Fisher, Watch out for that monster in the closet!

I went to see Fidel at the Paraninfo. Seems like ages ago, and with all the Posada Carriles affair, a dumb thing to have done. Besides the obvious --- that he's senile and nowadays doesn't even try to make sense out of his long, byzantine speeches of much ado about nothin' --- it was an interesting experience, very much like the first time I went to the Smithsonian.

Dinosaurs always impressed me, with their long dusty bones, the fact that they were dug up out of layers and layers of history, their tall, strong yet broken bodies, devoid of flesh and warmth, assembled only for display. It was quite the same experience at the Paraninfo where I sat, not knowing that I was on the brink of accidental martyrdom, just for having a glimpse at a dinosaur.

A few days ago, I sneaked in to see Carlos Alberto Montaner. Cool and fresh, always hip but unlike a few years ago somewhat less hateful of leftists, he's the kind of guy naïve people love to admire. Shrouded in covers of what seems to be a coherent, socially responsible branding of what are good and bad ideas, his speech was great -- great but naïve.

Kids love and fear dinosaurs. They are the closest thing that ever existed to monsters in the closet. Pound-for-pound, fossils are the building blocks for their demons and bogeymen.

Montaner only scantly touched the Cuba debacle, but I could see the glimmer in his eye --- his monsters are still breathing, still living in the backward alleys of his ever modern world, scaring people all around the globe. Bed time stories, newspaper accounts --- everything nowadays is about telling the sick sad truth about remote places where the sun doesn't shine, where fanatics rule supreme, places where everything is upside down....

But hell, it's time for people to grow up. The bogeyman just doesn't exist. He's neither a senile Cuban dictator nor a crazy Korean testing nukes.

In the end it doesn't matter if they are Marxists, fascists or martians --- they impose their views of what happiness is. Ideological history shows that politics only works to craft little sad personal utopias that later become generalized nightmares. Labels only work for politics.

That is why present day, power hungry "paleontologists" dig up ideologies, to justify the shoveling of tons and tons of dirt upon the unsuspecting public, to crush dissent under the big fat foot of what is right and to impose a given set of values of what is possible and impossible. And more regrettable, afterwards they lament all the processes leading to the birth of dinosaurs, blaming feeble democracies, weak institutions. It's a spiral that concludes with a meteoric finale. Society is forced to start again.

In politics I like to be branded a cynical Marxist --- first and foremost, due to a profound respect to a theoretical work that is beautifully crafted yet flawed indeed in many ways. Hell, Marx was a regular guy with a bad temper who liked picnics with his wife and kids. These kinds of mistakes make him tridimensional, unlike the God-sent saviors who speak on behalf of the moral majority, of the popular voice.

Fidel at least is sincere with his stupid messianic purpose and it's proven that he's no messiah. Montaner, on the other hand, vouches for his club of perfect professionals, of the learned and cultured intelligentsia who will save democracy and who despite their perfect ways, are humble to recognize their mission.

That's why in real life, I'm deeply cynical of what politics has to offer, because people always --- always --- want to craft tailored-made utopias, whether they admit it or not.

Like Marx, I'm not a patient man. I don't like to start all over again to end up in the same place, having the same problems with different expiration dates, holding a torn calendar of promised maxims about how positive is selfish human nature or how great is the communist paradise. Even though this post modern world is just giving its first curious baby steps to see if dinosaurs still creep inside their closets, one thing is still evident: politics will continue to be the art of ideological irresponsibility. And recent events only demonstrate that these dinosaurs are very far from extinct.

E. A. Fisher is a Panamanian writer and columnist, author of three books; his most recent work, "Diario en Verso" is a poetry collection; his work was recently included in the poetic anthology "Construyamos un Puente: 31 poetas nacidos entre 1957 y 1983" and his articles appear frequently in Panama's daily newspapers. You can read his Spanish column, "Una esquina no tan neutral" once a month at Expresiones magazine (www.expresionesamp.com)

Also in this section:
Fisher, Political dinosaurs
Probidad, University of Panama vs. Miguel Antonio Bernal
White, Our Islamic enemies
Silié, Taking the helm at the Association of Caribbean States
Gutman, Those who let America down
Barrow, The mayor's efforts against discrimination
Jackson, As Election Day approaches

opinion

Ideological... paleontology?