Being a dissident today, more than twenty years since the demise of communism, sounds like a contradiction in terms. But the joke is on fake capitalism in turn.

Addendum (December 5, 2016)

Fake capitalism? Capitalism is fake in many ways, for both markets and democracy rest on all sorts of lies, but Croatian capitalism is doubly fake in the sense that many a communist of yesteryear has managed to do well in it. As well as to maintain his or her old party ties. Amazingly enough, they still think and act like communists of old. Which is why it is far from meaningless to be a dissident so many years after the demise of communism. Of course, Croatia is not alone in this quagmire. The rest of the so-called socialist bloc must be pretty similar in this respect, if not even worse. By comparison with former Yugoslavia, many countries of the vaunted bloc were much more severe in dealing with dissidents of every description. But so were the boondocks, like Istria, where the communist regime of old was much more severe than in the major cities of the Yugoslav federation. At any rate, my encounter with the ex-communist cadres in Motovun, Istria, and the rest of Croatia, was quite a surprise for me. Although I did expect them to survive the collapse of the old regime, I did not expect them to thrive once again. Whence my dissident status to this day. And whence this bitter haiku, as well.