I remember watching a British documentary about Cuba a few years back which was presented nice looking middle class journalist. Well, surely he wouldn't lie, and so an unsuspecting public subliminally takes in the BBC propaganda without any thought?
The first minute or so the filmmaker said what was good about Cuba, especially how every child gets a chance to learn ballet, because Fidel Castro loved ballet. But after that it just went into how authoritarian and run down Cuba was. The sanctions didn't help, said the filmmaker, but much of the blame can be put down to Fidel's communism, he added. No discussion of how Fidel Castro's first government had socialist, communist, and conservative party members in it and how the sanctions forced Cuba to go towards Russia for help. No mention of it colonial past as a slave state and how the Cubans had bravely fought to expel the evil imperialists who had terribly abused them and stole their resources; no mention of the constant threat to life of party members were under from US backed terrorist mercenaries; no mention of the ruthless ruling elite and US corporations who wanted to seize control of Cuba and turn it back into a slave state. It just said how bad communism was.
Yes, communism is not great, but was rule by imperialists worse? And would communism always eventually go back to democratic socialism and capitalism if there was no further threat from imperialism and exploitation by a few wealthy and often criminal elite? KV
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The UK and USA have socialist elements, since some social services (e.g. the military) are performed by their governments. Cuba is more socialist than the US or UK. However Cuba is not communist, since all residences are privately owned, as are small and medium sized businesses. What’s publicly owned are things essential to the public, like utilities and medical services.
The average Briton or American does not know what communism is. He just knows that communism is “evil,” since his rich owners tell him it is. He knows that Cuba is “communist,” since his rich owners tell him it is. He believes his owners, who claim that the Cuban government subjects the Cuban people to “sonic attacks,” just like Assad of Syria “gasses his own people” and Kim Jong-un of North Korea “starves his own people.”
The average Briton or American knows that the government of Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea is “evil,” since his rich owners tell him it is.
This programming is so pervasive that even so-called “progressives” and “anti-war” people regard the heads of Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea as “dictators.”
Any leader who refuses to enslave his people on behalf of the Empire is a “dictator.”
If you question the Empire’s lies, then you are a “communist,” a “conspiracy theorist,” and an “anti-Semite” who is guilty of spreading “fake news.”
Two other thoughts…
[1] Any nation that goes too far toward the extreme of communism on one side (e.g. the USSR) or neoliberalism on the other side (e.g. the USA) will eventually become extinct.
Neoliberalism worships private ownership and the profit motive. It values everything in terms of money. With neoliberalism, everyone eventually becomes the enslaved property of a handful of rich oligarchs, who sucks the life out the masses. Result: social collapse.
[2] Cuba is more socialist than any other place in the Caribbean.
Therefore Cuba is less subject to the profit motive.
Therefore Cuba has the cleanest and prettiest beaches and forests in the Caribbean.
Therefore Cuba has a tourist industry that is booming, and which sets new records every year.
Therefore the U.S. government has forbidden American tourists from visiting Cuba, and has also invented ridiculous claims about invisible, unstoppable, unfathomable, all-pervasive “sonic attacks.”
(Mike Pompeo claims that China and Russia are also guilty of “sonic attacks.”)
And everyone believes the nonsense. YouTube is full of videos that “scientifically” analyze the fictitious “sonic attacks.”
And speaking of fiction, you couldn’t get a novel or a movie script published about such things, as everyone would regard them as silly.
But U.S. government lies are “true” no matter how silly. The Skripal poisoning hoax is “true," no matter how silly.
Some lies are so patently ridiculous, yet so “true,” that you will be imprisoned for questioning them (e.g. the “six million” hoax).
I agree with your comments, Konrad. I eventually found that BBC video about Cuba and it is also made by Simon Reeve. To be fair he does say at the beginning that the US supported a brutal dictatorship in Cuba before the revolution which had driven many people into poverty. But then after it's just a massive onslaught against Fidel Castro's Cuba, which is done in a subtle way which fits in with the Western anti communist propaganda we have been fed all our lives. I'm not saying communism was workable or all that good, but the anti communist propaganda was there to keep western imperialism in place, a ruthless system of colonial exploitation.
"I'm not saying communism was workable or all that good, but the anti-communist propaganda was there to keep western imperialism in place, a ruthless system of colonial exploitation."
Let's define our terms. I define “communism” as the total absence of private property. Under this definition, no country has ever been communist. The opposite extreme is a monarchy in which everything and everyone is the property of one person. No country has ever been this way either. Instead, all countries fall somewhere in between these two extremes.
If a country moves too far toward one extreme or the other, the country dies. Any system in the universe that moves too far toward one extreme or the other will fall out of balance, and will self-destruct. The USSR went too far toward communism, and therefore self-destructed. The USA has gone too far in the opposite direction, and is therefore self-destructing.
Cuba has not self-destructed. Therefore let’s not support the Empire’s lies by saying things like…
I agree that he is an evil dictator, but…
I agree that Iran is a terrorist state, but…
I agree that Venezuela violates human rights, but…
I agree that Cuba is communist and unworkable, but…
I agree that Kim Jon-un threatens the entire world, but…
I agree that the Russians nerve-gassed the Skripals, but…
In all these statements, we agree with the basic premise of each of the Empire's lies. In so doing, we agree to be programmed and enslaved.
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