Response to "Us"

I love Regina Spektor. Jun's breakdown of her track "Us" is a nice surprise (her music is not widely known amongst our generation but even so the early 2000s is practically in our backyard; always accessible). It is also worth mentioning that nine-year old Regina and her family emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, during the period known as Perestroika ("Restructuring"). During this period of reformation, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union before its dissolution, enacted glasnost ("openness"), a policy which played a part in ending the Cold War and enabled Soviets to live more freely. Regina's album was clearly inspired by The Unbearable Lightness of Being as well as the controversial history of her homeland. In Part 3: Words Misunderstood, Sabina encounters a group of men who are discussing politics; Sabina interjects, and one man does not like what she has to say. "That's no way to talk. You're all responsible for what happened. You, too. How did you oppose the Communist regime? All you did was paint pictures." Though Regina Spektor's album was released decades after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the publication of Kundera's novel, Regina opposes the regime through her music just as Sabina uses her art to speak her mind against kitsch. Why should music or art be dismissed as far as political statements are concerned? It's unfortunate that all those years ago, these art forms among many weren't seen as impactful or important in the face of oppression.