His comment wasn't political. It was that "Cuba went wrong when people became unable to separate politics from their personal lives." This is a belief that intermingling politics and perosnal lives is dangerous and will always lead to problems.
Thus, it would be a stupid decision to go to a country that has had this same exact problem since it's very inception.
I can guaruntee you that the U.S. does not have the problems he was describing Cuba to have; he has experienced both, and could tell you that. In fact, much of the reason that he claims that the U.S. is so great is that it is the country where (according to him) politics possibly matters the
least on a personal level.
Now, when I say politics, I'm not talking about POLICIES. Obviously those are going to affect everyone, and nothing can really stop that from being true. And I'm also not talking about things like getting involved in a political cause or campaign (or... internet forum), which I guess would make politics, in a way, part of someone's "personal" life. But what I'm talking about is decisions which have nothing to do with politics, but are made to anyways, without any real positive results, because of some high ideals that are placed above things that actually matter. For example, there is little that makes me see red more than close friendships splitting up just because of differences in political views, which happens all too often. If a Republican moved away from Vermont simply because it was too much of a "blue state", without regard for the actual conditions of the state, it would be indicative of the same thing - imagining one's own political stances to be so important, everything is seen through the scope of politics... and judgements are made on people, and places, based on what their political views are. On this forum, there's a word we often use for people who feel the need to politicize absolutely everything: "partisan" (even though that's not what the word means IRL). The type of poster who complains about the evul librals/conservatives, having apparently never met one in real life. Imagine that taken to an extreme, and imagine an entire country full of that extreme. That's what I'm saying my dad was saying about Cuba - it became like a country filled with forum trolls, except more extreme, and with IRL consequences. Every aspect of life became about the Revolution. In fact, that our own Revolution changed so little (as you pointed out earlier) is probably indicative of exactly what I'm talking about, that we're almost Cuba's opposite when it comes to this stuff.
He should isntead have gone to a country that was founded by people who do not allow politics and ideology to enter into their personal lives, as this would prevent the same thing form occuring in his new homeland.
It's not his ideology that should have guided his decision, his practical application of a belief he had should have guided his decision.
If it's about a country's
founders rather than the conditions of the country where he would live itself, then there's no pratical application about it that isn't entirely guided by ideology. And it makes no sense, since that ideology is that ideology shouldn't get in the way of personal decisions in the first place.
Now, if you were saying that the same thing happens here as in Cuba in the modern day, that's a different matter. And it's just not true.
I'm describing reality. Your position is in defiance of reality. You formulate your political positions and ideology based on personal preferences. They are intertwined from the very start. Your father would be searching for a very, very long time for the mythical land where politics and perosnal lives are not intertwined. There is no other possibility.
Again, I think you don't get what I'm talking about when I say "personal lives". See above.
And he's found that "mythical land", it's called the United States. Or so he says.
