I am a libertarian 99% through and through with a strong laissez faire orientation. I don't have any interest at all in telling you how to live your life and, for the most part, reject forcefully any claim that you think you might have in prescribing how I should lead mine.
Lou,
Isn't a libertarian just an anarchist in drag? A cohesive society must obey some form of rule and behaviour, and the very unravelling of society that we see now is due to the perverted form of individualism that has percolated through society in the last couple of decades.
Otherwise people would be freely hitting golf balls at Hawks and Turtles, wouldn't they?
As to my knowledge of the condition of the Cuban spirit, I know through the first hand accounts told to me by numerous people who've left the island in the past 20 years; through my mother's observations based on two lengthy visits she made to take scarce over-the-counter medicines, hygiene supplies, toiletries, and money to needy acquaintances; and through my own extensive reading of materials from a variety of sources.
So all of your information is secondhand, since even your mother's recollections are filtered through her own particular viewpoint? And "Soldier of Fortune" or Fox News don't count as a variety of sources.
I also have trouble believing that Cubans don't have ready access to toiletries and hygiene supplies, although if it spares them Tampon commercials, then it probably isn't a bad thing, and good on your mum.
Much stronger evidence than words, spoken or written, are the actions of the thousands of Cubans who take to the perilous, shark-infested seas in the skimpiest of vessels and rafts to get the hell out of that socialist utopia.
Sorry Lou, but this is a ridiculous analogy. Weren't thousands of those making that perilous journey criminals? It is presumably much easier, and safer, to become a major narcotics trafficker in the USA than Cuba, since, as you pointed out, you would get shot in Cuba, whereas in the USA they make movies about you.
People emigrate for a variety of reasons. The British come to Australia because there is more room - although not for much longer - and sun; New Zealanders come so they can bludge off our social security system, and Asians come because the USA is already full of Cubans. Cubans presumably go to the USA because it is a lot closer than Norway, and has better weather. Indonesians used to paddle across the ocean to Australia in rickety, leaking vessels for the same reason.
I have no doubt, though, that the vast majority of third world people making the perilous journey to the USA do so for one simple reason - they want to appear on TV. They surely believe that if David Hasselhoff can make it, anyone can.
Perhaps you are correct, though. Cuba will one day break free from its socialist shackles and become another shiny beacon of Capitalism, with a massive divide between rich and poor, consuming vast amounts of resources in a fanatical desire to match the Lopezes next door, ignore the toxic clouds of pollution that grow darker every hour, and revel in hedonistic individualism, abandoning any concept of caring for their fellow man as they run them down in their customized Hummer.
Still, at least we will have Trump International at Havana to convince us we know best.