Chestnuts fall and crack against the paving stones. It is perhaps the most beautiful sound I know. Or, perhaps not.

Walking alongside the well-stocked bookcases by the river. Glancing briefly across the river to the farmers' stands with large piles of dill weed and pastries, homemade jam, pickled and fresh vegetables. Not much has really changed here as long as I have seen this scenario on the weekends. It is the same people, with the same goods, who have been standing here for years.

Watching the newly arrived students' wide-eyed gazes at everything; except when they walk past the hollow-eyed and invisible students with their gazes pressed to the ground on their way to their cold attics where they entertain their anxiety with pathetic books.

*

In the early 90s, most people were still trapped in their generational folds without ever reflecting on the matter. We only saw those who were in the same age range. The rest were just some kind of hazy background figures for the most part. I kept up with the times within my subcultures and adjusted myself without thinking to the changing conditions and behaviours of the junk-culture in society like a silent weather vane. I cared little about the political and religious opinions; as I knew deep down that most of it was nonsense in circulation. (The fact that I later took part in all that for a few years is because I wanted to learn how the twisted and controlled propaganda influenced, governed, and above all how to take it down.)

The struggle for some kind of social positions and status thinking was probably quite foreign to most people in the self-sacrificing energy and stupid goodness of youth. Then there were of course the aspirants who were stuck in the belief that everything was about pulling in money and building a status at any cost. I myself was not yet truly down and fully developed in my deep cynicism and distrust, or for that matter in my irony and humour.

The aforementioned economic crisis; the hangover after the 70s and 80s plundering of society and exploitation of the banks, as well as the manipulation and exploitation of the financial market and all the small and large companies. According to the media, the money was often wasted on travel, fake caviar, ugly hookers, moldy summer houses, luxury cars, and other "living expenses". Those without scruples could steal a lot with tax evasion, black money, theft of materials at work, through nepotism, all to compensate for their self-righteousness. Nothing reached me at that time other than sometimes seeing the pigs living for expensive clothes and an imaginary status in the fight to attract the sows.

Some would say that the first years of the 90s were the 80s that continued to gnaw in. I would say that the 90s had already begun a year or two before. Something new came through junk-culture with a greater interest in breaking down genres where musical styles were mixed up and more alternative, and even more extreme, sounds became somewhat standardized. Which left its mark on society.

The Swedish music miracle happened... There were old stiff politicians and there was New Democracy... Social engineering happened... Mistaking racism for all kinds of criticism against immigrants who committed crimes and abuses happened...

The 90s were in one respect seemingly better. There was no longer a clear line for "everyone" to follow in society. The "left-wing" in the media monopoly was still forced on society with veiled threats of handing out a kind of "alienation" to anyone who did not follow their "recommendations". Most people just wanted to adapt and have as problem-free an existence as possible. They would take tomorrow as it came. Swim safely... How are things going?

*

It's always windy over Liljeholmsbron when I walk between my home and my office room. For me, the early and mid-90s became synonymous with constant coffee and a relaxing park life during the day. It seems that I subconsciously wanted to be a pensioner. I coped quite well during the crisis compared to many others who were completely dependent on the state. Society was downtrodden, in a kind of depression, and the general dissatisfaction with a lowered standard of living and imported problems was palpable, but mostly unspoken.

The imagined progression, circularity, or continued underdevelopment?

The coziness died off. The pretty little shops on Södermalm and in Vasastan gradually disappeared. The self-proclaimed cosmopolitans with their aura of familiarity with the world sank into the background like tired normies. Everyone was a bit strange...

The spirit of the times was hectic and nervous about 1999.