HARRISONBURG, United States. — On the platform Youtube circulates a video titled “The metaphor of the wild pigs”, whose vision offers a very illustrative reading on the value of freedom. The material shows how wild pigs can be deceived by getting them used to going to eat corn in a place that —as time goes by— is limited by fences, until the herd is imprisoned. When she realizes that she has lost her freedom, she begins to run in circles inside the enclosure; but her existence is already constrained to that space, and totally subordinated to the will of the one who guarantees her easy and free food. The pigs end up accepting the loss of freedom, and some may even show gratitude towards their captors, whose intention is to fatten them up to eat them.
Like any good fable, the one in this video also has its teachings, because what happened with the pigs is what happens in those countries where governments are continuously throwing free corn at the people in the form of social policies and programs. Once he accepts the trick, they begin to control him and curtail his rights and freedoms, or what is the same: to deepen his dependence on the power that claims to protect them. “I’ll make you poor to defend you”, seems to be the motto of these rascals who always proclaim themselves friends of the people.
The history of our country, from 1959 to today, is unequivocal proof of how disastrous it was to hand over rights in exchange for the promise of an elusive paradise like the horizon. Also harmful was the idea that ensured that all well-being should come from the State and not from our own efforts.
In Cuba, a growing process of political maturation of citizenship can be seen, but this is not exempt from contradictions and confusion. There have been so many signs of discontent that someone even said that the dictatorship would fall on October 8. But he did not fall, but after the protests are over —and after distributing sticks left and right—, the repressive machinery once again carried out its abuses with impunity, because we know that after each protest the regime identifies two or three leaders, or fabricates them to later try to intimidate their community by imposing severe prison sentences for detainees, while other collateral repressive actions are applied to their families and friends. This is a proven Stalinist method.
In the midst of these episodes of popular rebellion, it is disconcerting that there are still some compatriots who declare on social networks that the responsibility for the national disaster falls on Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez and, consequently, demand his resignation. “If Fidel were alive, that would not happen,” a Cuban woman told me, and it is clear that she did so convinced that he was saying something true. These people, who are not a few, are so clouded that they fail to internalize that whoever wants to be handpicked to preside over the country will be incapable of making it move forward until they manage to blow up the structure of the system forever.
On the other hand, and to be honest, most of those who dare to tell their truths on social networks do so out of marked pancist interest, annoyed by the lack of electricity, water or food. Very few really deep messages, marked by the conviction that the dictatorship must be ended and linked with an emancipatory thought, can be found in those sites.
In many of the demonstrations seen these days in different Cuban locations, a part of the citizens present at them cried out for freedom. This is undoubtedly an advance, but freedom is not achieved by crying out for it. As José Martí said: “Freedom is very expensive, and it is necessary either to resign oneself to living without it, or to decide to buy it for its price”.
It is up to all Cubans to fight for that freedom, and I include the communists. A really decent and dignified man cannot agree that civil and political rights can only be exercised by those who defend the dictatorship.
Many Cubans who live there are immersed in this struggle, and threats of imprisonment hang over them when they are detected in the demonstrations. Others serve long sentences for only having dared to claim rights. It will be up to them to act on the fly and assume tactics of struggle that significantly avoid repression and unite forces much better, because in the face of growing popular anger it is inevitable that all possible actions of struggle will be reviewed.
We must not forget that while these Cubans have very well defined objectives, there are others who protest for electricity or food. What will these Cubans do when those needs are met? I am sure that many of them will resign themselves to continuing to live their gray lives, where the only hope is that the smelly hash, the five eggs and the chicken post arrive at the butcher shop on time. Perhaps they will even rejoice when the blackouts are reduced from twelve hours a day to just three, or disappear, even if they continue without freedom.
If something hurts deeply, it is that despite the fact that the credibility of the dictatorship is in tatters, and that it is no longer a secret to anyone that the profits obtained are reverted only to benefits for the ruling leadership, whose contempt for the needs of the people is notorious , there are still Cubans who have not understood that in order to advance, evil must be rooted out. Unfortunately there are.
Only when the protests eliminate the partisan objectives from their claims, can we affirm that freedom is closer. Freedom will be achieved when the majority of Cubans who live without it are willing to pay its price. As long as that does not happen, they will continue to be immersed in the tragedy narrated by the fable of the wild pigs.
OPINION ARTICLE
The opinions expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the issuer and do not necessarily represent the opinion of CubaNet.
Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through WhatsApp. Send us a message with the word “CUBA” on the phone +525545038831, You can also subscribe to our electronic newsletter by giving click here.
