Cuba - Marxism-Leninism vs. Hypocrisy

Cuba: Marxism-Leninism vs. Hypocrisy
October 12, 2016
By Osmel Ramirez Alvarez

HAVANA TIMES — It's a well-known fact that the Cuban Revolution's
official ideology is, and has always been, Marxism-Leninism. Up until
the '90s, there was an ironclad commitment to this doctrine, which was
extremely widespread in all aspects of Cuban life; however, the
situation has changed gradually over time since then, for different reasons.

It was even a regular thing to use Marxist phrases in speeches or in any
colloquial discourse: "Subjective and objective"; "dialetical or
non-dialectical"; "contradictions create development"; and such. These
kinds of things were said in many philosophy courses across the world
and everywhere else. Even though philosophy is a tedious subject for the
majority of people, nobody refused because of the real risk of being
labeled somebody with "ideological problems".

However, that doctrinal euphoria has decreased greatly and a first sign
of this is that the Marxist phrases have disappeared from everyday
slang. They no longer make an appropriate impression like they did
before and it seems that they're no longer demanded. Even the
commonplace habit of torturing the Cuban people with longwinded and
repetitive speeches has remained in the past, not just at the highest
level of Government, but at the lowest too.

If all the Communist Party (PCC) activists were given a test about
Marxism-Leninism right now, without warning, it would be interesting to
see just how many would pass: very few, I'm sure. It's a shame that we
can't do this and prove their farce. They are communists that don't have
the slightest idea about what kind of socialism they support and defend.

You can see this in a narrow context, talking to people, searching for
their more intimate discourse. The majority of managers, administrators
and politicians are communists by inertia, out of self-interest and even
out of impotence. If tomorrow freedom of political association was
allowed in Cuba and democracy was established, many PCC activists would
desert and join other organizations.

This is why we can confirm that the Revolution's official ideology
remains to be Marxism, but only formally speaking. In practice, it's
been quite a while since this has been exchanged for "something else"
which has become widespread and taken root in the behavior of every
social actor in Cuba: I'm talking about hypocrisy.

Although this is clearly not an ideology in itself, it acts as such, and
it pains many Cubans to see that such a negative attitude can overpower
our behavior in such a way. It's the consequence of our need to survive
in an authoritarian and suffocating system like the one we have. It is
indeed something truly aberrant and twisted, within the scope of the
loss of values that our modern society is suffering.

This is evident in every moment of our daily lives, however, it is
certainly more prominent in some instances and it's worth mentioning them:
- In the compulsory political morning meetings that are held in
workplaces. Everybody loathes them but they still go, and they don't
even listen to the news or comments; not to mention ideological talks.
- In voluntary jobs, where you don't work and you don't go voluntarily.
- In the Neighborhood Defense Committee (CDR) affiliation, where they
automatically include you when you're 14 years old and in order to
disassociate yourself you have to make a request and mark yourself as
somebody hostile to the system. An out-dated organization that hasn't
worked for decades and they insist on keeping it.
- In the business sector, where it's difficult to find a manager who
believes in the way that our economy works and has to pretend and work
to support it.
- In the extremely well-known salary paradox: workers pretend to work
while the government, the great employer, pretends to pay them. Robbing
and influence peddling do the rest.
- In the custom of our people to march en masse, for example on May 1st,
in support of the Revolution supposedly and the next day you see the
same faces lining up at a consulate, begging for a visa to leave this
country that has no future.
- In the unsupported proclamation given by our leaders, who still dare
to say that this system is the fairest in the world, while our people
live in the most humiliating misery and flee en mass to capitalism,
overseas and through jungles, risking their lives and subjecting
themselves to humiliation.

There are countless examples and the list is never-ending. The great
hypocrisy of the Cuban political system is evident everywhere: the
double talk, the double image and the double standards. The profound
Marti concept that affirms: "a man who hides what he thinks isn't
honorable" has remained in the past. In revolutionary Cuba whoever says
what they think doesn't even have a platform to say it. It's almost
impossible to be honorable.

"Only the most capable survive" and the most capable in Cuba aren't the
most intelligent or the most pragmatic: "they're the most hypocritical."
Between the more you pretend and the more astute you are "to bathe and
put away your clothes", the higher you rise. There's no doubt that
Marxism has been set to the side and hypocrisy stands up proud on top of
it; instead of being a Marxist today you're a hypocrite, because taking
on a different ideology is still dangerous and the majority don't dare to.

Another stain on this dark national file that could rather be called:
"the Cuban Revolution's negative accomplishments."

Source: Cuba: Marxism-Leninism vs. Hypocrisy - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=121513