As those of you who have been with me since the beginning of this somewhat currently derailed journey know, my arrival in this country at age 15 was due to an abysmal change of fortune in my home country, Cuba. You also know I have mostly stayed away from politics in these posts. What happened there and the ensuing and ongoing disaster, can only be understood if you have lived through a forced transition like that.
Once the Castro govt. was fully in charge, then began the abuses and the intolerance to all who dared express an opinion not favorable to said government. Jail was the least of the problems, to this one had to add loss of jobs to your family, being publicly ostracized, beatings by random assailants, possible death once jailed, being forced out of your own home, and the list goes on.
Roll forward 60 years. We have just gone through a most shameful excuse for an election in this, our adopted country. Today (1/20/2021) a new president-non-elect was inaugurated. Someday, when real and straightforward historians look back on these times, the truth shall win out.
Today, we are living in an environment where all those issues mentioned in the above paragraph are present. Censure, ostracism, abuses by random people to anyone who might be of an opposing view, loss of jobs, calls by elected officials for harsh punishments if you do not agree with their government, etc. And these, BEFORE the government in question took over. If that has been the case, what awaits in our future?
A police-state? Where anyone who dares raise a discordant voice is to be silenced, no matter what? Where the rights of the individuals are to be totally trampled so as to satisfy the wants and needs of a group of megalomaniacs who control the major corporations managing our lives, and whose thirst for power and greed of money know no limits or restrictions?
The press openly restricted any and all news which might have been favorable to the prior president, or unfavorable to their favorite. Social media silenced all voices which spoke of a truth different than that fabricated one, parroted by their minions; so blatant was the censure that the sitting President of the country was effectively banned from these platforms. And those alternate platforms which allowed all voices to be heard, were forcibly silenced by those in control.
I have not seen this blatant abuse since Castro’s Cuba. I have not seen this unmitigated censorship since Castro’s Cuba, where all dissenting media (paper, tv and radio) was melded into one government-controlled platform. Ironically, over here there is no need to do this. That controlled platform already exists, for the vast majority of the so-called mainstream media is controlled by a handful of oligarchs who are the primary financial force behind this whole process. What they dictate the editing policy to be, is what it is. No one inside can dissent and keep their job. It has been shown already, except for a few commentators who have a huge following and, for now, can express an opinion not in accordance with their owners’ positions.
It is a sad commentary that a country founded on the precept of the individual as the bedrock of its system, and which has very successfully maintained that practice for over two centuries, is now on the brink of falling into an abyss under the guise of the “what is good for a majority, is good for all” lie. Especially when those few at the top have put themselves into a position of what is they perceive, based on their own agenda, to be better for “all”.
Censorship is the end of ideas, of free thinking, of expression, of everything we hold dear. It is a means to force the general populace into a non-thinking attitude where most can be manipulated and yet, it is only the tip of an iceberg which will destroy all in its path. Regardless of financial or human cost.
I pray to God I am wrong. Yet, having lived through it all before, I find it hard to believe I’m very far from those fears in our present reality.
Be
Well … Be Back!!!
Final Notes:
· Pray
for those who are
fighting an illness which may take them away from their loved ones… Every
request is heard, and counts!!
· Any
comments please send
to rjalcazar@gmail.com
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