Paranoia is a mental condition, one of the most common ailments in the field of psychiatry. And if feigned, it becomes even more disconcerting, especially if it comes from someone with relative political power; this is the case of Mr. Rubio, the super-secretary.

The Trump administration, in addition to its numerous domestic problems, must contend with a petty figure who has been given “too much” bureaucratic power, but who embodies the hypothesis of the British thinker Arnold J. Toynbee, who studied the proportional relationship between the decline of an empire and the absolute lack of creativity in generating changes in political formulations and decisions. It’s worth reviewing his main work, “A Study of History” (12 volumes, 1934-1961).

If it could be defined as a syndrome, then Mr. Rubio suffers from the “Toynbee syndrome” to the last cell. And the worst part is, it isn't even him, as he is merely a messenger for the neo-Batista mafia of South Florida, which, as is well known, remained stuck in 1958, in a Cuba that belonged to them and their Yankee masters, and which the Revolution radically swept away.

The term "feigned paranoia" is relevant because, to defend his policies, Mr. Rubio has to invoke some "traditional" enemy—in this case, "communism and its sinister representatives" in the US—to justify his cruel intervention against Cuban families. Incidentally, this perfectly aligns with the average primitive thinking of MAGA supporters and Trumpists, who are incapable of recognizing the true adversary of American workers.

As we know, the traditional enemy, communism, has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s, when the threat posed by the USSR was more tangible. The USSR was experiencing a period of economic and military expansion after a relatively rapid recovery from the colossal disaster of World War II, demonstrating the extraordinary strength of socialism.

These days, anti-communism seems to have reached a dizzying pace. On one hand, Peter Thiel, co-founder and senior executive at Palantir, claimed that Pope Leo XIV was a communist, or an agent of the Chinese communists, for calling for logical and healthy regulation of artificial intelligence—something that would clearly run counter to the unbridled ambitions of Palantir, a tech platform poised to eventually replace even the CIA itself.

And Trump, never one to be outdone by current events, seized upon the bicentennial celebrations of independence to focus his attacks on the electoral rise of De, who comprise what’s called democratic socialism, and who are viewed by the 1% as a kind of existential threat. Faced with this scenario, Trump attempts to reassure the super-, hyper-, and mega-millionaires, solemnly promising them that the US will never be communist.

The domestic war against communism in the US is articulated through the doctrine of preemptive strike, that is, in the face of a “credible” and usually conveniently fabricated threat, with the support of the mainstream media, since the best course of action for the empire is to attack first. A Machiavellian distortion of the military principle that the best defense is a good offense.

This is certainly nothing new; it has existed in American strategic thinking since at least the mid-19th century. It even served to justify expansion at the expense of Mexican territory, where that “curious” and very current approach was applied, according to which Mexican Texans “were a threat” to the burgeoning former thirteen colonies, in their headlong rush for gold and land westward, which they called “manifest destiny.”

The story continued with Theodore Roosevelt's "big stick," the same one Trump paid homage to, in his own way, these past few days, claiming to have spoken with him—unbelievable, since the current president wasn't even born at that time, fortunately for the world and probably for Roosevelt himself. The crowd gathered to hear him applauded wildly; it's unclear whether they found him funny or believed him, anyway.

Then, once again, a credible threat of invasion, such as the cases of Grenada under Reagan, George W. Bush against Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama against Libya, and now, in his second term, Trump against Iran, a place where everything suggests that this doctrine has clearly and rapidly entered a dead end; the beginning of the end, a sign of a changing era. Toynbee returns once more, because what was once good is no longer so, and it has fallen to Trump, the most clownish but least capable, to deal with this strategic shift.

In the specific case of the feigned paranoid, Toynbee-syndrome-ridden Mr. Rubio, his enemies, who pursue him wherever he goes, are the "Cuban communists," whom he claims possess intelligence services and a capacity for "universal subversion" that are among the "most lethal and dangerous in the world." Thus, immersed in his personal war against the Cuban Revolution, he has now added the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, universally known as ICAP, to one of the spurious lists of targets sanctioned for supporting or being an integral part of the Revolution's work.

This fellow, Mr. Rubio, could not be more despicable. Under his leadership, one of the most hostile agendas against Cubans in living memory has been implemented; and to top it all off, he attacks anything that attempts to defend the Revolution politically, in a civilized manner, such as the solidarity movement with Cuba worldwide, respecting international law—something the imperial chancellor, of course, claims to be ignorant of.

A current example of this is the infamous memo or instruction manual that Mr. Rubio recently circulated to sabotage the meeting requested by Cuba within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where, as is tradition, the blockaded island will report to the international community on the levels of aggression to which it’s being subjected by the US.

Mr. Rubio's "initiative," in the form of a "leaked encrypted message," has not only been condemned by the Cuban government but also published by a US media outlet, lest it be dismissed as a Cuban fabrication or paranoia. It can be read in The Nation, the oldest political publication in the United States (dating back to 1865), based in New York, and written by renowned journalists Peter Kornbluh and Ken Klippenstein, the latter famous precisely for his investigations into national security issues.

This whole affair has several interpretations. To begin with, it’s reasonably possible that a majority of the states represented at the UN General Assembly will once again condemn the blockade, which would add to the record of failures of the feigned paranoid Mr. Rubio. It would be another monumental defeat, compounding the debacle of the adventure against Iran.

Furthermore, the very existence of the "famous" cable, besides representing a diplomatic blunder or blackmail diplomacy that reeks of arrogance and frustration, raises a logical question: if the US has nothing to hide, if they believe they are acting correctly, why fear having the matter scrutinized? The answer is obvious. And so is the confusion that permeates this administration, which cannot conceive of, nor tolerate, anyone challenging them. It’s yet another sign of decadence. One must read Arnold J. Toynbee to understand what this is all about.

It's clearly revealing how desperate the mafia that runs Mr. Rubio has become; sometimes, it seems they don't know what to do anymore. They think they'll repeat themselves. By doing the same thing, only with greater intensity and cruelty, they can obtain different results. And they are betting that by tightening the blockade and targeting those who condemn it, they can bring down the Cuban Revolution.

Mr. Rubio will most likely continue to develop and generate dynamics like that absurdity of January 29th, where, according to an executive order, Cuba was labeled a threat to the US. This has been discussed at length, but never enough. As the Cuban Foreign Minister said, the island is not a threat; the blockade is, which constitutes an act of aggression in every sense of the word. We don't have to wait for Havana to be bombed to say it; the war is already underway in the peculiar form it takes: the energy blockade and other super-sanctions.

So we must prepare to face any provocation, new efforts to isolate Cuba—this is also what the encrypted memo leaked to The Nation addresses—and it reiterates the alleged Chinese spy bases on the island, a runaway echo of the Donroe Doctrine, which, incidentally, was recently refuted at the highest level by Cuban President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

And letting our imaginations run wild, and to ingratiate with President Trump, it wouldn't be surprising if Mr. Rubio, in his feigned paranoia, tries to link the Democrats to "the Cuban communists," precisely seeking the president's long-denied approval to escalate the aggression to a military level. We'll see things, and the more ridiculous and absurd they are, the more likely they are.

In this context, an exceptional advantage for Cuba emerges, as already explained: the Toynbee syndrome. Under this syndrome, Mr. Rubio and his boss will repeat the same policies time and again, not because they are stupid—something that could even be considered acceptable—but because that is precisely what the decline of the Empire is all about. Its elites have completely lost their political creativity, they are ignorant of the dialectic of history, a huge failing of higher education in the US, and well, there is Iran, to show them how wrong they are and why they have been defeated.

And to conclude, I must also emphasize that, contrary to what Toynbee established for an empire, socialism, or communism as they call it, consists precisely in permanent creation, changing everything that needs to be changed, according to what the Commander-in-Chief bequeathed to universal thought.

History moves forward, and conservatism tries to stop it, failing to realize that it's a law like gravity; it doesn't depend on Trump's charlatanism, the vast sums of money of the hyper- super-mega-millionaires, and much less on Mr. Rubio's nonsense; this last point had to be made to better put the analysis.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff