This specificity stemmed from the fact that inside it such...

This specificity stemmed from the fact that inside it such rational-emotional elements were amalgamated, in various dosages, as: The criticism of Western researchers towards the “establishment”; The implicit (seldom explicit) non-conformism of researchers in the former socialist countries as to the centralized uniqueness of the socialist planning, as well as the acceptance of Bertrand de Jouvenel’s idea of “possible futures”; Establishing rationalist-humanist friendships between researchers from different social systems, even at the risk of unpleasant consequences in their countries of origin recorded in many cases; the research and debates of these generous humanists on mankind’s future were conducted outside commercial/financial criteria and of the state’s intervention.

This was the way and the state of mind in which the 1960-1990 generation of futures researchers scanned the roots that events stemmed from. It is this generation’s precious cultural acquisition. Why is a history, written from the inside, of futures research in Central and Eastern European countries in the period 1960-1990 and 1990-2000 of interest, as part of the post-war European culture? There is no univocal response, but several hypotheses may be proposed that could work as adequate answers.

One would be that in reality the centralized State “socialism” (up to 1990) was an economic development strategy based on the Western model of modernization by classic industrial revolution , a strategy “clothed” in a different ideological “frock”. Elements of the industrial civilization code could support the hypothesis, such as: standardization (mass production), specialization, synchronization, concentration, maximization, centralization.

They were used both in the socialist East and in the liberal West, regardless of the dominant ideology and/or the modernizing social-political forces. Along with these elements, the modernization code included the usage of powerful and “tough” technologies: material-intensive (large), energy-consuming, cost-intensive and polluting.

Massification of the media and the uniforming mass education contributed to spreading the basic concept of industrial civilization, identifying the idea of exponential , quantifiable, economic growth with the principle of progress . In both systems. From a cultural perspective, another likeness may be noted, concerning an aspect pertaining to the history of the futures research uncertainty , regardless of the social-politic system.