The contradictory reactions to the death of Cuba’s “beloved dictator” illustrate the paradoxes of revolutionary socialist modernization, Gábor Stier writes in Magyar Nemzet. The conservative columnist thinks that Fidel Castro’s controversial historical legacy lays bare the complexities of anti-capitalist idealism.

Castro was the poster-child of radical anarchist anti-capitalist and anti-colonial ideology cherished by Western left-wing protesters in 1968, whose heirs are to be found in the liberal camp nowadays.

At the same time, liberal human rights activists remember the Cuban leader as a bloody dictator who should have been punished for violating basic human rights. Instead of these simplistic generalizations, Stier calls for a more nuanced and balanced perspective.

In his view, Castro’s socialist idealism brought oppression, but he acknowledges that his rule improved the lives of many poor people in Cuba.

Source: BudaPost

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