possible that economic conditions in Cuba have gone up all the way to lousy. The reason for these dismal numbers is ideology. Cuba now has the second oldest purely Marxist economy left in the world, surpassed in longevity only by North Korea’s. (China claims to be Marxist, but Xi Jinping keeps Karl in a box and only opens the lid to scare occasional political opponents.) Which raises a question. What is Marxist ideology for ? What’s the use of the thing? Marxism is an economic ideology, but obviously its purpose is not to foster a vibrant economy. The idea of the ideology must lie elsewhere. Marxism is a way to control people. And since its basis is economics (rather than religion or nationalism or whatever), and since there’s an economic aspect to everything, Marxism is a way to absolutely, totally, and completely control people. Which raises another question. A question about something dark, disturbing, and icky in human nature. Why is it that when people have absolute, total, and complete control over other people, it never turns out to be a good thing for the other people? It’s like having parents who do nothing but spank you, ground you, dock your allowance, forbid you from watching TV, take away your phone and your laptop, and send you to bed without dinner. And they’re not your real parents. You were stolen at birth from your real parents by the Marxist state acting like evil fairies in a bad fairytale except that—so far as I know—evil fairies don’t have scruffy beards, wear greasy berets, and go by stupid names like “Che.” But Cuba is worse than a bad childhood. Children grow up. Cubans just get older. They’re not treated like humans. They’re not even treated like dogs. They aren’t petted or scratched behind the ears or—ever—given a juicy bone. Sometimes they aren’t fed anything nearly as tasty and nutritious as dog food. Sometimes they aren’t fed at all. And when they’re told to “roll over and play dead” they aren’t given a treat—they are dead. RUSSIA (JUNE-JULY 1996) Of course, you don’t need an ideology to be dark, disturbing, and icky. You can let a Bond villain run your country. And Vladimir Putin (you can almost hear Sean Connery saying, “Putin on a little weight, Miss Moneypenny?”) doesn’t have to go through a lot of complicated Ian Fleming plot rigmarole to get ahold of a nuclear warhead. He already has at least 6,400 of the things. Russia was a mess twenty-five years ago but was possessed of a certain
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