The Dictator Who Laughs Last

The Dictator Who Laughs Last

Ingratitude may revive socialist repression—but at least the political jokes might get better.

Elevenlabs Text to SpeechAudioNative Player...

In the good old days of the late Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship, he was known as la vache qui rit, the cow that laughs, because of his uncanny resemblance to the trademark animal of the French cheese brand of that name. (The best political jokes always emerge from dictatorships—they are the thing that one misses most about the Soviet Union.)

Now it so happens that I bought some Vache qui rit recently, for someone who needed a soft diet. I quite like it myself. The processed gruyère comes in sections of a circle, each one of which represents 45 degrees of that circle. Each section is wrapped in thin aluminium foil, with a triangular paper label.

What is truly admirable about the wrapping is the little red tab of each portion, which, if pulled gently, enables you to easily remove the cheese without loss. Those familiar with this, of course, take it for granted, for it has always been thus. It is no more to be remarked on than the fact that the sun will rise tomorrow.

This taken-for-grantedness is both inevitable and t...