"double lives"

[Odessa Dawn]

"If the genius of Soviet totalitarianism was its ability to get people to go along without apparent protest, this was its fatal flaw: the need to conform to a mendacious political reality left many people haunted by the sense that they were leading double lives."

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Does double lives mean double agent or pretending that you are on my side while you do the opposite behind my back?

 

[SoothingDave]

Under a totalitarian state, like the Soviet Union or the Taliban, you must publicly display the correct attitudes and beliefs. Privately, and inside one's own mind, a person may believe differently. The fear of being punished by the state makes all align with the rulers in public.