The New Man Does Not Know How To Lose

The New Man Does Not Know How To Lose / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya

Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 14 November 2016 — A friend, a US
citizen, once told me that it does not really matter who wins the US
elections. "It does not depend so much on who heads the government,
because the system is what really works." I have heard that phrase from
more than one person, which prompts us to apply the phrase to the
so-called communist regimes, where something similar happens, but in
reverse: it doesn't matter who is in power, because the system itself is
what doesn't work.

However, for some American society sectors, it doesn't seem that the
latter is sufficiently clear, as reflected in the photograph that heads
this writing. It is just one image among many others reported by the
media about the demonstrations — some with certain violent nuances —
that have been taking place in several major cities throughout the
United States.

At first glance, the photo may look harmless, and perhaps even a little
naive: a large group of students in Austin, Texas marching in protest of
the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, a few
hours following the announcement of the election results, after one of
the most ferocious and vulgar electoral campaigns in American history.

Nevertheless, in spite of numerous Trump-adverse survey forecasts, and
against the media attacks that the campaign endured; in spite of the
awful projection of his aggressive, racist, xenophobic and misogynist
discourse; in spite of his inexperience in politics and the lack of
support of his own party; in spite of all these things the controversial
tycoon rose with devastating victory in the electoral college. Like it
or not, Trump deserves recognition.

Now, sympathy aside, Trump won in good faith, without cheating and
without tricks, by virtue of the same electoral system that produced
Democrat Barrack Obama – who is black, for an added description — as
winner on the two previous occasions without provoking marches and riots
by the Ku Klux Klan or the more conservative sectors of society and of
the Republican wing.

It so happens that the mere act of going to the polls implies acceptance
of the rules of the game; win or lose. In any case, there will always be
a new opportunity to reverse the results every four years. One may ask
whether, had the Democratic candidate won, Republican voters would have
considered it right to attack the system and ignore the confirmed
election results.

Because what is involved in these demonstrations is precisely that: an
onslaught against the system, masked after the onslaught against the
much-vilified businessman. The marches in question are not really naive.
Suffice it to note in the Austin photograph the prominence of the Soviet
flag, with the hammer and sickle, which heads the protest of the angry
youths, several of them with their faces covered. They must have a
reason for the need to conceal their identities, for, whoever believes
in the justice of their demands in an open, democratic and plural
society should have no reason to hide.

In other cities, students have worn T-shirts or carried posters bearing
the image of the famous guerrilla and Argentine assassin, "Che" Guevara,
a prime example of the revolutionary violence of the radical left in
this hemisphere, which is proving to be like a Hydra of a thousand
heads. It would seem that we are witnessing the birth of the "New
American Man."

One might wonder, if pro-Soviet and guerrilla longings are the ideals of
young marchers in the US, what comes next? Could it be that the worst
and most reactionary of the left flinched in Latin America and was
overthrown in Russia decades ago only to nestle shrewdly in some
university niches full of these outdated children, bored of their cushy
existence under the American way of life?

Obviously, youth is not enough of a condition to represent the most
renewing of social thought. Here are lots of fresh faces, many of them
with unmistakable Hispanic features and other ethnic and racial
backgrounds, who today assume the symbols of the most retrograde of
universal progression to combat the system that sheltered them, where
they enjoy the opportunities that they would not have under "communist"
regimes.

"He's not my President," their posters brandish. Well, he is the
president who has been democratically elected and will govern for the
next four years. It would good for them to come to terms with it. In
fact, in the face of this outbreak of Marxist bad habits, Republicans
will more likely have greater chances of re-election to the presidency
of the country.

Perhaps these exalted young people should seek "other lands of the world
that beg for their modest efforts" and pursue their dreamed dreams
outside their country, just as their fathers and grandfathers did when
they arrived in the USA, mistakenly thinking they were forging a better
destiny for their families.

And as the sprouts want something else and not what they have at home,
it would be best for these neo-communists to depart to more promising
lands for their misunderstood aspirations. I propose Cuba, for example.
They do not have to settle definitively; it would be sufficient for them
to experience at hand the benefits of the system erected under the same
breath as the hammer and sickle – though only the hammer is used now, to
crush any outbreak of freedom – and where their admired Che began his
pristine social experiments.

I would love to see these anti-system youths living under the firm
guidance of the communist party and the governing of the never-elected,
hand-picked octogenarian in the presidential armchair, the co-founder of
a fiercely capitalist family clan that will rule every small detail of
their destinies. Let's overlook the sordid details related to compulsory
ideological fidelity, the absolute absence of citizen liberties, the
material deprivations, the living conditions in permanent survival mode
and other similar trifles. These insignificant nuances should not be
obstacles for those who are fulfilling their dreams.

If they don't like the way things are done in irreversible communism,
then I would love to see them launch demonstrations in front of the
Havana University staircase or in any of the capital's avenues or key
Cuban cities. They should remember to carry Soviet flags and the beloved
images of the emblematic guerrilla. They might even add old photographs
of Castro I in his early years as a guerrilla warrior (current
photographs are not convenient). Let's see what happens, and then they
will certainly experiment in their hides, in the most convincing way,
what Marxist democracy is, symbolized in Che and the Soviet flag.

This might be the best way to learn how to value, in its right
dimension, what they have in their own countries. Trump will certainly
then look like an adorable archangel.

But let us not be too naïve. There will always be useful fools… or
communist agents suitably planted. Let's not neglect or lose sight of
the signs. Sometimes the most insignificant-looking bacteria turn out to
be the most harmful.

Source: The New Man Does Not Know How To Lose / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya –
Translating Cuba -
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