In this phase of Kazakhstan’s history it is, for one because its society is mentally in the phase where Northwestern Europe used to be in the late fifties and early sixties. At that time, there were still living memories of the deprivations during the inter-war crisis, World War 2 and the post-war reconstruction years. At the same time, there was economic growth that brought comfort and luxury within the reach of the masses. That resulted in a period of stiffling conservatism and increasing consumerism that first bumped on its limits during the OPEC crisis of 1973.

Today we see pretty much the same pattern in Kazakhstan and other mereging economies of the ex-USSR: the memories and traumas of the Soviet crash and the dire nineties are still strong and now that the money came in the elites and indeed also large swaths of the population are obsessed with conspiciuous consumption and do not want or like to be bothered with politics, environment and sustainability.

To that, one has to add a very uncertain cultural identity resulting from the Soviet years, which makes society more vulnerable for the excesses of globalisation and for complexes leading to often grotesque imitations of what is seen as Western culture and lifestyles.

Yet this will change once a generation that has not consciously known the USSR and the nineties will come to adulthood and become active in society, and also now that the global crisis has show the limits and heralded the unavoidable decline of neo-liberalism and consumerism. Certain people will start to wonder if there is more than the upteenth evroremonted appartment or flashy car.