Paternalism and the young
By Osmany Sanchez
From La Joven Cuba (The Young Cuba)
Not a day goes by that I don’t hear someone, particularly someone elderly, refer to the harm done to Cuban society by the now famous paternalism. At gatherings, bus queues, or in the cafeteria, paternalism is always used to justify someone for not doing what he had to do.
I don’t deny it, it is true that for a long time we got used to letting Daddy State solve most of our problems while we only received and criticized. But the fact is that we cannot continue to measure the actions of youth with the measuring stick of paternalism, much less to leave them alone now.
It is one thing to be paternalistic; it is quite another to play our role as revolutionaries and educators. I see with concern that some, referring to the work of the Federation of University Students (FEU) or the Union of Communist Youths (UJC), say that they’re not willing to do their share, or that young people “must learn from their mistakes.”
My daughter, 8, spends the day running inside the house, in the back yard or in the street. I have two options: one is to leave her alone until she falls and hurts herself, so I can show to her why she must be more careful. The other option is to talk to her before she starts running and explain to her what can happen to her if she’s not careful. I choose the second option.
Something similar happens with our young people. These are not the days when 9- or 10-year-old kids went to the hills to educate the peasants, or when, at 14, they manned the “four-mouths” at the Bay of Pigs.* They, the huge majority of modest families, lived through and suffered capitalism; that’s why they valued and defended the nascent Revolution, tooth and nail.
Today’s youngsters never experienced capitalism and, because they were born in the midst of the Special Period, the only thing they know about socialism is the shortages, the problems with transportation, etc. If to this we add the intense campaign being waged against our country to show that socialism is not viable and that capitalism is paradise on earth, then the young people will be increasingly confused – and confusion in a situation like this can be costly.
What to do, then? Allow our system to fade away and then say to them “I told you so”?
If we review what happened in the old socialist camp we realize that the things capitalists ask us to do is exactly the opposite of what they do, once the right regains power. Communist organizations and symbols are banned, people are forbidden to hold public office because they one belonged to the Communist Party, etc.
I don’t propose that we scare the new generations with tales of the ghost, the witch or the man with the bag to demonstrate to them how bad capitalism is. The facts that show how unfair that system is are obvious enough.
We must involve young people more in the revolutionary process, must talk a lot with them, must make them feel that they’re leading players and that their voice is important. The most “dangerous” ideas are those that are not spoken, that’s why it is important to create spaces for debates where all can express their opinions. We must neither sweeten the Cuban reality nor demonize the rest of the world.
The reasons to defend our social system lie not only in what we were before 1959 but in what we have achieved, despite all foreign and domestic obstacles.
* One of the outstanding features of the battle at the Bay of Pigs was the role played by the four-barreled 12.7-millimeter antiaircraft machine guns, popularly known as “the Four Mouths.”
