Neither Voting Here nor Signing There

Neither Voting Here nor Signing There
October 22, 2012
Erasmo Calzadilla

HAVANA TIMES — Yesterday were our elections, and once again I decided
not to exercise my right to vote. I don't support the circus that has
been staged to legitimize the regime.

But nor did I sign the "Urgent Call for a Better and Possible Cuba,"
which was circulated by the Concordia group.

The problem (for me) isn't that it's a liberal democratic document – far
from it. Elections, democracy, the separation of powers and the rest of
the components that make up liberalism seem grandiose, and I count on
them to always curb latent totalitarianism.

I have no allergies to any form of representation if in practice it
achieves what its name says. But social democracy? Perhaps this would be
the lesser of the possible evils if we were in Western Europe a few
decades ago.

The problem is that for all such enhancements to be more than merely
cosmetic, they require a certain degree of economic equality between the
actors who are going to participate in the "game," but equity has always
been a bone and a dog wandered away with it in its mouth.

I believe that global inequality and our proximity to the United States,
go terribly against any possibility of achieving such a goal in today's
Cuba, a poor country without a civil tradition of liberal democracy.

In the vast majority of nations that surround us there exists
"democracy," but almost all of them have social problems that are much
more serious than ours. Again, I don't support dictatorship and I would
desire its disappearance right now, but I don't want the arrival of a
system that would assuredly bring economic prosperity for those who are
well placed at the expense of appalling evils for most people.

In our environment, the disaster of "liberal democracy" is clear:
violence at a level that's unknown here, drugs turned into a social
conflict, prostitution and child labor, serious crises within the public
health care system, the displacement of business people by transnational
corporations, and many more.

All these things occur in nations where there's freedom of association,
multiparty systems, the free press etc.

So, my dear friends, I'm like Buridan's ass, unable to make one choice
of the other. But since I don't want to suffer the same fate as the
creature in that fable, I'm opting for a third choice.

It's not the one of Tony Blair but of the ant who — from below — tries
to awaken its sisters, brothers, friends, colleagues, partners, enemies,
etc. to desire to be free in a wider (albeit modest) sense of the word.
I'd rather concentrate my energies in participating in the creation of
an alternative.

Anyway, I'm going to keep thinking about it. Maybe sometime in the
future I'll change my mind. It's comforting to me to think that my
decision isn't particularly important, as it's the people as a whole who
must choose or create their future. I don't know if that will happen
through democratic elections or though some other means.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=80704