Consciousness and Psychology

Abstract

This joke, which Guevara told whenever he had the chance, shows not just his ironic sense of humour, but also a deep recognition that the paradigm of the socialist ‘new man’ he advocated was a profound challenge to the culture and nurture of Cuban workers.² Cuban socialism had not, in Marx’s words, ‘developed on its own foundations’, but emerged from capitalist society, ‘thus in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the birth marks of the old society from whose womb it emerges’.³

A Cuban worker goes to see the Secretary of the Party to say that he wants to become a member.

‘Well, to be a party militant you have to be an example at work. That means working 12, 18 or 20 hours a day.’

‘So many hours a day?’, asks the worker, alarmed.

‘Yes, and that includes Saturdays and Sundays’, informs the secretary. ‘As well!?’

‘Yes, and no vacations’, adds the secretary.

‘Neither!?’

‘Neither. What’s more you have to be faithful in your married life, no going around with women.’

‘Not one exception?’

‘None. Also, you have to stop having a little drink after work.’

‘Not even a little drink to celebrate something?’ begs the worker, going crazy.

‘No. And the most important thing: you have to be prepared to give your life for the country.’

‘Now that is no problem.’

‘Why not?’ asks the secretary curiously.

‘Well, after the lousy life I am going to lead …!’

Tirso Sáenz¹