Citizens and the spying spies who spy

Pragmatic Prague has a long and intimate history with it's secret police. From at least the 1850's until the 1970's and 1980's, intellectuals had regular tables in certain coffee shops and the police informers had tables right next to the intellectuals. Informers would attend the funerals of those they spied on. Often, one was spied on for no other reason than earning the informer's attention. The stifling world of Franz Kafka's The Trial wasn't, as I had thought, a complete invention of a troubled mind. Imagining this nightmarish situation always leaves me with a sense of release, "Whew. Boy, I'm glad it isn't like that now." And then I read something as depressing as it is disturbing.