Mircea Cărtărescu on freedom and the fear of failure

The freedom gained after the fall of the Iron Curtain also brought insecurity which is increasingly a source of fear among Romanians, writes author Mircea Cărtărescu in the daily Evenimentul Zilei: "Let's not fool ourselves. The people supported the communist regime to the bitter end. It didn't collapse as a result of the struggle for freedom but because of the proverbial inefficiency of slave labour. ... We have recovered our freedom and at least tried to put it to good use. ... But with it came worries, unrest and an enormous responsibility for one's loved ones and society. Under communism all cows were lean. Everyone knew that and they adjusted, scraping the meat from the tiniest bits of cartiledge. With freedom some cows are fat and some are lean, and this insecurity, this instability, is very difficult to bear. For some time now we've had feelings of fear, the persistent idea that we're not going to make the grade."

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