Well, you know, trained demagogues are out in force all over the world
defending Cuba -- take you, for example. And yet, we don't see people
fleeing the west for the socialist paradise.
> Such operations have always taken place, not only in Cuba, but in
> other countries, too. When you see big demonstrations in the Tv,
> like in Bosnia, Bulgaria etc., this can only be the effect of media
> propaganda.
You know, its amazing how close that assessment is to the one that
Richard Nixon gave for anti-Vietnam war protests. "Outside
Agitators". No one on their own could *possibly* dislike someone like
Slobodan Milosovich -- after all, he's the friend of the workers,
right?
I bet the wall fell in East Germany because of those darn trained
"outside agitators" too, just like with the student protests in the
'60s in the U.S.
> This little Cuba is, besides North Korea, one of the last socialist
> regimes which doesn't privatize itself too much. The effects on the
> people living there are bad, and maybe free markets would make the
> standard of living better for many of them (making Cuba what it was
> under Batista, the brothel and casino of the US)
Yeah. Right now, its so much better with it being the brothel and
casino of the European countries that send tourists.
> -- but if Cuba was a free market country and isolated the way it is
> now, you can be sure that it would be much worse there than in North
> Korea.
Dunno. South Africa managed to do pretty well even when it was under
sanctions. Of course, Cuba isn't *really* isolated -- the government
is free to buy anything it likes from Canada, Europe, and South
America. Sanctions there are astoundingly porous -- Americans can even
go there pretty freely if you travel through Mexico or Canada.
> When you claim that they spread propaganda, you must prove it. It has
> been proven for US media millions of times (see media during Vietnam &
> Gulf War, presidential elections etc.)
Walter Cronkite's painful declaration on the evening news that the war
in Vietnam wasn't a good thing must be a collective hallucination of
the proletariat, eh?
> And the media in the US aren't owned by gov't. Why do they support
> it?
Maybe they have this weird idea that its better to be in a free
country where they can print what they like?
> I am no communist. I wouldn't want to live in Cuba, North Korea or even
> China. I already said that my "dream-economy" is that of Japan,
> partially because of state intervention, partially because of a kind of
> "politics of consent".
I see you know at least as much about Japan as you do about most other
things.
> Big enterprise leaders there have realized that operating the way US
> leaders do would lead their country back to the Middle Age.
Strange that the U.S. isn't back in the middle ages. I guess we just
have a shortage of cathedrals and hand illuminated manuscripts
standing between us and economic chaos.
Perry