Posted on 07/14/2021 6:39:37 PM PDT by Rummyfan
The difference between the communist system and the capitalist one is that both kick you in the ass, but in the communist one they kick you and you have to applaud, while in the capitalist one they kick you and you can scream. I came here to scream.
— Reinaldo Arenas, Antes Que Anochezca
It’s hard to convey to those who live in the free world what life is like under a totalitarian dictatorship. I’d never experienced anything remotely like it before I traveled to Cuba in 2017 to report a story for WIRED magazine, and it was one of the most memorable and unpleasant experiences of my life.
The first thing is the fear: you as an individual exist naked without any recourse against the depredations of the state. I was reporting illegally, with no journalist visa, which would have taken at best months to get. The police could have knocked on the door and hauled me away to the cuartico (little room) at Villa Marista, the Cuban Lubyanka, or disappeared me into some other extrajudicial hole. The authorities did just that yesterday to Camila Acosta, a correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC for “crimes against state security.” The Founding Fathers’ warnings about tyrannical kings and their obsession with habeas corpus hit differently when you’re confronted with an unaccountable state machine and no recourse to rule of law or individual rights.
The second thing you notice is the deception: To live in Cuba is to live in a web of lies. It begins with the media, which is pure propaganda repeated by everyone, chorus-like, or else. As a cope, everyone has a half-dozen make-believe realities in their heads, which they selectively deploy depending on whom they’re addressing....
(Excerpt) Read more at bariweiss.substack.com ...
Yes, very accurate!
Cuba is a very sad place, everybody is forced to be a hypocrite there to survive.
What did Solzhenitsyn say....
We knew they were lying. They knew we knew they were lying. And we knew they knew we knew they were lying....
In the capitalist one they kick you and piss on you while the media applauds and tells you it’s raining.
Sixty years after the American revolution the US, using the Capitalist economic system, was an up and coming economic power!
Sixty years after the Commies took over Cuba they still cannot make “La Revol-o-o-cion” work.
Good article. We are so naive
“The everyday order of our lives may seem to us natural and permanent, but it is in fact as fragile and illusory as the cardboard props on a theatrical stage: It can collapse in a flash and turn at once into black horror. Our condition is forever precarious; even basic human decency can shatter and vanish in an instant.” - Simon Leys
Be kind.
Communism is why I’m right leaning and conservative. I read the Gulag Archipelago when it came out. Very tough for a yute to get through but the message found it’s mark.
The best thing that ever happened to Barri Weiss was to get away from the New York Times. Her articles now are well thought out and beautifully written. She is free to speak the truth.
*good read bump*
Also some very good comments at the article.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.