Sigmund, Carl and Alfred are guestblogging today:
As the world watches and waits, two seemingly unrelated events are unfolding. The war in the Middle East is unfolding and Fidel Castro is hovering between life and death. No matter what occurs in both instances, the world will never be the same. Boundaries are being pushed, and realities, heretofore ignored, are being faced.
In the case of the Middle East, despite all the brouhaha of the MSM and the left, it is clear that Israel’s war is existential. Dysfunctional societies have evolved in the region, carefully nurtured by some of the most oppressive and repressive regimes in the world, with stated aims of eliminating or destroying Israel, couched in religious terminology.
Try as the mighty MSM might, they have failed miserably in their attempt to convince the world that the Israelis are new age Nazis. The civilized world can connect the dots: It is those for whom bigotry, hate and racism are a way of life that are the problem. Public displays of bigotry and hate and the glorification of darkness (and the promises to “finish what Hitler started”) make distinguishing the good from evil pretty easy. The only ones who actually believe the hatred and bigotry remains hidden are the Arabs themselves. Decades of dysfunction and hate, encouraged by regimes at the expense of education, jobs and freedom, have resulted in societies that cannot even relate to civilized societies. It will take decades to undo the damage.
In Cuba, in the shadow of a great democracy, a population has been force fed a diet long abandoned. Words like colonialism, imperialism and the the like are taught and talked about incessantly, at the expense of words like ‘free elections’ or ‘free press’, and ‘free _expression,’ and so one. Oliver Stone, chronicler of the Left, cannot make history go away. Castro’s brutal repression wasn’t a revolutionary anomaly. It was and remains, an integral part of the Cuban regime’s character.
In governments that have failed it’s citizen in every way, the ‘seven cent solution’- a bullet- is a favored and economical way to maintain control. At seven cents apiece, a lot of control can be bought. In addition, both Cuba and Arab world societies have come to rely on huge secret police networks, gulags and informers. With a straight face, they tell us- demand from us, actually, that we treat them as moral equals.
In the Arab world, hatred of Jews is taught, encouraged and rewarded. Jews are easy to hate. A few religious texts, a few preachers paid to stir things up and they are in business. Democracy has to be reviled as well, because notwithstanding the occasional cold exchanges between Israel and the western world, those democracies will never adopt the Arab world agenda. When the Arab world makes it’s case in the west, it does so in camouflage- as if they expect the racism, bigotry and hate will go unnoticed.
In Cuba, there is no religious facet, of course. In it’s place, the evils of capitalism assumed a religious motif. Everything about capitalism was evil, everything in a capitalist society was poisonous. America was the great purveyor of evil and had to fought as if she were a poisonous snake- an object of dread and fear.
In both the Arab world and in the case of Cuba and similar regimes, societies and expressions of dissent of must be subjugated. Regimes that restrict freedom will always be playing ‘catchup’ with free societies.
Societies that are successful do not need to restrict their citizens. Free societies understand that their greatness and ability to progress comes about as the result of each individual free to find his or her own greatness and potential, benefiting society along the way.
Both the Arab world and regimes like Cuba have one thing in common. They are societies that need hate and need fear. They are societies that cannot stand and support themselves on their own merits. Instead, they must rely on ever expanding and convoluted fear mongering. It is impossible for societies to succeed if they only things holding those societies together are fear and hate.
In the Arab world, the deliberate and concerted effort to vilify Jews a fundamental and basic tenet of Arab and Islamic identity is a deliberate attempt by dysfunctional political and religious leaders to create and subjugate a society that cannot function. In Cuba and elsewhere there are deliberate and concerted efforts to create that same kind of dysfunctional society.
The Arab world has painted itself into a corner. The vicious hate has been brought to the fore and it can no longer be hidden. The choices the Arabs have made are now evident for all to see. They have chosen hate over education ( a recent UN report placed Arab education at the bottom of the world barrel) and bigotry over progress. Along with the spectacular legacy of deaths, murders and failures that equal those in the darkest African recesses, the only other notable Arab achievement has been hating Jews. When you consider the great oil and gas wealth that been plundered, one can only be stupefied.
Castro’s legacy is being looked at, even as we speak. How does he hide the deaths, the murders? How does his Cuba explain away the economic failures, highlighted not only by neighbor America’s successes, but the successes of other Caribbean, even smaller neighbors? A Canadian visitor to Cuba once wrote that Havana- the show city- reminded him of Montreal in the 1950’s. Is that success? Are the hotels that cater to foreign tourists (and off limits to Cubans) any different than similar hotels that were found in Moscow, not that long ago? Had the Cuba been free, she and her citizens would no doubt have been spectacularly successful. a ‘warm Canada.’
In the same way that statues to Lenin and Stalin came down, so too will the tributes to Castro’s ‘people’s paradise.’
The fact remains that what is happening in the Middle East and Cuba are related.
It’s called, ‘Sunlight.’
Posted by Sigmund, Carl and Alfred
