Whims of all good

Although practice has been putting it off, a question that welcomes, greets and simultaneously distorts reality still subsists in broad labor and social circles: Is everything alright?

According to the prominent researcher and essayist, a leading Cuban intellectual, Graziella Pogolotti, «the feliciano ‘all good’ is an expression of self-satisfied conformism and, the most serious from an ethical point of view, consists of keeping the leader satisfied, marginalized from the real problems, unaware of the serious cracks masked by the make-up of fresh paint.”

The quote is included in an article from February 2017, and remains fully valid. I previously commented on the subject, in the face of the annoyance of some -many- who did not understand the reasoning on how much negative the aforementioned phrase contains.

Then, before the affirmations of the one who has been cataloged by Abel Prieto as «an extraordinary intellectual who has put all her talent at the service of decolonization, human improvement, the ideals and values ​​of the Revolution», the criticisms of the criteria diminished. of the unknown provincial editor. It was the accolade that is not always received.

However, the unfortunate phrase returns and disarms those who, overwhelmed by a thousand and one problems, feel compelled to answer yes, that everything is fine, since a contrary attitude would lead to factual explanations out of context. And it is not, not even remotely, that everything is wrong: it would also be an aberration to conceptualize it that way, because from an absolute positivity we would go to an inappropriate negativity. It’s very simple: not everything is good, not everything is bad.

Very sincerely: for my delight, I transcribe verbatim quotes from the aforementioned article:

“It is conduct that reveals one of the most corrosive aspects of a bureaucratic mentality entrenched in routine and the preservation of some petty privilege.” «The «all right» is a safe haven for bungling and killing and living.» “The «everything is good» reveals a way of thinking and a philosophy of life that is incompatible with the latent emancipatory project in the Cuban historical process.”

Perhaps some find cute, or fashionable, the question apparently full of innocence and that actually carries a hidden philosophy. For them, it is worth the precise call of the intellectual: «I would like to draw attention to the urgency of rescuing and safeguarding social criticism.»

Translated by Casterman Medina de Leon