Invertebrate Spain (as in without backbone), and The Revolt of the Masses are two of José Ortega y Gasset’s best-known works. Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), a Spanish philosopher and essayist, wrote during the first half of the 20th century when Spain wavered between monarchy, republicanism, and dictatorship. For him, the Basque and Catalan separatisms of his day were manifestations of the existential ordinariness of societal values, and of the mediocrity of Spanish institutions. Spain had ceased to be “an active and dynamic reality” and had become a society without ambitions or illusions.
In Invertebrate Spain, Ortega y Gasset defines a nation as “a project suggestive of life in common” and argues that Spain “invertebrates” itself by the intellectual poverty and deficiency of its political class. He emphasizes that the shortcomings of a mediocre, invertebrate ruling class transfer to the institutions they lead. This fosters a radical demoralization of society. He expands on the theme in The Revolt of the Masses noting that “masses” are the aggregation of individuals that have become “de-individualized.” These individuals have stopped being free thinking and have been dissolved into an amalgam that thinks and acts for them. Thus, Ortega y Gasset argues, Spain has ceased being a nation and has become “a series of deadlocked compartments.” These reflections of José Ortega y Gasset came to mind as I read of the latest (July 2018) surreal controls imposed by the Cuban government on its population. The Communist Party of Cuba's 6th Congress introduced some minimal economic reforms in 2011, primarily by allowing self-employment in about 200 trade activities including buying and selling used books (activity #23) and working as a public toilet attendant (activity #29). These self-employed attendants are presumably in charge of maintaining the facilities and charging patrons a fee.
The bizarre list of economic activities permitted in 2011 corresponds to Ortega y Gasset’s depiction of decision-making by a mediocre and invertebrate ruling class. And yet, some observers foolishly portrayed these changes as those of inspired new leadership. The need, of the Cuban military and Communist Party, to control every aspect of life is antithetical to the individual freedoms and empowerment necessary to bring about an economic renaissance.
The new package of measures designed to limit the accumulation of wealth by self-employed Cubans intensified that need for control. The 2018 measures stipulate Cubans may only take part in one self-employment activity. For example, Cubans who operate an eating establishment in their home (known as paladares) may not rent a room in their home to tourists. No one can have more than one license for a self-employment activity. In addition, each activity that municipal and provincial governments had supervised will now be supervised also by a state ministry.
For instance, under the new regulations, the Official Gazette has published a table classifying public restrooms and specifying the “leasing rate” applicable to attendants of public bathrooms noted above as self-employment activity # 29. And, used booksellers, activity #23, are now prohibited from selling books that have “contents harmful to ethical and cultural values.” These are the first significant measures announced since Miguel Díaz-Canel replaced General Raúl Castro as president of the Council of State in April 2018; so much for the idea that Cuba is changing its totalitarian ways.
In practice, government economic planning suppresses our individual plans and replaces them with collective plans imposed by the bureaucracy. Government economic intervention does not improve our lives because Individuals, and not the government, are best able to assess the cost and benefits that affect us.
Moreover, totalitarian economic planning of the Cuban type, which promises to bring heaven to earth, is most damaging because it abolishes our liberties and our individual sovereignty; it transforms citizens into government marionettes. Oppression does not beget the virtues of liberty. Instead, the intellectual mediocrity of Cuba’s political class has fomented a “de-individualized” society without ambitions or illusions. In Ortega y Gasset’s wording, Cuba has ceased to be “an active and dynamic reality.” It has become: Invertebrate Cuba.