To Speak or Not to Speak

A seemingly benign TV interviewer asks people in the street (and under the street), "What's your opinion about the actual political situation?" Several people fumble, one won't talk, and an older man who sits in an easy chair says, "Make love." A government representative pushes aside the announcer and asks the man in the street to elaborate. Soon "love" appears everywhere; then it's replaced by "buy," which gives way to "pro patria" and war: the power of good ideas, as government appropriates them for their own uses. But what's in store for our old man? Can he continue to think, speak his mind, and stay out of trouble with the authorities? Written by