I lived for the first 20 years of my life in a communist country.
What was it like? Great ...
We were told we lived in the best regime, had best medical care, best election system, best goverment, no criminality like in the western countries, no unemploymence like in the western countries, not all the problems like people in the west ....
Also we werent allowed to travel abroad, to speak to foreigners, to watch foreign TV and read foreign informations... Why should we? We lived in the best regime... it would mean we do not apreciate what we had home and also it could confuse us ....
But on the other hand, life was very easy .... they told you what to think, what to do to not to get in troubles, they forbade almost everything, so you actually couldnt get in troubles ...
Everybody knew something stinks here.... but we were afraid to ask ... we were afraid to be hassled... so we did shut up ...
By the way - doesnt it remind you somenthing?
Albert
P.S.: The happy end of the story is - on one beautiful day, all of sudden, the people got fed up and kicked the communists out....