13 August 2006

Playing Kissy Face With The Dictator

The Fidel I think I know: He's a man of ironclad discipline, inexhaustible patience, colossal ideas and insatiable illusions (Gabriel García Márquez, The Guardian, 8/12/06)
His devotion is to the word. His power is of seduction. He goes to seek out problems where they are. The impetus of inspiration is very much part of his style. Books reflect the breadth of his tastes very well. He stopped smoking to have the moral authority to combat tobacco addiction. He likes to prepare food recipes with a kind of scientific fervour. He keeps himself in excellent physical condition with various hours of gymnastics daily and frequent swimming. Invincible patience. Ironclad discipline. The force of his imagination stretches him to the unforeseen.

José Martí is his foremost author and he has had the talent to incorporate Martí's thinking into the sanguine torrent of a Marxist revolution. The essence of his own thinking could lie in the certainty that in undertaking mass work it is fundamental to be concerned about individuals.

That could explain his absolute confidence in direct contact.
That and the firing squad in the next room.

4 comments:

Brit said...

I was recently having a mild debate with a relative who is as leftie as leftie can get without actually being Karl Marx. I asked her for an example of a country where communism had worked. She held Cuba aloft, not just as an example of communism not utterly failing, but as a shining beacon of political perfection in the world.

There wasn't much for me to say after that.

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Welcome to the gang, David. But why so coy? Your shyness is quite titillating.

David said...

They just love him. G-d held them, they love him so.

I figure that titillation is the root of all marketing, so coyness will rocket me to the top of the blogosphere and make me not just rich but Instapundit rich.

Brit said...

$1.47 says you won't.

David said...

$1.47?! Are you nuts? Ya'think I'm made of money?