By a hard-nosed judgment, in the case of theoretical postulates, their proof is not the abstract logic of their conjectures. All depends upon whether, if applied, the theory does or does not work. If one goes easy on the assumptions below the floating iceberg of speculation, Socialism is convincing as a theory. The creed’s durable popularity and resistance to reverses substantiate the claim. The doctrine’s only problem is that when and where it is implemented, the performance fails to live up to the theory. Shame and curse on politically prejudiced reality! 

WHEN THE GOOD THEORY COUNTS AND NOT THE BAD PRACTICES

A ZDF (Germany’s second channel) report on Cuba and the American embargo proved to be rich in unintended lessons. On the misery of Cuba and the reduced economic relations between the US and Cuba, one heard two things. The first one was that, at its best, the embargo is a nuisance. As such, it might hinder but does not hold back Cuba‘s continued soar on the rising hot air of Marxist science. The other impression is that Cuba’s misery is admitted. However, poverty is not rooted in irrational policies but is caused by the embargo. If so, then one can pretend that the island has a good system. Its practical agony does not reflect the inadequacy of the economic-political policy to which the Party is committed.

One is made to conclude that Cuba is struggling against a despised enemy. That enemy represents a system that is condemned by the “logic of history” to crumble. The predicted collapse-to-come might be consoling. This sentiment is mitigated by an implication. To survive, socialist Cuba depends on the intensive interaction with her decadent capitalist foe.

At the end of the report, one is left with a question. It relates to a contradiction. What is true: does communist Cuba have a viable system? Or is it so that communism’s success is dependent on supportive trade with the leading representative of declining capitalism.  By pretending both at the same time, the report, more accurately the reporters’ informers, seem to advocate the socialist squaring of the circle.

SYSTEMS WHOSE REFORM PRESUPPOSES THEIR ABOLISHMENT

If an undertaking acts upon the wrong concept, a faulty business plan, or if its product fails in the market, it will go into bankruptcy or it will change course. Even a normal national economy might react to failure by searching for a new approach, the famous “Plan B”.

In some cases, however, the cause of failure, and especially the reaction to unfulfilled expectations, can lead to the avoidance of corrections induced by a doctrine. This occurs when politics and economics are intertwined. The avoided reforms imply measures to change those policies of the infallible Leaders that the market or society’s rejection declares to be inadequate. The precondition of such defiance is a worldview that is, being a program, more than just a preferred theory. Here resistance presupposes a ruling élite that is committed to the pursuit of an ideology. Such a commitment is likely to relate to an idea in whose name power has been seized earlier. In this case, the régime finds itself committed to the practical implementation of the promises of a dream. The same ideology also serves as the fountain of legitimacy while it is also a justified guideline for the dictatorial exercise of power.  Why the term “dictatorial”? Because ideology-driven projects require the total transformation of all aspects of private and public life. The word “totalitarian” expresses the goal and the concept. Now then, by definition, Weltanschauungs are comprehensible. Their all-encompassing quality makes them to regulate, in conformity with the creed, politics, society, the tenets of a generally secular faith and normative ethics.

REFORM AND ITS HINDERANCES

A component of the above is likely to include an economic theory. Within it, work, employment, rewards, access to goods, production, not to mention property will be included. Typically, the pronouncements regulating these will, ignoring all the differences regarding details between diverse worldviews, share a feature, which is also the axis around which these systems turn.

In the game of politics, the foregoing conditions endow the ruling party with the means to repress society’s self-defense. These means will be made effective by the conviction of those that yield them, namely that it is their right to use power unabashedly. Paired with this is the ability to extort sacrifices required by the damage caused by their planning errors.

The listed strengths have their downside. Such systems make adequate reforms unlikely. Implementing corrections to improve the system also undermine the system’s credibility as they imply that its managers are, regardless of their claim, not infallible. Therefore, even reforms from above become an implicit threat to totalitarian dictatorships. It is that real correctives “reform” the system out of existence. It might be useful to assess the case of Cuban reforms by remembering this. Lord Acton has observed that total power causes total corruption. Acton’s principle could be extended. “Absolute power” does not only “corrupt absolutely” but it also makes those holding such power to use it absolutely and incorrigibly wrongly.