Cuba and Evolutionary Psychology

By Pedro Pablo Morejon

HAVANA TIMES – Even though I admit that evolutionary psychology is a very debatable branch within the field of psychology and that some people would even dare to call it a pseudoscience, we have to accept that it offers quite a logical explanation to social dynamics.

It’s very obvious that many species develop in groups in the animal world, where we see a dominant male who enjoys all of the privileges of his position. The best females, the best resources, etc.

Generally-speaking, it’s the strongest male who suppresses the rest of the herd.

Every once in a while, another younger person challenges this power and kills them, or forces them to abandon the herd.

The beta macho is a second-class citizen, the one who follows the alpha male and obeys him without answering back. They are the vast majority of any society.

There is another well-known case of the omega male, someone who is completely useless, despicable, somebody nobody likes.

Transferring all of this to human society, we can easily see the same pattern. The alpha males who lead the community, just that they aren’t doing it this time because of survival instinct like animals do, they do this almost always because of their thirst for power, very few times for the wellbeing of their community.

The betas obey without the slightest display of divergence. They are a species of zombies and robots controlled by those in power. The omegas “neither paint or add color” as the saying goes. They are the ones who buckle under the strain of life, the poor, victims of addictions, or mental disease.

What does any of this have to do with Cuba you ask? Well, a lot, because this pattern is repeated in every human society, and if there is a society that harshly depicts the social dynamic of alphas and betas, it’s our own.

We had an alpha male for over 50 years that took and untook everything he wanted in our country.

He established a strict dictatorship based on deceit after swearing that his revolution wasn’t Communist, he physically eliminated thousands of human beings, he locked up tens of thousands, promoted international wars on three continents using Cuban blood as fuel, he sunk the country into absolute poverty and even almost six years after his death, the legacy he left behind can be felt in every aspect of Cuban society.

What have Cubans done about it? Applaud and obey, like irreparable betas, or flee, like the Cubans today who surpass the number of rafters during the 1994 migration crisis, arriving at the US-Mexico border.

What a contrast to the Ukrainians who are teaching the world a lesson in dignity! Vladimir Putin, another disgraced alpha, calculated that his imperialist adventure would be no longer than a couple of days. However, Russian troops have had to pull back to eastern Ukraine without taking any of the country’s most important cities.

Their only “victory” has been to bombard cities and murder civilians who already figure in the tens of thousands. For example, the city of Mariupol has been reduced to rubble and ash. Putin is a real war criminal. Only a few of his like riff-raffs have dared to justify it and refute proven facts.

In short, the courage of the Ukrainian people nowadays has made Cubans’ beta cowardice a lot more obvious.

I’m not asking for Cubans to take to the streets to be massacred, but I’d like them to give up the double standards and this servile attitude of subjecting themselves to the person oppressing them, at least.

May 1st is drawing around. Then we will see a parade of complicit zombies, maybe not as many as yesteryear, but certainly a lot of them. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

Luckily, I’m not a shameless alpha or a submissive beta. I prefer to distance myself from the herd like a lone wolf, even though I run the risk of being torn limb by limb.

Read more from the diary of Pedro Pablo Morejon here.