To live on edge all day long, not sure if tomorrow's experiences will be allowed by the nameless secret police patrolling your neighborhood and listening in on your conversations. Not aware that one of your neighbors has provided information on you or a family member. Knowing that the surest way to survive this genuine oppression is to participate in the surveillance on behalf of the state.
Today's western proponents of socialism and communism would be afraid to sit through this nearly 2-hour story of the lives of others. But if they did, I wonder if they would be willing to understand that this account of communist utopia will be the eventual result if we abandon western democracy and the capitalist economic system.