Raul Castro - Man Alone in the Crowd

Raul Castro: Man Alone in the Crowd / Yoani Sanchez
Posted on May 1, 2014

The shouts, the posters, the slogans in a million voice chorus, awaken
dormant, extinct sensations. Seeing the sea of people passing in front
of the platform, his heart skips a beat in his chest. The red face,
dilated pupils, goosebumps and tension in the jaw. They are the first
symptoms of the excitement crowds provoke in caudillos. A ritual they
need to dip their hand into from time to time, to avoid the solitude of
power.

Autocrats invent marches, huge processions, lavish parades–"the biggest
in the world"–to rejoice in their own authority. They know that they,
and only they, can force a million people out of their beds in the early
hours, load them onto buses, write down the names of every attendee, and
set them to marching through a great plaza. To make it clear who's the
boss, to send a message by way of a crowd chanting their name,
worshiping them and giving thanks. A "mass" that would never dare to
stand down, people whom they don't rub shoulders with, whom they fear
and who–deep inside–they despise.

Today, in the Plaza of the Revolution, an elderly man in sunglasses will
preside over the May Day event. Days ahead of time every rooftop near
the place has been checked out and guards have been posted at the
highest points in the city, calculating how a shot could be fired at the
platform. His own grandson will remain close to protect him and a fleet
of cars will be waiting "in case something happens" and he has to
escape. He doesn't trust the very crowd that he himself has summoned.

The autocrat is afraid of his own people. Fear and suspicion. The
feeling is mutual. He knows that the hundreds of thousands of heads he
looks down upon are there… because they fear him, not because they love him.

30 April 2014

Source: Raul Castro: Man Alone in the Crowd / Yoani Sanchez |
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