How can I get you, the reader, to fully grasp what this means?
The best analogy for this situation is pre-Civil War slavery. Slaves were considered property of the slave holders. And plantation owners often deflected criticism by boasting how well cared for their slaves were - "See: food, shelter, clothing." Families grew, happy children were raised. And slaves probably derived some pride from a day's job well done.
Castro says, "Look, all my citizens get free school, free healthcare! We are better than Capitalism! What he doesn't mention is that the price is servitude for life. Of course, if you mind your own business, work hard, and don't express any political opinions - except loyalty to the revolution, you get left alone. But open your mouth or try to get away and you end up at some government labor farm.
Well, why don't all Cubans try to get away? Well, why didn't all slaves try to get away? Because for a long time the vast majority were brainwashed into thinking that there was no hope, that slavery was their fate, and the natural order of things. Many bought the notion that they were actually better off with someone taking care of them - making the most fundamental decisions for them.***
CUBA'S REPRESSIVE MACHINERY - Human Rights Forty Years After the Revolution
Jay Nordlinger: Who Cares About Cuba? *** A DICTATORSHIP AND DOUBLE STANDARDS So, there are a couple of names named: Rene Montes de Oca Martija and Jose Orlando Gonzalez Bridon. There are thousands of others, belonging to thousands of other political prisoners. Hear (merely) three more: Vladimiro Roca, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, and Maritza Lugo Fernandez. These names mean nothing in our country, except to Cuban-Americans.
Perhaps the most inspiring name of all is that of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet Gonzalez, a virtual saint of the resistance. Biscet is a practitioner of civil disobedience in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, his avowed models. He has been imprisoned and tortured since 1998. We know, through his wife, that he has blessed and forgiven his torturers even as they have tortured him. Here is a man-Biscet-whose name should be on many lips. Cuban dissidents complain bitterly that if he were a prisoner of a right-wing regime he would be a worldwide cause. Yet he is anonymous; not even his dark skin seems able to help him. The stream of American celebrities who go to Havana to sup, smoke, and banter with "Fidel" are oblivious.***