it has been very difficult to do so in terms of economic and political modernisation; in terms of establishing long lasting state and social institutions that are capable of generating and perpetuating democracy, in terms of culture Central and Eastern European countries have scored much more successfully. In fact, often times much better than their Western European counterparts. Ten...