MovieChat Forums > Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) Discussion > Socialism: a Cuban love/hate story

Socialism: a Cuban love/hate story

posted 14 years ago by scuban
3 replies | jump to latest

I just saw the last of Michael Moore's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story. I've seen all of his films and must say that have all been entertaining and amusing. I laughed at the Cleveland "promotional" video.

However, I would like to warn all the young people that socialism isn't without it's follies. Many have romanticized Fidel Castro, the tyrant leader of Cuba and his brand of socialism. My parents fled his regime long ago. Here are some of the changes he brought about in Cuba and which Michael Moore conveniently leaves out:

~He robbed people of additional property they owned including from my parents.

~He eliminated people's voting rights and the "supreme maximum leader" has ruled his nation for over fifty years without opposition as a dictator.

~He persecuted homosexuals and threw many in work camps in order to correct them.

~He restricted small business from being created. He outlawed Christmas and Christmas trees.

~My father lost his job at the University of Havana because he wasn't a socialist.

I do not belong to any political party nor religious group, by the way. The world we live in isn't black and white. It can't always be simplified that way like in the movies. Both capitalism and socialism make good points and it is up to us to decide which elements are better for the majority of people with respect to the minority.

"Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others."

--Sir Winston Churchill

[–] mejjad 14 years ago

While communism lends some of its ideas from socialism, socialism really isn't anything like communism. Cuba is not really a socialist state, not at all; although social reforms have been made the government is unitary communistic.
There is not a single true socialist country in the world that is led by a dictator, though all communist states are.
Fidel likes to say that he runs a socialist government, and if you think he does, you are truly misinformed.

[–] dnixx 14 years ago

Thanks for pointing that out.

The myth of the Cuban health care system has been debunked countless times. Here's an interesting article:

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/health-myth.htm

[–] kensa 14 years ago

It often seems in USA socialism is just a propaganda key word to damage the reputation of people and ideas.
Was FDR a Socialist? Nobody wants socialism in which every lazy smartass earns the same as the CEO and the currency are certain privileges instead of money. That's what the people in Cuba propably hate, too. In the eighties some socialist companies like it was introduced in the movie (the chip- and the bread factory) were funded in Germany. A few had success and grew. And naturally the growth meant the end of all employees being equal. Nevertheless a nice try.

No reason to slander every good idea to construct a bit more just society.
It is simply suspicious to use the word socialism in a generally depreciating way.
It just means a lack of reasoning.

The most distressing thing to me is the decay of the US media. Not only in the USA but exceedingly there (and Italy of course). Control the media control the people - I'm afraid the real bad guys just laugh about the range of Michael Moore's messages.