Beaten by cyclical and systemic crisis of both material and moral nature , Cubans have been seeing the future as an extension of the present . The latter viciously bites its own tail ad infinitum . It is a dangerous perception not only because it leaves us helpless — with neither resources nor optimism to identify the prospects for progress and even less to properly assume them — but also because it can lead us to make desperate choices that never produce good results , least of all in politics . A long history of internecine violence and cunning selfish leaders who never think twice to lead their supporters to death , economic crisis and social quagmire , bears witness to this : behaviors propelled by popular confusion and despair have dramatically influenced in Cuba and the rest of Latin America . No wonder more Cubans every day are fearing that the circumstances of the eventual impasse that gravitate around the system of government today , could end up turning the people into an instrument of violence . For so long and in many ways , the regime has been devoted to erase all traces of civic awareness and political culture among Cubans . It ' s something needed by any dictatorship , but the Castroite regime has managed to exceed all records , since the Castro brothers have had a more than half a century absolute power to do it , either through indoctrination and fear or by creating such an economic dependency that it seems that no brain cell is left to think about anything else than surviving . Partially because of that , the opposition has not achieved a substantial number of followers among the Cuban people . With certain obstinacy — well intentioned , but obstinacy after all — we avoid acknowledging that it happens because most Cubans are not prepared to conquer democracy and presumably to live per its rules either . It has been our weak point , not by chance , but due to a perverse Castroite plan . However , it does not mean that , eventually , we will be unable to enter the domain of democratic guidance and to recover lost values .
I do not think that anyone has evidence to seriously deny that the time has come . Since it is so , it seems commonsensical that deliberative democracy should have preeminence among the tools available to Cubans for advancing towards freedom and progress . Training people in the exercise of free expression of ideas , from the point of view of political pluralism or any other diversity , as well as in the frank exchange — without the harmful effect of some wills , opinions or rules prevailing over the relevant group — through a dialogue under condition of mutual respect , will enable them to seek , beyond any protagonism , the solutions to the problems affecting or concerning the entire community . These are the essential premises of Deliberative Democracy . Cubans often recall the renowned presbyter Felix Varela , to whom another famous Cuban scholar , José de la Luz y Caballero , granted the status " the first one who taught us to think ". Father Varela is rightly credited with the merit of applying his intelligence and wisdom to cultivate the ideals of independence and abolitionism among his countrymen , especially among young people . Because of such an effort , he was regarded as the first one who taught the Cubans to think . Thus , he should be deemed the precursor of the actions by those working nowadays to spread the principles of Deliberative Democracy in the Cuban sociocultural praxis . That is what this is about : learning to think , to enable the people for regaining the civic education that was part of our national heritage and got lost . Just because of that , we became an easy prey for the ideological dogmas and insane
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