Because just as companies seek to be recorded in the minds of their consumers so that they prefer them when purchasing goods or services, leaders need a fantastic story that ultimately justifies their “mission”, including their atrocities, murders, famines, to mention a few.
Perhaps one of the most iconic events of how marketing can build a myth occurred on January 8, 1959 at the Columbia Military Barracks, in Havana, Cuba. As you can imagine, the place and date places us at Fidel Castro’s triumphant entry into the capital after the overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista, and Castro’s first speech upon his coming to power.
The event to which I refer was immortalized in several photos, which captured the moment in which the leader of the revolution was perched on a white dove during his speech. The first reading of those attending the rally, including by journalists, was: it is a divine sign; he is an envoy of God for peace (logical to think so after seven years of war in the country); he is the envoy of the Holy Spirit; he is a new Messiah.
The aforementioned statements come from different publications that refer to the event that occurred more than 60 years ago.
Blaming those present on naivety would be unfair. They were victims of a strategy well prepared by Castro Ruz’s team. At one point in his speech it was planned to release a white dove near the speaker, so that it would perch near him.
History (or what we have been sold as such) indicates that the bird planned for said plan flew over Castro when it was released, so its objective was not met. But, another dove appeared that did end up perching on the dictator of Cuba for the next 50 years.
It is likely that even the second pigeon was also “trained” or “groomed” to perch on Castro. But the story that has been sold, the myth that has been built, is that the bird freely reached the leader to capture a dramatic scene on which a symbolism has been built around Fidel Castro and his role as “savior” of the island.
Today we know that after having executed, at least, more than three thousand people for having attempted against the revolution, having plunged the country into misery, hunger, having put an end to any vestige of freedom and possibly having “built” the most backward country on the continent, that Castro was not an envoy, not divine at least.
But the myths did not focus solely on the figure of Castro, since the propaganda was also in charge of attacking the overthrown Batista regime. One of the ideas that was constantly repeated during the first years of the revolution was that the batistato had assassinated more than 20,000 Cubans. Figures revealed later indicate that there were no more than 2,500 deaths from political causes during the Batista dictatorship. More than 60 years after the start of the Castro revolution, there have been at least 7,600 deaths related to political activities.
Another myth surrounding the figure of Fidel Castro is that of the assassination attempts he suffered, perhaps one of the most important related to the cult of his personality. Castro’s propaganda was in charge of disseminating that his leader was the target of 640 attempts on his life throughout the 47 years that he was in power.
This translates into 13.6 attacks per year, or what is equal to more than one homicide attempt per month. Something that seems totally improbable, except in the lives of those who have been fed by the propaganda of the Cuban revolution.
Of course Castro has not been the only one. Around Adolf Hitler, another of the greatest genocides in history, a cult of personality was built, also based on the exaggeration of historical facts.
As a soldier during the First World War he was wounded twice (1916 and 1918), remaining partially blind in the latter after an attack with mustard gas. Having survived such attacks was used by Hitler and his propaganda team to extol his bravery and that he had a unique role in rebuilding the Reich.
However, it doesn’t take a history expert to know that millions of soldiers were injured during the war, and survived.
But in these cases, marketing and propaganda exalt these facts as extraordinary, as part of a messianic myth that ends up contributing to the consolidation of authoritarianism in power, and with it the misfortune of their peoples.