The Young Castro Enjoys a Cubano With Confidence
What type of man wants to live as an Elite Socialist Leader? The two leading Socialists of the Western Hemisphere can give us an inside look at the personality of an entry level Socialist President and the final days of a Socialist dictator.
Jeffrey Goldberg writing for the Atlantic has scored a major scoop of an interview one of the first of the twenty first century, an interview with Fidel Castro. There were three profound subjects expressed by Castro that can and should affect the Socialist Ideology of our own President: the Cuban economic policy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as Castro’s views on Iran and Israel.
The two leaders, Castro and Obama, have both been susceptible to egoism and egotism. Castro is now retired and reflecting back on fifty years of trying to build a Socialist Utopia in Cuba, but in the beginning he was both the consummate egoist and egotist. (In a literary definition, rather than a neurological definition) An egoist perceives all questions in relationship to oneself and having exalted opinions of self and the ability to derive and know the correct answer or direction in all matters. With a leader the state becomes the self, the ideas of others or their wishes are only obstacles to that they must over come to see the wisdom of the Elite Leader. The egotist is merely wrapped up in his opinion of himself, a Narcissist who is easily identified by over use of the word “I”. He merely occupies conversation with boastfulness and boring expressions of how he is accomplishing all the mundane challenges of life, job, or office. At first, people are interested until they realize the speaker is no more unique than anyone else and possibly less. A common result of over exposure for the Narcissist.
The difference is a measure of degree and possibly of neurosis and psychosis. An egotist may just be a bore and an insecure person, not necessarily selfish to the point of being pathological. An egoist has advanced the disorder to the point of a psychopathic disorder or to a degree that the earth or at least a country revolves around him.
We have all observed the President’s overuse and joy of using the “I” word. It is one of the reasons people have become bored with his televised appearances and no longer tune in to see the Narcissist preen for the camera. Fidel’s early days were filled with the “I” word and the steady crack of rifle fire. Unlike Obama he had to maintain an iron grip to hold on to his island nation and with the help of the Soviets, he kept the US from wiping away his Socialist dream. So precarious was his position, it is easy to imagine him visualizing the State of Cuba as Fidel and Fidel as Cuba. For nearly a half century, most of the world accepted the illusion without question.
In the present, Obama is being denied the United States as a personal identity, relying on charisma and Socialist Ideology to direct the country, his campaign has lost its momentum: while, Fidel is facing an island economy that is mired in poverty and run by one of the richest men in the world. He now is facing a legacy of failure as a leader, gone is the revolutionary bravado and Socialist success that several of our Black Congressional Caucus members noted during their recent visit to Cuba. Overcome with admiration for Castro they returned gushing with praise for the Island paradise.
When Goldberg asked if the Cuban model was still worth exporting. Fidel replied:
“The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,”
If Obama refuses to listen to anyone else, he should consider listening to one of the Major Socialists of the 20th Century. Obama’s plans for nationalization and Socialism will only work as long as there is faith in the American economic system; unfortunately, that faith has been eroding away for almost two years.
Castro seemed concerned with the plight of Israel and apparently has a close friendship with the leader of Cuban Jews. When asked of the Israeli-Iran Conflict, he replied:
He said the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. “This went on for maybe two thousand years,” he said. “I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything.” The Iranian government should understand that the Jews “were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world, as the ones who killed God. In my judgment here’s what happened to them: Reverse selection. What’s reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation.” He continued: “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” I asked him if he would tell Ahmadinejad what he was telling me. “I am saying this so you can communicate it,” he answered.
Castro went on to analyze the conflict between Israel and Iran. He said he understood Iranian fears of Israeli-American aggression and he added that, in his view, American sanctions and Israeli threats will not dissuade the Iranian leadership from pursuing nuclear weapons. “This problem is not going to get resolved, because the Iranians are not going to back down in the face of threats. That’s my opinion,” he said. He then noted that, unlike Cuba, Iran is a “profoundly religious country,” and he said that religious leaders are less apt to compromise. He noted that even secular Cuba has resisted various American demands over the past 50 years.
Again the Old Revolutionary has sage advice that the young Narcissist could learn from.
Fidel even expressed remorse over the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I asked him, “At a certain point it seemed logical for you to recommend that the Soviets bomb the U.S. Does what you recommended still seem logical now?” He answered: “After I’ve seen what I’ve seen, and knowing what I know now, it wasn’t worth it all.”
Now we have two revolutionary Socialist Ideologues, the older more experienced one who actually waged a revolution and has passed through the stages of egoism and egotism, realizes that things didn’t go as well as they might have. The young Socialist is only just realizing that reforming the US into a Socialist Utopia isn’t going that well. He stills seems to be enraptured in egotism and is still overly fond of his persona; he doesn’t seem to have fallen into the trap of egoism, where the earth, the planets, the tides, and the moon look to him for guidance and permission. Perhaps his early political demise will be a blessing in disguise that will keep him from contracting the mental condition of egoism, since it took Fidel over 50 years to realize his own mortality and shortcomings.
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Castro and Ted Kennedy both seemed to seek a little redemption just in case God might have something special for them in an after life. I guess it doesn’t hurt to cover all the bases.
Randy: Better late than never.
Having lived in Miami during the time of the Cuban revoulition, it was obvious that the people that were successful were the first to understand the future. They were the first to leave. When they left, the heart of the Cuban econonmy left with them, and the future of Cuba was sealed. Conversly, Miami benifited from these skilled people, and still does. Americans don’t have anywhere to go, yet. If we start to lose our skilled people due to stripping opportunity from them, we will face the same problem that Cuba had. We will face the same grinding future. The only chance is to vote, and stand for freedom, unfettered, unlimited, freedom. Success must have reward, no man works for a poor man, all men work for someone, I, for rich men, politicians for me.
Thank you for the profound commentary, Ike. Your input certainly sheds light on factors that both Casto and Obama should review!
Depleting the gene pool by driving away the producers is self-defeating: yet we reward our lowest common denominator of non-producers by supporting them with ever increasing government checks for producing more welfare dependents (Democrats). In a sense, we are decreasing the ratio of producing classes to dependent types by our own self-defeating policies.
@ Skook,
1. Narcissism has no cure. At least none that humans are familiar with. IMHO, the “better late than never,” can’t apply to the narcissist since it is one of the disorders which cannot be treated successfully.
2. Castro believed himself invincible, claiming to have survived numerous attempts on his life. I don’t, however, see him as being narcissistic – egocentric, yes, but if you look at his background, his actions during the revolution, etc., he presents a fairly astute, clever and ruthless persona. He attacks but you don’t see him whine each and every day.
Castro has amassed a substantial personal fortune, having done well by stealing from his country’s men and women. Through Suharto’s reign-by-the-gun in Indonesia, Suharto took 30% of any deal done for anything and any purpose in Indonesia. The Grimaldi mutts ruling Monaco also take a piece of everything personally. The mob has nothing on these people. Castro insinuated himself or his family into any financial transaction taking place in Cuba, most of which revolved around sugar and tobacco. The people of Cuba should demand a freeze of all his offshore and onshore accounts, and have the substantial cash hoard spent on rebuilding the country.
Skook, your pointing to the Cuban state-conrolled economy is quite timely. Perhaps Obama has been reading how well the government control of Capital Investments has worked there. Cuba should be a rich agricultural producer. Instead, it’s a disaster that imports most of it’s food. The socialist / communist system works so well in the minds of “know-and-do-nothings,” in Washington.
JR: You have provided some interesting commentary and it is obvious you have been paying attention to our second closest neighbor to the the South.
There is a considerable difference between the effeminate like Narcissism of Obama and the egoism of Fidel:
There is at least one more similarity of the two that I missed, a disregard for the United States and its economic system. By reading the articles and of the interviews, I think Fidel realizes he might have done better for his country and his people if he would have built bridges with the US instead of maintaining a vindictive hatred of this country. How much happiness is gained from being the richest ant in an ant colony. Communism and the Soviets left Cuba stranded and now he seems to have realized his mistakes.
Besides his millions that will soon be fought over by relatives and bureaucrats and useless to him, he is looking at his legacy and wondering what might have been. There are a multitude of lessons to be gleaned from the life of Fidel for Obama, but I doubt if his Narcissism and egoism will allow him to question his failing ideology.
J.R., good to see someone else understands that the economic suffereing of Cubans isn’t because of our eeeevil embargo (which is mostly ignored).
It’s because Castro and co. steal everything they can and leave nothing but crumbs for everyone else.
@ Hard Right,
Perhaps it is because of the embargo that many in the U.S. are unaware of Castro’s pilfering. However, anyone who has done business internationally, knows who you have to “pay to play,” whether that is in China, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico, or Cuba, etc.
Castro treats Cuba’s economy as his own private company. He take a significant piece of anything coming in or going out. Cubans have no hope of overturning this oppressive system until they throw out the Castros and all their henchmen.
In the fifties, the U.S. Mob controlled Cuba as their own casino, with the “image” help of the likes of Sinatra and the Kennedys. When Cuban get back control of their beautiful country, it will be critical that sanity prevails and that they don’t return to the lunacy of fifties which was just as sick as what exists there now.
The embargo is the least of Cuba’s problems. Just think of the billions that were pumped into Cuba by the USSR throughout the cold war – Hundreds of millions were stashed by Comrade Fidel and the goons.
IKE,
The same thing happened in Iraq. Toward the end of Saddam’s reign, the educated people left Iraq. One of the Veterinarian a COL in our unit actually was a 2LT in the Iraqi Army during the Iran war. There was a tremendous brain drain when so many high governmental offices became staffed with political allies rather than knowledgeable people. Jordan and the Scandinavian countries benefited. Some just moved and found other work.
As we looked for knowledgeable people for the new government, we saw only people who wanted power for the bribes. I worked with a fine lady, the Minister of Agriculture. She too left. There was a good man in charge of investigating government corruption. He did too good of a job and left Iraq under threat of death. The Kurdish people have a lot of knowledge but stayed in their areas for protection.
Iraq in 2004-2010 looks like another country where officials do not have to pay their taxes, leaders can lie to their people with no consequences. Cronies are paid off with favorable positions where they can benefit financially.
Randy, I thought you were talking about Chicago:
An Obamanation finishing school.