I’ve been interested in the bizarre, almost clownish effect of trust erosion on our culture for many years now, and trying to imagine the shape of our information ecosystem — and world — to come. But a couple months back, a friend reminded me we’ve already been here. Or, at least those once behind the Iron Curtain have.

Anton grew up in what was once the Soviet Union, just after a small introduction of freedom blew the autocratic system to pieces. With a free press, every government lie for seventy years flooded the papers, but, paradoxically, what followed was not a world in which the people believed nothing. For a brief moment, the people believed everything. In this week’s feature, Anton tells the story.

-SOLANA