At 08:17 AM 1/24/98 GMT, you wrote:
>
>
>1/24/98, Adam Kessler wrote:
> >Simple question--how do you *know* that they (the Cubans) *reject the
> >alternative in store for them*? After all, the essence of dictatorship is
> >that the dictator does note permit anyone to find out what the people
> >*really* want. Just before the fall of the Berlin wall...
>
>Here we see propaganda being reported as fact. First Castro is identified
>as a dictator, which is just party-line rhetoric, and then characteristics
>are thereby attributed to him which contradict fact. In fact Castro is a
>tireless public servant, has the overwhelming support of the people,
>systematically includes popular participation in policy making, and
>explains policy decisions forthrightly (and at great length) on television.
>
>
>By comparison, US presidents serve with marginal electoral majorities, make
>policies according to elite interests, and use their television time to
>deceive and mislead. For my money its the US that has a dictatorship and
>Cuba that has by comparison a democratic system.
>
>
>rkm
>
>
>
>So Castro is a "tireless public servant"! I suppose this is not propaganda
but an objective description of
>reality. (Personal anecdote perhaps?)
>
>Castro "has the overwhelming support of the Cuban people"? I repeat my
question: how do you know that, since there are no free elections and his
opponents are put in prison?
>
>
>Castro "systematically includes popular participation in policy making"? By
what mechanism? The wonderfully independent Cuban parliament? Neighborhood
vigilance committees? Santeria? Osmosis?
Castro "explains policy decisions forthrightly (and at great length) on
television." Are you serious?
>
>
>Benjamin Disraeli said that the conservative party was the "stupid party."
He didn't mean the British >Conservative party but all those who opposed
reform of the British political system. I don't know if he was
>right or not, but it is pretty clear that for the past 70 years the left
with its scoundrelly defense of >Communist tyranny has been the "stupid
party." It is because of "in your face" silly statements such as "the
>U.S...has a dictatorship and Cuba...has by comparison a democratic system"
that the Left is not taken seriously anywhere on the globe.
>