Cuba libre!
Some weeks ago, I listened to a radio show with Swedish comedian Michael Lindgren who spoke about how he was a socialist during the early 2000s. Lindgren used to read left-wing intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein who convinced him that globalisation was a bad thing resulting in everything from poverty and destruction of middle-class to anti-democratic governance and wars.
As a young left-winger, Lindgren went to Cuba that he saw as a socialist paradise and alternative to capitalism. After spending several months in this “ideal society”, Lindgren became disappointed and realised that he was wrong. He personally witnessed the repressive character of the communist regime and that many Cubans were afraid of saying what they really felt about aspects as economy, basic needs and governance.
After the disappointment, Lindgren “escaped” to Mexiko in order to reflect his mind. He came to a hostel and started searching for a book to read. In a book pile, one book came to capture his attention - “In Defense of Global Capitalism” by liberal intellectual Johan Norberg, who at the moment was one of the leading pro-globalisation and pro-freedom opinion-makers globally seen and especially within the Swedish political context.
Read more via my recent political theory blog