Living in a dictatorship

All those who find it acceptable to live in a dictatorship don't necessarily want to be subjugated, repressed, or punished if they don't do or aren't what's expected. It's that they believe they do—and are—what's expected, and that, therefore, in a dictatorship, they would be, if anything, part of the oppressors, not the oppressed. That's why they like the idea: they're not idiots. They imagine they would get rid of a few undesirables.

They are the children of those who, several years ago, considered gays and lesbians among the undesirables. Those same people, of course, found transsexuals "entertaining," as long as they were involved in show business or prostitution, two activities that, under control and far from their daughters, seemed acceptable to them. Their children, today, consider gays (and lesbians, only if they are tennis players) a part of society. In their political parties, so fond of the straight and narrow, there are, as everywhere, gays and (some) lesbians. And the children, unlike their parents, are "tolerant" of this (an expression that has always struck me as supremely self-important). I mean, life puts things in their place, and one day the children of our children "won't complain" about Catalans, transsexuals, or communists. There are things, especially if they're fun, that can't be prohibited (alcohol, homosexuality, languages...), because no matter how much a dictator tries to control you, you do what you want, in secret or in broad daylight.

All extremes, left and right, have ridiculous, funny, terrible, and even praiseworthy aspects. What they all have in common is a strict sense of morality. Faced with this, I have only one remedy: the fiercest individualism and the fiercest humanism. I don't want to give orders, nor do I want to be ordered around.