Cartoonist or Circus Bear?
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That cartoonist of great talent when I was young, whose name I can’t remember, he collaborated with several publications in addition to working in a newspaper where he received his salary. Fair extra earning: to each according to his work, and each one must receive what he deserves. Although it hasn’t been always like this. Ah, what was unfair was the vision of the aforementioned individual in the face of this fact: coarse, inappropriate for a human being, incredible for an artist.
He did not hide this wrong thinking and repeated it in the editorial department between smiles and even laughter: “The quality of my work depends on the amount of the payment. I put my everything if they give me more; if the pay is weak, you already know...”. On the other hand, his performance in his workplace had less drive, less creativity than what was brought to other media. He complied just to get by, without giving it his all.
He didn’t know what Juan Ramón Jiménez (Moguer, Huelva, Spain, 1881- San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1958) said, the author of the wonderful work Platero y yo: “In a job - whatever it is - think that what you are doing in every minute is the immortal”. I think that if he had read it he wouldn’t have assimilated either: it was a trained animal that performs in a circus the evolutions for the promised treats.
Nowadays there are those who behave like the crooked intellectual? Unfortunately, this type of bear does not only appear in that sector and they multiply in the most difficult times. Where do they put the drive, the passion, the professionalism "... whatever his work is"?
As Che Guevara has stated to counteract a theoretical error, harmful in the construction of a dreamed of fair life "... man does not work for himself, he works for the society of which he is a part, he fulfills his social duty". (Critical notes, to the political economy. Editorial of Social Sciences.2012). But it’s not easy to make everyone understand it, not even the most advanced, and transfer it to the task.
It's much more complex in a world adrift - so described by Frei Betto in Granma newspaper of March 2nd, 2022 -, and from which no nation escapes, with sensitivity terribly beaten, and capitalism in its rotten phase as the main attacker of humanism. Victory depends on rescuing, strengthening, the latter, which does not deny the urgency of economic development, also dependent on the achievements of consciousness.
Graziela Pogolotti pointed this out in her article Thought and Action (Juventud Rebelde, July 19th, 2015): "In this context ruled by utilitarian principles of profit, the death of the spirit shows." In intense moments, we Cubans show what lives in our souls and vibrates in the struggle; in solidarity, internationalism, in real support for those who suffer.
We just step up in the face of the pain of the accident at the Saratoga Hotel, turned into a struggle, even at the risk of life during the rescue from the rubbles, the careful attention in the health centers, even the elderly protesting because at their age they could not donate blood. None of them did it for money. But that heroism grown as a response to great events must be brought to everyday life The communists at the forefront, based on what Pablo de la Torriente Brau told us: "For revolutionaries, sacrifice is the fulfillment of duty."
Frei Betto in the aforementioned writing says: “The ship that was leading the family clan went to meet the rocks of the consumerist society and was shipwrecked. Everyone was adrift ... "And he concludes:" It’s convenient to listen to the wise: The time has come, we don’t have to wait any longer. Let’s listen to the human being who lives in each one of us and cries out for our humanity, who insists on speaking to us and making us see the other who gives meaning to our existence and is our reason for being, without whom we are not and will never be human in the future.” (Rubem Alves. A escalutória).
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