Viva Fidel!

[poliphilo]

OK, I hate dictators, but allow me this one little inconsistency: I have a weakness for Fidel.

I like the way he's stood his ground against the superpower that's been breathing down his neck for the past half century.

And I like it that he's something like a real socialist.

And then there's the aesthetics of him. The beard, the cigars, the cap. That guy knows everything there is to be known about being an icon. In a world full of bland, image-conscious, be-suited politicians, he's the only world leader still standing who's full-flavour and caffeine-rich.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I suppose one might look on him as a colorful figure in the way you never would Hitler or Stalin, since his influence in the world is limited and the number of people who've suffered and died under his regime don't come close to the Nazi and Soviet horrors.

He's fortunate to have been of little strategic value to the US after the missile crisis effectively isolated and neutered him, allowing him to remain the tinpot dictator of a economically destitute island all these years.

Sorry, I know this post was tongue in cheek. It's just that Castro seems rather the opposite to me: a bland anachronism who was incapable of doing little real harm to anyone but his own people, and so was allowed to linger.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to defend the Cuban regime. I know my feelings about it are steeped in lefty romanticism and probably bear little relation to the reality on the ground.

But the legend is powerful and rather beautiful and, as the editor in the John Ford movie said, when truth collides with legend, print the legend!