tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907752.post3552990688008066426..comments2024-03-27T07:18:39.229-05:00Comments on In Medias Res: What Cuba Teaches us About Equality, Sustainability--and PovertyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907752.post-67505823415084154022014-12-31T09:45:06.275-06:002014-12-31T09:45:06.275-06:00Anonymous,
Always sorry to lose a reader, but I c...Anonymous,<br /><br />Always sorry to lose a reader, but I can respect your decision. Though, if you do ever happen to come by again, perhaps you could point out to me where, exactly, I "attempt[ed] to find good things to say about [the Cuban regime]" in this post? Because I don't think I said any such thing. I did quote Bill McKibben talking about the emphasis the Castro regime (which I explicitly called "tyrannical" in the post) placed on education as a positive thing, and I did mention how the Cuban government had to re-arrange many of its local economic distribution patterns following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, but honestly, it seems to me that all that just points to what, as I say, "the Cuban experience teaches" us, not a defense--much less praise!--of the government which oversaw those experiences.<br /><br />More generally, I suppose I'm just the sort of person who believes that any and every human endeavor that lasts any length of time is going to inevitably generate habits and decisions out of which good as well as evil may be seen. That doesn't sit well with many people, I know; one of my heroes, the Marxist historian Eugene Genovese, eventually came to recognize that there were vital lessons about the limits of capitalism which can be learned from appreciating the world sought by Southern conservatives and agrarians, and a lot of his friends on the left never forgave him for that.Russell Arben Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03366800726360134194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907752.post-56901612522172881802014-12-31T09:08:14.773-06:002014-12-31T09:08:14.773-06:00I'm just an anonymous lurker and few-times-rec...I'm just an anonymous lurker and few-times-recently commenter, but I have to say good bye forever after reading this post. The Cuban regime is evil. Period. Full stop. See http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/letter-cuba-embargo-or-not and http://www.city-journal.org/2014/24_2_havana.html for accounts from that noted right wing ideologue Michael Totten. Your attempts to find good things to say about it makes clear there can be no common ground to be found in your worldview and mine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907752.post-80813456525364936912014-12-29T20:58:00.282-06:002014-12-29T20:58:00.282-06:00Matt, considering that I am willing to label some ...Matt, considering that I am willing to label some of Obama's war-power grabs (continuing in the fine tradition of his predecessors) as "tyrannical," strictly speaking, I have no problem describing the Castro brothers' rule in similar terms. And was my conclusion a sweeping claim? More like a broad suspicion, I think. But thanks much for your kind words, regardless; your opinion was one I was particularly hopeful to hear.Russell Arben Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03366800726360134194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907752.post-57650653962761870792014-12-29T19:09:09.018-06:002014-12-29T19:09:09.018-06:00A very good piece in many ways, particularly in yo...A very good piece in many ways, particularly in your explanation of the link between necessity and actualization of sustainable agricultural practices. I think unreflectively and assertively calling Cuba a "tyranny" without historical context is, at least, irresponsible. The sweeping claim about what _anyone_ "on the left" would be willing to endure to achieve a transition to sustainability is also a little careless. But that's why it's a blog, I suppose.Matt J Stannardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16236787482565862733noreply@blogger.com