Fear of happiness

'We know exactly how newcomers are to behave in our country. Exactly the way we do. It's the perfect way to make sure nobody is happy.'
The Freedom to Be in Two Minds
'Nothing is compulsory during mass. It's a place of total, absolute
freedom, where you think what you want, when you want. Nothing stops you from lusting after alcohol and women. Or from imagining ways to trip up your stacks of vile opponents in the course of the coming week, in perfectly Christian fashion of course.'
Sunday Mass
'Only after death are we spared other people's opinions.'
Emiel Pauwels' Farewell Do
Fear of Happiness bundles a small selection of the best columns and opinion pieces vice-chancellor and former senator Rik Torfs has written for various Flemish and Dutch newspapers in the course of the last five years.