When emperors wear military fatigues:

The popular support behind Castro’s totalitarianism

By Ignacio Gutierrez

 

Cults, Castro and communist China. Aside from all beginning with a C, they share other similarities most people are not aware. There are many who laud Castro’s 47 year rule and claim he has been supported by Cuba’s majority, maintaining that any oppression in Cuba is due to the economic stranglehold by the US embargo. But the political tactics behind Castro’s regime, communist China and even various cults which have taken the lives of their most ardent followers, bear too much in common to be mere coincidence.

 

Psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton, is known for his research on the psychological causes and effects of war. His most notable book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China, dismantles the methods totalitarian leaders have used to change peoples’ minds.  They are summed up as the Eight Point Model of Thought Reform. He became a legitimate authority on the subject after testifying in defense of Patty Hearst in her 1976 trial, stating the Symbionese Liberation Army used similar methods to influence Hearst to commit bank robbery.

 

Lifton has maintained that such coercion cannot permanently change beliefs or personality, but does cause short-term behavior and general neuroses. But it seems when all eight methods are consistently and repeatedly executed over time, they are powerful enough to allow leaders to wield total control over their followers for years, even decades. Though futile to ascertain Castro transformed Cuba into a national cult, the similarity and near exactitude his political tactics share with the following methods are remarkable.

 

ENVIRONMENT CONTROL Controlled relations with the outer world. In Cuba, this is most evident by banning freedom of speech, the press, and nowadays, internet access. Even tourists cannot enter DVD players. While advocates have argued the need to restrict certain liberties due to an imperialist threat 90 miles away, the permanence of “comités de defensa de la revolucion”, committees assigned to every single neighborhood block to keep watch over government regulations, is the undeniable presence of totalitarian control. Cubans must report each and every visitor, the purpose of their visit, and the general activity in one’s home to their respective neighborhood comités. It has been instituted since 1962 and is still in use today, sometimes seen as culturally charming by misinformed tourists.

 

MYSTICAL MANIPULATION Group has a higher purpose, proved through a miraculous event or prophetic message. Castro’s victory speech in Havana January, 1959 illustrates this second point. Aside from calling for unity and stating we cannot become dictators ourselves, as floodlights shined over his podium, a white dove fluttered from the dark and landed on his shoulder. The dove was seen as a messenger of Oshun, an African deity revered by many, to indicate the anointed one. Coming down from the Sierra Maestra mountains and marching into the capital was reminiscent of the Biblical prophecy of the second coming of the Messiah. Considering the syncretic belief system of Catholicism and African mythology that was practiced by the majority as Santería, many were convinced this was absolute proof Castro was their savior. So indelible became these impressions in the psyches of the masses, that his stating “those who have the guns are the ones who have the power, so everyone must shut up and listen to us,” was hardly seen as a warning.

 

DEMAND FOR PURITY Pushing the individual towards a non-attainable perfection. In his quest to build an idyllic Communist utopia, Castro micromanaged a series of faltered projects despite contrary advise from Cuban and foreign policy experts. One project responsible for Cuba’s virtual economic collapse in the 70’s was his unwavering insistence on producing 10 million tons of sugar. Though Cuba’s crops and work force could only produce around 6 to 7 million, everyone was mobilized. From factory workers to doctors, students to housewives, other sectors were either neglected or abandoned altogether. He repeatedly insisted, on the three only TV channels allowed in Cuba, that it would be “una verguenza incredible”, an incredible shame, if the goal was not achieved. After producing 8 million tons, the greatest in Cuban history, he still deemed it a failure as he spoke on camera. Perfection not achieved, a psychological guilt trip was unleashed on a national scale.

 

CONFESSION The unhealthy practice of self disclosure to members in the group. The forcing of Heberto Padilla’s public confession before the writer’s union in Cuba became an international scandal in 1971. “Fuera del Juego” (Out of the Game), a collection of his poetry containing revolutionary criticism, won him the 1968 national poetry contest. However, with verses such as The poet! Kick him out!/ He has no business here./ He doesn't play the game./ He never gets excited/ Or speaks out clearly./ He never even sees the miracles ...", he was eventually forced to purge information and accuse other writers who harbored similar "counter-revolutionary" ideas, including his wife, Belkis Cuza Malé.

Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, commented "to force comrades, with methods repugnant to human dignity, to accuse themselves of imaginary betrayals and sign letters in which even the syntax seems to be that of the police, is the negation of everything that made me embrace, from the first day, the cause of the Cuban revolution.” But despite efforts and a petition signed by other prominent literary figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, other leading writers, including Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, saw these as necessary sacrifices due to the threat of the US. Padilla was left with little choice but to continue living in Cuba under close scrutiny until 1980, when Senator Edward Kennedy secured his release to the US.

 

SACRED SCIENCE The group's perspective is absolutely true and ABSOLUTE conformity to the doctrine is required. “Socialism or death” became a staple mantra of many of Castro’s speeches. “Pa’ tras, ni para coger impulso” (to return to the past, not even to gain momentum) was just as common and sacrosanct an axiom, particularly during Castro’s hours long public speeches. The resolution behind his speeches has earned him the world’s record for the longest public speech, held in the UN in September 26, 1960 for 4 hours and 29 minutes. Depending on various situations occurring in Cuba, or those that could remotely affect it, these public speeches could be held as frequently as every week. Despite the situation that called for the speeches, the message was consistently clear. The only socio-economic options the Cuban people were given under Castro’s regime was that of Marxism/Leninism ideological doctrines. It was considered by many unpatriotic not to attend. This contra-revolutionary rhetoric has served as justification to incarcerate tens of thousands of political prisoners for decade long sentences. Nearly as many families and friends never spoke to each other again, and have even been known to report each other to authorities, due to ideological disagreements.

 

DOCTRINE OVER PERSON The group is more important than the individual.  “Never lose sight that the bourgeois individualist is dangerous” warned Doreen Baxter, leader of the Worker’s Democratic Union, a political cult that existed in San Francisco during the 70’s. “The organization always and forever comes before the individual. We are nothing without it.” The same effective paradigms which stripped WDU members of their individuality, impoverished them, and turned them against each other, were also the underlying assumptions derived from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Despite popular belief that Castro was forced into Communism, he had read much of Karl Marx’s and Lenin’s writings while serving a two year jail sentence under Batista before taking power. The US embargo was not imposed until after Castro completely nationalized all US properties in Cuba by 1960. The revolution was then presented as an experiment beset by threats, requiring the single-minded dedication by all Cubans where democratic elections would only impede the process. The idea of working towards the never-ending goal for social good, justified the eluding promise of a true democracy.

 

LOADED LANGUAGE A new vocabulary emerges and sufficiently stops members from thinking critically by reinforcing a "black and white" mentality. Among the various revolutionary mantras such as “socialism or death” and “seremos como el Che” (we will be like Che) taught to children from an early age, one of its more thought stopping paradigms is the “dictadura del proletariado” (the workers’ dictatorship).

Its use can be seen in the 1974 documentary “Waiting for Fidel”. In it, Geoff Stirling owner of broadcast stations in Canada and former primary of New Foundland Joseph R Smallwood, were invited to Cuba by Castro, to film their documentary. Among their footage of some of Cuba’s institutions, such as the Lenin School, where the daily curriculum is from 6AM to 10PM and children are expected to work 15 hours a week sewing baseball mitts, garments, or assembling radios, they also visited the University of Havana. There, university students study 20 hours and work another 20 hours a week in factories, purportedly practicing what they learn. Geoff Stirling engages in a conversation with one of the professors who insists Cuba is socialist, not communist. But when Stirling questions Cuba’s lack of free speech and proposes airing his views of the free market system on the radio, the professor denies and avoids the issue by concluding it’s not Fidel who is in power, but “the worker’s dictatorship”. Several times, the professor buries his face into his hands, rubbing his eyes in frustration, unable to convince Stirling of Cuba’s unique democratic system. Castro however, fails to appear in the film to discuss the central issue of the film regarding Cuba’s freedom.

 

DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE Those who leave the group are doomed.  Since the early 60’s until the Mariel boat lift in the 80’s, anyone choosing to leave Cuba could do so, but it was a long and arduous process. Those choosing to leave were often referred to as “gusanos” (worms) or “vende patrias” (sell outs) by their “companeros” (Cuba’s version of comrades). Being shunned by most of one’s neighbors and family, many people had no choice but to work in “los campos”, forced labor camps, for up to 18 months, before earning their right to leave. Work on these camps would sometimes consist of moving piles of rocks from one side of a field to the other, and then back again. Those who were finally given permission, were only allowed to leave with any of their belongings that could fit into two suitcases, though jewelry and particular photos were not permitted to leave the country. This policy continues. Exiles were used as a constant reminder and example to others that they had no strength or courage to put up with the struggle the rest of the nation was enduring. Many others, opting to avoid the camps and the indignation of their compañeros, decided to take more drastic measures by escaping to the very imperialist threat 90 miles away via the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of Cubans have risked and lost their lives escaping on makeshift rafts since the 1970’s. They are often referred to as “balseros”.

 

Ironically, some democratic nations, even small homeowner associations, can be found guilty to some degree of these methods. But it is unlikely all methods are continuously applied, much less over the course of various decades. Though some argue similar examples of freedom are being compromised and even jeopardized in the US, considering the Patriot Act, corporate lobbyism, and the Iraq war, presidential term limits and the system of checks and balances have afforded many to voice discontent, and change public policy. Concepts which are unthinkable in totalitarian states such as Cuba. However, with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, and others adopting Castro’s model of government, it is instrumental to understand the political tactics which create the seeming majority approval that willingly endures the systematic imprisonment and impoverishment of its people.