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“Unmasking Disappointment: Series I”

January 7, 2026

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“Geometric Allegory,” digital painting 2023 by Ricardo Morin (American visual artist born in Venezuela–1954)

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To my parents

Preface

“Unmasking Disappointment” follows a line of inquiry present throughout my work:   the examination of identity, memory, and the relations that emerge when life unfolds across cultural boundaries.   Although I have lived outside Venezuela for more than five decades and became a naturalized citizen of the United States twenty-four years ago, my relationship to the country of my birth remains a persistent point of reference.   The distance between these conditions—belonging and removal—forms the backdrop against which this narrative takes shape.

This work belongs to a broader autobiographical project that gathers experiences, observations, and questions accumulated over time.   While personal in origin, it does not proceed as confession or memoir.   Its method is sequential rather than expressive:   individual exposure is situated within historical forces and political structures that have shaped Venezuelan life across generations.   The intention is not to reconcile these tensions, but to render them visible through recurrence, record, and consequence.

“Series I” introduces the first thematic clusters of this inquiry.   The episodes assembled here do not advance a single thesis, nor do they aim at resolution.   They trace points of friction where private experience intersects with public power, and where political narratives exert pressure on ordinary life.   Across these encounters, patterns emerge—not as abstractions, but as conditions that alter how authority is exercised, how responsibility is displaced, and how agency is constrained.

The chapters that follow examine the pressures produced by systemic inequality and trace contemporary Venezuelan conditions back to their historical formation.   Autocratic rule and popular consent appear not as opposing forces, but as elements that increasingly entangle and weaken one another.   Within this entanglement, truth does not disappear; it becomes less evenly accessible and more readily displaced by narrative.

When public discourse is shaped by propaganda and misinformation, authoritarian structures gain resilience.   Recovering truth under such conditions does not resolve political conflict, but it clarifies the limits within which political life operates.   Agency emerges not as an ideal, but as a condition sustained—or undermined—through practice and consequence.

This work does not propose deterministic explanations or simple remedies.   It proceeds by accumulation, drawing attention to patterns that persist despite changing circumstances.   What it asks of the reader is not agreement, but attention:   to evidence, to sequence, and to the conditions under which political freedom may be meaningfully exercised.

Writing from Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I remain aware of the distance between the environments in which this work is composed and the conditions it examines.   That distance does not confer authority; it imposes responsibility.

Ricardo Federico Morín
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, January 21, 2025

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Table of Contents

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  • Chapter I – A Written Language.
  • Chapter II – Our Recklessness.
  • Chapter III – Point of View.
  • Chapter IV – A Dialogue.
  • Chapter V – Abstract.
  • Chapter VI – Chronicles of Hugo Chávez (§§ I-XVII).
  • Chapter VII – The Allegorical Mode.
  • Chapter VIII – The Ideal Government and the Power of Virtue.
  • Chapter IX – The First Sign:   On Political and Social Resentment.
  • Chapter X – The Second Sign:   The Solid Pillar of Power:   The Military Forces.
  • Chapter XI – The Third Sign:  The Asymmetry of Political Parties.
  • Chapter XII – The Fourth Sign:  Autocracy (§§ 1-9):  Venezuela (§§ 10-23), The Asymmetry of Sanctions (§§ 24-32).
  • Chapter XIII – The Fifth Sign:  The Pawned Republic.
  • Chapter XIV – The First Issue:   Partisanship, Non-partisanship, and Antipartisanship.
  • Chapter XV – The Second Issue:   On Partial Truths and Repressive Anarchy.
  • Chapter XVI – The Third Issue:   The Clarion of Democracy.
  • Chapter XVII – The Fourth Issue:   On Human Rights.
  • Chapter XVIII – The Fifth Issue:  On the Nature of Violence.
  • Chapter XIX – The Ultimate Issue:   About the Deliverance of Injustice.
  • Acknowledgments.
  • Epilogue.
  • PostScript.
  • Appendix:   Author’s Note, Prefatory Note.     A). Venezuelan Constitutions [1811-1999], Branches, and Departments of Government.   B) Evolution of Political Parties: 1840-2024.    C) Laws Enacted by the Asamblea Nacional.  D) Clarificatory Note on Domestic Coercion, Foreign Presence, and Intervention.
  • Bibliography.

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Chapter I

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A Written Language

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Stability is often sought where it cannot be secured.   Experience has shown this repeatedly.   Even careful intentions tend to draw one into uncertain terrain, where understanding lags behind consequence.   At the desk, as late-afternoon light reaches the page, writing assumes a practical function:   it becomes a means of ordering what would otherwise remain unsettled.   The act does not resolve vulnerability, but it records it.   Whether time alters such conditions remains uncertain; what can be done is to give them form.

What follows moves from the conditions of writing to the conditions it must confront.

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Chapter II

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Our Recklessness

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“Our painful struggle to deal with the politics of climate change is surely also a product of the strange standoff between science and political thinking.” — Hannah Arendt:   The Human Condition:   Being and Time [1958], Kindle Book, 159.

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1

The COVID pandemic and the 2023 Canadian wildfires, among other recent events, have made visible conditions that were already in place.     These events did not introduce new vulnerabilities as much as they revealed the extent to which existing systems depend on economic incentives and political habits that privilege extraction over preservation.   During the period when smoke from the fires reached the northeastern United States, daylight in parts of Pennsylvania was visibly altered and registered the reach of events unfolding at a considerable distance.   Such occurrences do not stand apart from prevailing economic arrangements; they coincide with a model that treats natural conditions as commodities and absorbs their degradation as an external cost.

2

The fires in California in 2025, like those that spread across Canada in 2023, do not present themselves as isolated occurrences.   They form part of a sequence shaped by environmental neglect, political inertia, and sustained industrial expansion.   Conditions such as desertification, resource scarcity, and population displacement no longer appear solely as projected outcomes; they are increasingly registered as present circumstances.   Scientific assessments indicate that these patterns are likely to intensify in the absence of structural change. [1][2][3]   What is brought into view, over time, is not a singular failure but a system that continues to operate according to priorities that favor immediate yield over long-term continuity.

3

The question of balance does not arise solely as a technical problem.   It emerges within a moral and political field shaped by prevailing economic assumptions.   The treatment of nature—and more recently of artificial intelligence—as a commodity reflects a trajectory in which matters of shared survival are increasingly translated into market terms.    Under such conditions, considerations that once belonged to collective responsibility are recast as variables within systems of calculation.

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Such patterns place increasing strain on conditions necessary for collective survival.   Responses to these conditions vary and range from indifference to urgency, though urgency does not invariably produce clarity.   What becomes apparent, across repeated instances, is a tendency for crisis to recur without sustained adjustment.   This recurrence parallels the political histories examined in the chapters that follow, where warning and consequence frequently fail to align.

Endnotes—Chapter II

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Chapter III

Point of View

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Conversations with my editor, Billy Bussell Thompson, have accompanied the development of this work over time.    His attention to research method and to the structure of argument has contributed to the clarification of its scope and direction.    These exchanges, often conducted at a distance and without ceremony, formed part of the process through which the present narrative took shape.    After an extended period of uncertainty regarding how to approach the subject of Hugo Chávez, the contours of Unmasking Disappointment gradually emerged.

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Hugo Chávez entered national political life as a leader whose authority was exercised in opposition to political liberalism. [1]  While his public discourse emphasized alignment with the poor, the material benefits of power accumulated within a narrow circle. [2]  Over the course of his tenure, democratic institutions in Venezuela experienced progressive weakening, and governance assumed increasingly authoritarian forms.   These developments become more legible when situated within the historical record and examined through documented practice rather than rhetorical claim.

3

The events that followed Chávez’s rule are marked by disorder and unresolved consequence.   Their persistence draws attention to questions of historical accountability and collective responsibility that remain unsettled.   Examining the record of autocratic leadership—its ambitions as well as its failures—provides a means of approaching the problem of justice in Venezuela without presuming resolution.   Through this examination, enduring tensions come into view as conditions to be understood rather than conclusions to be reached.

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Endnotes—Chapter III

  • [1]   The term caudillo originates in Spanish and has historically been used to describe a leader who exercises concentrated political and military authority.    In the Venezuelan context, the term carries particular resonance and refers to figures associated with the post-independence period of the nineteenth century.    Such leaders tended to consolidate power through a combination of personal authority, allegiance from armed factions, and the promise—whether substantive or rhetorical—of maintaining order under conditions of instability.    While some were regarded as defenders of local or national causes, others became associated with practices that facilitated authoritarian governance and weakened institutional structures.    The concept of the caudillo continues to function within Venezuelan political culture as a descriptive category applied to leadership forms that combine popular support with concentrated power.

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Chapter IV

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A Dialogue

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A series of conversations between BBT and the author accompanied the examination of Venezuelan politics and history developed in this section.   These exchanges formed a transitional space in which reflection gave way to historical inquiry, allowing questions of interpretation, responsibility, and record to be addressed through dialogue rather than exposition.

1

—RFM:   “My writing has been concerned with the evolution of Venezuela’s political landscape, with particular attention to the emergence of authoritarian forms of rule.   The focus has been less on abstract doctrine than on how specific policies translated into everyday conditions for ordinary Venezuelans.”

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—BBT:   “Examining how authoritarian leadership shapes political conditions is necessary, though the term itself is often contested and applied unevenly.   In Chávez’s case, the use of propaganda was not exceptional in form, but it was consistently employed as an instrument of governance.   How did official narratives during his tenure circulate, and what effects did they have on public perception over time?”

3

—RFM:  “Propaganda is not unique to Chávez; it functions as a recurring instrument across political systems.   In Venezuela, official media regularly attributed economic hardship to external interference rather than to domestic policy decisions.    At the same time, material conditions deteriorated, with shortages emerging from economic mismanagement and later compounded by external restrictions.   Opposition groups also circulated counter-narratives, which in turn elicited responses from the State.    These exchanges unfolded within a historical context shaped by civil conflict and Cold War alignments, and produced a fragmented informational environment.   Within that environment, responsibility for economic decline was frequently displaced, while public perception was managed through repetition rather than resolution.   The social and economic reforms invoked in justification did not, over time, yield the reductions in poverty and inequality that had been promised.”

4

—BBT:  “To render Venezuela’s political conditions with some accuracy, attention must be given to how ordinary citizens encountered these dynamics in daily life.     How were such conditions navigated in practice, particularly where political discourse intersected with immediate economic necessity?”

5

—RFM:  “The economic collapse that followed the decline of the oil-based model intensified poverty and placed sustained pressure on public services.   Examined in sequence, this period shows how colonial legacies and authoritarian practices converged in the formation of Chavismo.   Episodes such as the 1989 riots known as El Caracazo registered widespread disaffection with established parties and democratic institutions.   Under such conditions, the demands of securing basic necessities frequently outweighed engagement with abstract political principles.”

6

—BBT:   “Clarity in narrative depends in part on recognizing the assumptions that guide interpretation.   When these assumptions are made explicit and examined, the account becomes less directive and more accessible, allowing readers to follow the record without being steered toward a predetermined position.”

7

—RFM:  “No narrative proceeds without interpretation, including this one.   Writing provides a means of approaching Venezuela’s history—its colonial formation, episodes of authoritarian rule, and periods of political disruption—without foreclosing alternative readings.    A coherent account need not be exhaustive; it remains open insofar as it attends to implication and consequence rather than resolution.”

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—BBT:  “The exchange itself underscores the importance of careful narration when approaching Venezuela’s political and social record.    Attending to multiple viewpoints does not resolve complexity, but it allows a more coherent account to emerge without reducing that history to a single explanatory frame.”

The exchange marked a transition from reflective inquiry to historical record.

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Chapter V

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Abstract

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1

This section examines the sequence through which the political project articulated under Hugo Chávez assumed autocratic form.    Rather than attributing this outcome to a single cause, the inquiry proceeds by tracing how leadership decisions unfolded within a convergence of historical conditions, institutional arrangements, economic pressures, and geopolitical alignments.   The account does not begin from conclusion, but from record.

2
Attention remains on how authority was exercised and how its effects registered within Venezuelan society.    Historical circumstance, institutional design, and external influence are examined not to simplify the record, but to make visible the interdependencies through which power consolidated over time.    What emerges is not an explanatory thesis, but a configuration whose coherence can be assessed only through sustained attention to sequence and consequence.

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“The Myth of Rupture:

September 30, 2025

Continuity as the Enabling Condition of Change”

Ricardo F. Morín
Untitled #6
Watercolor
2003

BY Ricardo Morin

September 30, 2025

Bala Cynwyd, Pa

Nothing human begins from nothing.   Institutions, languages, belief systems, and works of art all arise from what preceded them.   Creation is not the rejection of inheritance but the transformation of it.   Every act of making draws upon accumulated perception, memory, and experience.   This insight is crucial to understanding contemporary culture, where claims of unprecedented change often conceal deep continuities beneath the surface of novelty.   Human beings, bound by temporality, cannot detach themselves from what has been; they can only reorder and reinterpret the materials already available to them.

The notion of invention is often described as a break with the past, a leap into the unknown.   Yet even the most radical departures are shaped by what came before.   The ideals of modern democracy, for example, did not emerge spontaneously.   They were built upon classical Greek ideas of citizenship as a shared civic responsibility, rooted in isonomia—equality before the law—and in the belief that legitimate authority derives from the deliberation and participation of free citizens.   They also drew deeply on Roman conceptions of law as a universal and rational order capable of binding diverse peoples into a common political framework, and on the Roman principle of res publica, which conceived the State as a public entity oriented toward the common good rather than the will of a single ruler.   These foundational ideas, adapted and reinterpreted over centuries, provided the intellectual architecture on which modern democratic institutions were constructed.   Perception frames invention.   It provides the vocabulary, assumptions, and conceptual tools that make new ideas possible.   What seems entirely new still carries the imprint of what it sought to move beyond.   On closer examination, the products of creativity are not isolated acts of originality but reconfigurations of existing structures.   Evolution, rather than spontaneous emergence, governs how ideas, institutions, and cultures take shape.

Memory underlies this process.   It is not a passive record of events but an active medium through which possibilities are conceived and action becomes intelligible.   Imagination draws its material from memory; it combines and redirects memory toward conditions not yet realized.   This is nowhere more evident than in the idea of freedom, a concept that resists simple definition yet has long carried two complementary meanings.   The first, articulated most clearly in the classical Greek tradition, understands freedom as eleutheria—the condition of living without domination or external constraint, a state in which individuals are not subject to arbitrary power.   The second, rooted in the Roman legal and civic tradition, conceives freedom as libertas—the capacity to participate actively in the governance of a political community and to shape its laws and institutions.   Both meanings reveal how deeply freedom depends on historical precedent:   it requires language to articulate its claims, institutions to guarantee its exercise, and collective memory to frame its significance.   Far from existing apart from what has been, freedom is shaped and enabled by what has already been conceived, argued, and enacted.   Prior experience supplies the references and alternatives against which choices acquire meaning.   Without that reservoir of knowledge, novelty would lack coherence and direction, and the exercise of freedom would collapse into arbitrary impulse.   Human beings do not invent in a void; they work within the continuity of time and adapt what has been lived and learned into forms suited to what is yet to come.

This same dynamic defines the formation of identity.   Selfhood is not an isolated act of invention but a continuous negotiation with what has been received.   The very idea of the self has itself evolved through history:   in classical philosophy, it was often conceived as a psyche—an inner essence shaped by reason and virtue and embedded within a larger cosmic order.   Christian thought reinterpreted this understanding through the notion of the soul as a unique bearer of moral responsibility, oriented toward salvation and defined by its relationship to God.   Early modern thinkers such as John Locke then transformed this inheritance by grounding personal identity in memory and consciousness — a conception that would later inform modern ideas of individual autonomy.   Even the impulse to define oneself against the past relies on categories inherited from it.   Identity is therefore neither static nor wholly self-created; it is a process of reinterpretation through which the individual positions what is given in relation to what is chosen.   Human beings exist in the tension between inheritance and aspiration, between the weight of memory and the desire for renewal.   That tension is not an obstacle to authenticity but its condition, for without the framework provided by the past there would be nothing from which to depart.   Continuity and change are not opposing forces.   Without continuity, there is no ground on which to become.   Without change, continuity hardens into mere repetition.   The act of becoming depends on the dynamic between the two.

Viewed from this perspective, the human condition is defined less by pure invention than by the capacity to transform.   What is called “new” is the familiar reorganized with new intentions, the established redirected toward new purposes.   Recognizing this does not diminish creativity.   It clarifies its nature.   Humanity’s most significant achievements—in politics, art, science, and thought—are not escapes from what has been.   They are deliberate reinterpretations of what has been, shaped to answer new questions and confront new circumstances.   In the sciences, paradigmatic shifts often described as revolutions still follow this pattern.   Einstein’s theory of relativity did not erase Newtonian mechanics; it incorporated and extended its principles, a revision that revealed their limits while preserving their usefulness within a broader understanding of space, time, and motion.   This same principle governs artistic innovation.   The Renaissance revival of classical forms did not merely reproduce antiquity; it reinterpreted ancient visual languages to express the spiritual and humanistic concerns of a new era.   The evolution of digital communication and artificial intelligence reflects a comparable continuity.   The internet did not replace human interaction; it expanded its reach and scale, a transformation that altered how language circulates, how memory is archived, and how collective knowledge is formed.   Similarly, artificial intelligence—often portrayed as autonomous or unprecedented—rests on centuries of linguistic, mathematical, and conceptual developments.   These systems extend rather than supersede the cognitive inheritance from which they originate.   The future is built in this way:   not in its rejection of the past but in its continuous interaction with it.

Resistance to this understanding persists wherever the idea of evolution is denied.   Such resistance is rarely a matter of evidence alone.   It reflects a desire for permanence—for a beginning that is untouched by change and a truth that stands apart from time.   It offers certainty where process allows none and promises stability in place of adaptation.   Yet even this resistance is shaped by the forces it seeks to escape.   Languages evolve, beliefs adjust, and traditions adapt, even as they proclaim their immutability.   Those who defend what is fixed do so with concepts and arguments that themselves have been shaped by historical change.   The very doctrines that claim timeless authority — such as the medieval conception of divine sovereignty, once invoked to legitimize monarchies and later transformed into the principle of popular sovereignty in modern constitutional systems—reveal this dependence:   they persist not by remaining unchanged but by being continually reinterpreted to meet new contexts.   The contrast, therefore, is not between evolution and its absence, but between recognition and refusal.   The reality remains:   existence unfolds through transformation, and humanity, whether consciously or not, participates in that unfolding—a truth with profound implications for how societies remember their past, shape their present, and imagine their future.

Further Reading:

  • Arendt, Hannah: Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Viking Press, 1961.
  • Kuhn, Thomas S.: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
  • MacIntyre, Alasdair: After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981.
  • Floridi, Luciano: The Philosophy of Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Koselleck, Reinhart: Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time. Translated by Keith Tribe. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

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“Echoes of a Decanter”

March 5, 2025

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 0005.jpg Decantation [2003], CGI by Ricardo Morín
Decantation [2003], CGI by Ricardo Morín

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I. The Speech

The air inside the old factory was thick with dust and conviction.      They had scrubbed the floors, repainted the walls, and reclaimed the space from its past, but the scent of rust and oil still lingered.      It smelled like work—like history.

Emil stood on a makeshift stage, elevated by wooden pallets stacked two high.      His voice carried across the room, each word striking with certainty.

“This is not another failed experiment.      This is not a return to old mistakes.      We are forging a new path—beyond capitalism, beyond the betrayals of so-called socialism.      This time, we get it right.”

Applause.      Nods of approval.      They had heard these words before, but this time, they believed them.

Isolde sat at the back, arms crossed, expression unreadable.      She had stood in this same room decades ago, listening to a different voice, hearing the same promise.      The factory, reborn each time, looked different, yet the space was always the same—a decanter of sorts, enclosing the same history, slowly pouring out its essence, again and again.

After the speech, as people gathered in small circles of animated discussion, Emil approached her.

“You don’t look convinced.”

“I don’t mistake passion for direction,” she said.

Emil smiled, as if indulging an elder.      “This time is different, Isolde.      We’ve studied history.      We won’t repeat their mistakes.”

She exhaled, looking past him to the crowd.      The factory hummed quietly behind them, a machine just starting to remember its old rhythms.      “You misunderstand history.      It’s not something you repeat.      It’s something that returns to you, whether you invite it or not.”

He shook his head.      He didn’t believe in ghosts.      But the air, thick with the weight of their past, seemed to hum with the same unspoken inevitability.      It reminded Isolde of something trapped within glass—preserved, yet futile in its attempts to remain unbroken. . .

II. The Experiment

The first weeks were golden.

Decisions were made by assembly.      Every worker had an equal say, an equal share, an equal stake.      The old machinery roared to life under new hands.      They printed new posters, declaring the rebirth of labor, the death of the boss.

For the first time, they worked for themselves.

But cracks, barely visible at first, began to form.

Meetings dragged for hours, circular debates with no resolution.      Some tasks were more desirable than others—some avoided the heavy lifting, citing ideological objections.      “Why should one person labor while another coordinates?”

“Because someone must,” Isolde murmured to herself.      Unheard.

Then came the first real crisis: a large order, a deadline, a need for efficiency.      The factory moved too slowly.      The assembly stalled.      Arguments flared.

“We need someone to oversee production,” Emil admitted.      “Just temporarily.”

A vote was cast.      A mediator was appointed.      He wasn’t a manager, they told themselves, just a guide.      But the balance had shifted.      The factory, like a vessel caught in an unrelenting tide, began to carry more than it could manage.

Isolde watched, saying nothing.

III. The Cracks

The mediator, needing to keep things moving, made quick decisions.      The assembly approved them after the fact.      The difference was subtle, but it grew.

Some workers were better at certain tasks, so roles solidified.      Someone had to negotiate with suppliers.      Someone had to ensure deadlines were met.      The mediator took on these roles, because it was easier.

“We need structure,” he explained.      “Not hierarchy, just order.”

Emil, exhausted, nodded.      The structure, which had once felt so free, began to settle into something heavier.      Something permanent.      Like the decanter that holds liquid—only to release it back into the world, though it never truly escapes its confines.

One evening, alone in his office—the office that wasn’t supposed to exist—he flipped through old books.      The words were familiar, but they read differently now.      He found a passage from an old revolutionary text, underlined by his own hand years ago:

“The first illusion of power is that it does not exist.”

He closed the book.      His fingers lingered on the edge of the paper, as though searching for something that had slipped away, like water escaping through a crack.

IV. The Collapse

The next crisis arrived without warning.      A strike—among themselves.      Some demanded higher pay.      “Shouldn’t work be compensated by effort?”      They were equals, but some were more equal in labor than others.

Emil tried to reason with them.      “That’s not how this works.      We’re breaking that cycle.”

“Then why do you sit in the office while we sweat on the floor?”

He had no answer.

Another vote.      A restructuring.      A new proposal:      an oversight committee.      The committee became a board.      Outside investors offered financial stability.      A small compromise.      A necessary evil.

By the end of the year, the factory had become what it swore it never would.

Emil found Isolde in the break room, sipping tea.

“We tried,” he said.      “So did we,” she replied.

Silence.

“Why does it always end this way?” he asked.

Isolde set her cup down.      Her eyes met his, trapped in exhaustion, as though each glance carried the gravity of countless broken promises, like a fractured decanter.

“Because we are human.”

V. The Next Generation

Years later, Emil walked past the factory.      It was thriving.      Not revolutionary.      Not a failure.      Just another business.

Inside, a new group of young activists had gathered.      Their leader, no older than he had been, stood on stacked wooden pallets, speaking with fire.

“We are not repeating the past.      We are forging a new path.      This time, we get it right.”

Emil did not stop to listen.

From the distance, Isolde watched.

“And so it begins again,” she whispered.

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Ricardo Federico Morín Tortolero

March 5, 2025; Oakland Park, Florida

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“Global Authoritarianism and the Limits of Traditional Analysis”

February 28, 2025

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The war in Ukraine is often presented as a geopolitical confrontation between the West and Russia, but this interpretation can obscure a deeper reality:     the rise of authoritarianism as a global force.     Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential voices in the critique of U.S. foreign policy, has argued that U.S. hegemony is the primary factor driving the conflict.     His approach, rooted in Cold War logic, has been essential for understanding global power dynamics.     However, one must question whether this framework remains sufficient to analyze the coordinated expansion of authoritarian regimes in the world today.

The issue is no longer simply whether U.S. policy contributed to Russia’s aggression, but whether democracies can withstand the deliberate advance of governments seeking to consolidate power at any cost.     What is at stake transcends Ukraine’s sovereignty:     it is the survival of democracy in the world.

Chomsky argues that NATO’s expansion and U.S. financial dominance exacerbated tensions with Russia and limited diplomatic options.     His vision proposes a world in which power is distributed between the United States, Europe, China, and Russia, which he believes would create a more stable and just balance.     This perspective has been crucial in questioning the excesses of U.S. interventionism.     In the present world, however, where authoritarianism is not only reacting to the West but also actively seeking to reshape the global order, is a framework based solely on containing U.S. hegemony sufficient?

The rise of authoritarian regimes is not merely a response to Western influence; it is a deliberate strategy to consolidate power.     While Chomsky has emphasized the importance of distributing global power, it is crucial to analyze the nature of those who would fill this void.     Russia and China are not simply seeking a multipolar stability; their actions reflect an attempt to exert absolute control, without democratic constraints.     Chomsky’s critique helps us understand the roots of international conflicts, but it may need to be expanded to account for how these regimes are transforming the very structure of global politics.

One challenge in applying Chomsky’s traditional analysis to the present is that contemporary authoritarianism no longer aligns solely with past ideological divisions.     It is no longer a struggle between socialism and capitalism, or left and right.     Rather, these regimes share a common objective:     dismantling democratic institutions to ensure their permanence in power.

Putin, for instance, invokes Soviet nostalgia while prohibiting any critical reassessment of Stalinism.     China blends State capitalism with absolute political control.     Hungary and India, once considered democracies aligned with the West, have adopted authoritarian models.     Meanwhile, the U.S. far-right, which historically opposed communism, has begun to adopt the Kremlin’s narrative, portraying it as a defender against “globalist elites.”

This ideological alignment makes modern authoritarianism more dangerous than ever.     It not only transcends traditional power blocs but is also reinforced through strategic alliances, mutual support, and the erosion of democracies from within.     This is perhaps most evident in the United States.     The presidency of Trump revealed an unexpected vulnerability:     the possibility that authoritarianism could thrive within the world’s most influential democracy.     Here, the debate is no longer reduced to a question of isolationism or interventionism, but to the real risk of autocratic tactics being normalized in domestic politics.

The Trump administration sent contradictory signals regarding the Kremlin, weakening the principle of deterrence.     Rather than establishing a clear stance against authoritarian expansion, its ambiguity allowed regimes like Putin’s to interpret the lack of firmness as an opportunity to act with impunity.     Figures such as Marco Rubio have advocated for an unequivocal stance that would reinforce U.S. strategic credibility, while the inconsistency in the Trump administration’s foreign policy contributed to the perception that the West was divided and hesitant.

This weakening of democratic leadership has not occurred in a vacuum.     The globalization of authoritarianism is a phenomenon in which autocratic regimes not only directly challenge democracies but also back one another to evade sanctions, subvert international pressure, and consolidate their internal rule.     The invasion of Ukraine must be understood within this framework:     it is not just a regional conflict or a reaction to NATO, but a calculated move within a broader strategy to weaken global democracy.

For decades, critics like Chomsky have been instrumental in highlighting the effects of U.S. dominance on global politics.     His analysis has allowed us to understand how U.S. hegemony has influenced numerous conflicts.     However, the evolution of authoritarianism raises questions that require expanding this perspective.     The greatest threat to democracy is no longer exclusively U.S. power, but the consolidation of a global autocratic model advancing through coordinated strategies.

Blaming the U.S. for every geopolitical crisis may overlook a crucial shift:     authoritarian regimes have moved from being a reaction to Washington’s influence to becoming an active strategy to replace the Western democratic model.     Recognizing this shift does not absolve the U.S. of its failures in foreign policy, but it does demand an understanding that countering authoritarianism requires more than constant criticism of its hegemony.     It requires recognizing that democracy faces a coordinated and unprecedented threat.

Chomsky’s vision of a multipolar world is, in theory, appealing.     However, what would this imply in practice if the actors filling the void left by the U.S. are not interested in preserving democracy?     The real challenge is not merely containing Putin’s territorial ambitions but preventing his model of governance—based on dismantling democratic institutions—from gaining traction in the West.

Chomsky remains one of the most incisive critics of U.S. foreign policy, and his work has been fundamental in understanding the effects of power on international relations.     His analysis has shed light on the flaws of interventionism and the dynamics of global hegemony.     The world, however, has changed, and so have the challenges facing democracies.     Today, the crisis in Ukraine is no longer limited to a debate over NATO, U.S. intervention, or Western hypocrisy.     It is part of a broader struggle between democracy and autocracy, a struggle that does not end at Ukraine’s borders but extends to the very political institutions of the West.

If we fail to recognize this shift, we risk not only losing Ukraine but also underestimating the scope of the threats facing democracies worldwide.     Neutrality is no longer an option when the challenge is the survival of free societies.     Beyond the mistakes of the West, the rise of authoritarianism demands a response that goes beyond constant criticism of U.S. hegemony and instead embraces the active defense of democratic values wherever they are under threat.

*

Ricardo Federico Morín Tortolero

February 28, 2025; Oakland Park, Florida

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“A Table Between Us”

February 16, 2025

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~

Silent Diptych
by Ricardo Morín
Medium: Oil On Linen
Size: 18 by 28 by 3/4 inches
Year: 2010

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Prologue

Silent Diptych is not an illustration but a resonance—a meditation on silence, not as emptiness, but as a state of receptivity.     It is the space where judgment dissolves, where human connection lingers between words, where meaning is felt rather than spoken.     In its stillness, it holds what remains unresolved.     Some silences are quiet.     Others are filled with history.

RFMT

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*

Our early dinner followed a matinee of “Parade”, a musical steeped in history, in indignity, in the weight of a life taken and a verdict that still hung unresolved.     At the table, we spoke of Leo Frank, the Jewish man lynched in Georgia a century ago–pardoned decades later but never absolved.     His true killer never pursued.

Three of us were Jewish.     They understood, in ways the rest of us could only acknowledge but never quite embody, the particular pain of being made a scapegoat.     The others sympathized but could not feel the same alienation—not in the marrow, not in the inherited way history imprints itself on some more than others.

It was a conversation of weight, but not of sorrow.     We spoke with the clarity that comes when facts are long settled but their reverberations remain.

Then came the interruption.

The woman at the next table turned to us with a question, her voice cutting easily through our discussion.

“Where are the girls?”

I glanced at my companions, the six of us settled comfortably into the familiarity of one another.

“What girls?” I asked, not unkindly.

She blinked, as if expecting the answer to be self-evident.

“We’re already married to each other,” I said.

She turned away without another word.

There was no need to dwell on it.     The moment was familiar.     A minor encounter, the sort that barely registered after years of knowing exactly how the world could tilt in response to our presence.

To shift the conversation, I said, “Freud might say that all relationships are attempts to resolve unfinished business with our parents.”

Someone smirked. A fork was set down.     A momentary silence, not of discomfort, but of consideration.

“Men with their fathers, women with their mothers,” I continued.

The responses were mixed.     Agreement.     Deflection.     A shift in tone.     Some spoke of failing to meet their fathers’ expectations.     Some spoke of hatred.     Some of detachment.     Some of nothing at all.

I mentioned my father.     His certainty that we, his children, would not know how to survive without him.     He meant economically, of course.     His generation had its own understanding of what it meant to endure.

“How many siblings do you have?” someone asked.

“Five,” I said.     “Including my younger sister, who just passed away.”    A pause.    “She was angelic.”    “Sixty-nine.”        

There was sympathy, warm and immediate.    A moment held just long enough.

And then, as if on cue, the conversation shifted—easily, instinctively.     To theater.     To Tony Awards.     To the life and talent of voices long gone but forever recorded.

At the next table, the woman was laughing now, the moment between us already forgotten on her end.

And we, too, were laughing—at something lighter, something that did not ask to be examined too closely.

The moment stayed, unnoticed, but not forgotten.

~

*

Epilogue

Like the painting, the moment lingered—not demanding resolution, but waiting, quietly, to be understood.   The weight of history, the subtleties of belonging, the pauses in conversation where truth is felt but not spoken.   Silence, in the end, is never empty.   It is the space where everything remains.

~

Ricardo F. Morín Tortolero

February 16, 2025; Oakland Park, Florida

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“The Shroud of Perfection”

February 10, 2025

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Silence Ten
Ricardo Morín, Oil on linen scroll
43” x 72″ x 3/4″
2012

*

~

Author’s Note

This is a work of fiction inspired by historical events.    While the story is rooted in real-world dynamics, all characters, dialogues, and specific incidents are entirely fictional.    Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This narrative is not intended to depict, portray, or comment on any real individuals or events with factual accuracy.    It is a literary exploration of themes relevant to society, history, and the human experience.

Ricardo F. Morín Tortolero, February 10, 2025

Oakland Park, Florida

~

*

List of Characters:

  • 1. The Champions of Order and Hope:

• Aurelia:    A principled guardian of constitutional values.

Traits:    Wise, steadfast, compassionate. She embodies the enduring spirit of order.

• Marcos:     A dedicated public servant bridging tradition and modernity.

Traits:     Honest, diligent, empathetic.     He upholds institutional integrity.

• Elena:     A unifying presence with calm resolve and moral clarity.

Traits:     Reflective, compassionate, inspiring.     She acts as the moral compass of her community.

  • 2. The Figures of Disruption:

• Soren:     A brilliant yet reckless young tech savant.

Traits:     Intelligent but impulsive, morally ambiguous.    His actions expose the risks of unvetted innovation.

• Vera:     An ambitious bureaucrat exploiting emerging technologies for gain.

Traits:     Charismatic, calculating.     She represents the seductive nature of power when ethics are compromised.

• Xander:     A populist firebrand unsettling the established order.

Traits:     Persuasive, rebellious, unpredictable.     He stokes division with promises of rapid change.

• Don Narciso Beltrán:     An impetuous, self-indulgent octogenarian.

Traits:     Arrogant, narcissistic.     He parades his delusions of “perfection,” and embodies the dangers of unchecked ego.

Ideology:     Seeks to displace marginalized groups to impose his distorted vision of order.

  • 3. The Keepers of Balance:

• Renato:    A pragmatic administrator between innovation and tradition.

Traits:     Level-headed, fair, resourceful. He exemplifies compromise without ethical sacrifice.

• Carmen:     A seasoned advisor offering historical perspective.

Traits:     Nurturing, experienced, reflective.     She bridges past lessons with current challenges.

• Iker:    A dedicated technician ensuring system stability.

Traits:     Conscientious, methodical, courageous.     He represents the unsung heroes of critical infrastructure.

*

Act I

A Nation at the Precipice

The air crackles with change—raw, electric, untempered.    It surges through the avenues where history’s stones, heavy with forgotten oaths, bear silent witness to promises now unraveling.     Beneath the alabaster facades of institutions once tempered by order, a quiet assault spreads.    The people feel it in the marrow of their days, in the uneasy hush between headlines, in the glint of urgency behind every argument.

Once, the land moved to a measured cadence, set by laws unyielding to fleeting tempers.    Now, the streets pulse with a different rhythm—a fevered drive toward something new, unburdened by the slow wisdom of the past.    Progress and tradition, each staking its claim, wrestle in the dust of a nation standing on the edge of itself.

In the halls of power, where marble once stood as a bulwark against unchecked tides, whispers stir—of systems too rigid to bend, of minds too restless to wait.     The parchment of governance, crisp with centuries of deliberation, meets the friction of unfettered innovation.    Some call it progress, others self-destruction.

Yet beneath this clash, a deeper question remains:    Does a nation endure by perfecting its foundations or by discarding them altogether?     The answer, suspended between past and future, waits to be spoken—if only the voices of the present dare to choose.

*

Act II

The Shattering

It begins not with an explosion, but with a single breach—silent, insidious, precise.    A door left ajar in the corridors of power, a signature scrawled where it should not be, a system once thought inviolable suddenly laid bare.    The nation awakens to the aftermath, uncertain whether the ground beneath them has merely shifted or collapsed entirely.

In the din of speculation, two figures emerge—Soren, the architect of controlled chaos, and Don Narciso, the whisperer of gilded lies.    One wields disruption as a scalpel, cutting through the sinews of governance with cold precision.    The other, a master illusionist, cloaks upheaval in the fabric of righteousness and bends perception until even the most steadfast begin to doubt the contours of reality.

The people watch, rapt and confused.     Some see salvation in the rise of these forces, a chance to shed the weight of old constraints.     Others, those who still listen for the heartbeat of the republic, sense the tremor beneath their feet and wonder:    Is this the moment when the foundation finally gives way?

The stage is set.    The struggle is no longer abstract.    The breach is real, and the hands that hold the future are already at work to reshape it in their own image.

*

Act III

The Gathering Storm

The breach widens.    What was once an isolated fracture in the nation’s foundation now spreads and courses through institutions like veins turned septic.    The days grow heavier with uncertainty, and in the void where order falters, new forces emerge—some to defend, others to dismantle, and a few to navigate the shifting ground.

The Call to Defend

Aurelia moves first, a voice of clarity in the rising chaos.    Where others falter in fear or cynicism, she stands unyielding, wielding conviction like a torch against the encroaching dark.    By her side, Marcos, a man of reasoned strength, gathers those who refuse to let history slip into ruin.     And Elena, keen-eyed and relentless, sharpens truth into a blade that cuts through the veils of distortion spun by those who seek to reshape reality to suit their designs.

The Forces of Disruption

But against them rise the architects of disorder.     Soren, ever the master of fracture, feeds the discord, to ensure no side gains enough ground to restore stability. Vera, a specter of unrepentant ambition, twists uncertainty into leverage to secure power in the shadows where the law’s reach begins to blur.    Xander moves openly, charismatic and mercurial, a revolutionary to some, a destroyer to others.     And Don Narciso, ever the weaver of illusions, speaks in riddles that soothe even as they deceive.

The Balance Seekers

Yet not all choose a side in the battle unfolding before them.    Renato, the quiet strategist, watches, waits, and seeks the threads that might yet be rewoven before the fabric tears beyond repair.     Carmen, pragmatic, negotiates between factions, desperate to slow the slide toward chaos.     And Iker, burdened by both past and present, works in the shadows—not to seize power, but to ensure that whatever future emerges still bears the echoes of what was once whole.

The tension thickens.     Every movement, every decision, tips the scale.    And as the storm gathers on the horizon, one truth becomes clear:     no one will emerge unchanged.

*

Chapter IV

The Masses

The masses do not lead; they follow, but with a fervor that shakes the very bones of the nation.     Their cries rise in streets and squares, across glowing screens and whispered corners.     What began as discontent has become something more—an anthem of anger, stripped of nuance, sharpened into conviction.

Their grievances, once tethered to reality, now drift free, shaped by the voices they have chosen to trust.    Soren’s rhetoric courses through them like wildfire, his calculated fractures swelling into irreparable chasms.     Vera’s ambition feeds their hunger for upheaval and promises power to those who feel unseen.     Xander, the relentless provocateur, transforms their resentment into action, while Don Narciso shrouds them in visions of grandeur, while whispering to their ears that history bends to the will of those bold enough to seize it.

They speak not in dialogue, but in echoes—those that amplify what stirs their fury and silence what does not.    To them, compromise is betrayal, and reflection is weakness.    They are the force that makes destruction possible, not by design, but by sheer, unrelenting belief.

The Guardians of Common Sense

But against the tide stand those who refuse to be swept away.    They are quieter, less visible, but no less resolute.     They do not rally for glory or scream for vengeance; instead, they guard the ground beneath their feet, as they hold firm against the storm.

Aurelia’s voice reaches them, measured and unwavering and cut through the noise like a distant bell.     Marcos gives them structure and remind them that reason is not passivity, but discipline.     Elena arms them with truth and asserts that in an age of distortion, clarity itself is a weapon.

They are the ones who ask, What is gained?     What is lost?     They are not blinded by the promise of a new order nor lulled into complacency by the old.     They see both the cracks and the foundation, and they stand—not to defend power, but to defend sense.

The Tipping Scales

The two factions watch each other with wary eyes, their struggles intertwining in ways neither fully understands.     The Reason Without Reason surges forward to force change and break barriers, tgough often without knowing what they will build in the wreckage.     The Guardians of Common Sense push back, not against progress, but against the recklessness that would see wisdom discarded in the name of speed.

And in this battle for the nation’s soul, it is neither the heroes nor the antiheroes who decide the outcome.    It is these voices from below—the masses, the multitude, the unseen tide—that will tip the scales.

Which way they fall remains uncertain.

*

Chapter V

The Breaking Point

The streets tremble beneath the weight of decision.     What once simmered in whispers and warnings now roars in the open—ideals no longer debated but brandished like weapons.    The air, thick with the residue of old promises and new betrayals, pulses with the certainty that whatever comes next will leave nothing untouched.

The antiheroes make their final gambit.    Soren, the tactician, moves like a shadow to orchestrate disorder where unity threatens to form.    Vera stands at the precipice, poised to seize the moment, her ambition a blade sharpened by the chaos she helped ignite.     Xander, the firebrand, revels in the combustion, his voice rising above the masses as they lurch toward destiny.     And Don Narciso, the illusionist, offers the vision of victory—and never reveals for whom.

Across the divide, the heroes hold their ground.    Aurelia, the last sentinel of reason, refuses to yield to hysteria.    Marcos, steadfast and deliberate, gathers the scattered fragments of law and order and will them into an unbreakable shield.    Elena, undeterred by the tide of misinformation, hurls truth into the storm and hopes that it will land where eyes have not yet closed.

The Final Blow

The masses surge, a force neither entirely controlled nor entirely free.    The Reason Without Reason, pushed to their limits, demand collapse or conquest, their fury unshaken by consequence.     The Guardians of Common Sense, though fewer, stand firm, their resistance not in rage but in resolve.     The weight of their struggle shifts the balance, their voices merge into a single question:     Will we break the foundation, or will we stand upon it?

The Reckoning

From the depths of the nation’s memory, the constitutional order awakens.    The slow machinery of governance, thought too feeble to withstand the tide, begins to move.    Checks long ignored now make themselves known.     Laws, institutions, the silent architecture of balance—these rise, not as relics, but as forces unto themselves.     The battle is no longer merely between men and their ambitions; it is between the transient and the enduring, the fleeting impulse and the structure that has weathered centuries.

In this moment, the outcome is not determined by strength alone, nor by passion, nor even by strategy.     It is decided by what the nation remembers of itself—and whether it chooses to preserve that memory or cast it into the void.

The final choice looms.     And once made, there will be no turning back.

*

Chapter VI

The Restoration

The dust settles, though the echoes of upheaval still linger in the air.     The streets, once filled with the clamor of irreconcilable voices, now murmur with something quieter—fatigue, reflection, the tentative steps of a people relearning their own rhythm.

The battle did not end in conquest, nor in ruin, but in something subtler:    the slow, stubborn reassertion of order.     Not imposed from above, nor demanded by force, but reclaimed—piece by piece—by the quiet mechanisms that have long bound the nation together.

The institutions that once seemed fragile now reveal their hidden strength—not in their invincibility, but in their ability to bend without breaking.    The checks, once dismissed as relics, prove their purpose—not by preventing crisis, but by ensuring that no single force, no matter how fervent, may hold absolute sway.

The antiheroes do not vanish.     Soren retreats into the shadows and wait for another fracture to exploit.    Vera, calculating, pivots to survive and adapts her ambitions to the shifting landscape.     Xander’s voice dims but does not disappear, a reminder that dissent, even when reckless, is never truly extinguished.     And Don Narciso?    He smiles, enigmatic, because he knows that perception is never fixed—it only shifts.

Nor do the heroes claim triumph.    Aurelia, weary but unbowed, understands that victory in democracy is never final.     Marcos, pragmatic, turns to the long work of rebuilding what was shaken.    Elena, relentless as ever, ensures that truth remains the foundation upon which all else is built.

The people—the masses who had been both the fuel and the fire—find themselves changed.     Some remain embittered, unable to accept that the world they envisioned has not come to pass.    But others, those who stood against destruction not out of fear but out of faith in something steadier, see that the foundation still holds.

The nation breathes again.     Not in perfect harmony, not without scars, but with the knowledge that it has endured.     That it will always endure—not through force or fury, but through the resilience of principles that, though tested, remain unbroken.

The storm has passed.     But the sky, though clearing, holds the memory of what has been.

And what may come again.

*

Epilogue

The Quiet Turning

Time does not erase conflict, nor does it promise resolution.    What it offers, instead, is distance—a vantage from which to see not only what was lost, but what endured.

The nation stands, as it always has, not unchanged, but unbroken.     The tides of extremism will rise again, as they always do, for there is no final victory over the impulses of fear, ambition, and unrest.     The masses, shifting, will be drawn to extremes, then back toward balance, as if testing the edges of reason before returning to the center.

Yet within this ceaseless motion lies the quiet rhythm of renewal.    Accountability, once threatened, reasserts itself.     Balance, though fragile, holds.    And hope—fragile, tested, but unwavering—persists, not as illusion, but as choice.

The shroud that once veiled perfection has lifted and reveals not flawlessness, but resilience.    Not certainty, but the will to seek it.    Not a world without discord, but one where unity is still possible—not through sameness, but through a shared commitment to something greater than division.

The story does not end.     It continues, written in the choices yet to be made.     And within those choices lies the promise that, though the storm may return, so too will the light.

*

Ricardo F. Morín Tortolero, February 10, 2025

Oakland Park, Florida

Editor, Billy Bussel Thompson,

New York City, February 14, 2025

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“The Intersection of Superstitious Beliefs in Venezuela”

February 8, 2025

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Triangulation 36
22″ x 30″
Body color, sanguine, sepia and Sumi ink on paper
2008

The Power of Myth and Storytelling

Storytelling has long been humanity’s way of making sense of the unknown—an enduring thread that weaves aspirations, fears, and triumphs into allegory.    Myths such as those of Jupiter reflect our longing for power, resilience, and the divine; they serve as echoes of the struggles that define us.    Whether in the trials of gods and heroes or the quiet ordeals of ordinary lives, these narratives offer a means to navigate the bewildering nature of existence.

Mystery drifts into the folds of nature and provokes the eternal human impulse to explain, to justify, to believe.    Superstition thrives where uncertainty prevails; it offers a semblance of control, a means to interpret the ungovernable.    But where does it lead?    Does superstition whisper in the ears of power, does it shape the visions of those who govern?    Even in nations where the media shields leadership from scrutiny, the allure of the esoteric persists, its expressions open yet its workings veiled, obscured by secrecy and the hush of conspiratorial dread.

As mythologies once shaped civilizations, superstition remains deeply woven into modern cultures.    It manifests in rites and rituals, in whispered incantations and quiet observances, in the gestures of those who seek certainty where reason falters.    And yet, for all its solace, does it propel or impede?    A society caught between superstition and rationality is one that stands at a threshold—as superstition lingers between the past and the demands of an evolving world.

Santería and Spiritism in Venezuela

Santería and Spiritism have taken root in Venezuela and their influence surges in times of crisis.    Santería, an Afro-Caribbean fusion of Catholic, Indigenous, and African traditions, finds expression in rituals meant to commune with spirits, to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead.    Spiritism, too, is tethered to the supernatural, a doctrine of spectral contact and whispered revelations.    The two converge and intertwine within the broader landscape of Venezuela’s spiritual consciousness.

The Religious Sect of María Lionza

At the heart of Venezuela’s esoteric traditions stands María Lionza, an enigmatic figure at the crossroads of Indigenous, African, and Catholic beliefs.    She is revered as a goddess of nature, love, and harmony, her presence invoked in ceremonies that summon the spirits of those who have passed—figures as varied as the doctor José Gregorio Hernández, pre-Columbian chieftains, military titans like Simón Bolívar, and even the late Hugo Chávez.

Among the sect’s most prominent mediums is Edward Guidice, who channels the spirit of Emeregildo, a figure believed to possess extraordinary healing abilities.    As Venezuela’s healthcare system falters, belief in supernatural intervention flourishes.    Where medicine is scarce, faith fills the void, and María Lionza’s presence looms ever larger in the search for solace.

Superstition and Modernization

Superstition and modernity exist in uneasy proximity—the former, a refuge from uncertainty; the latter, an unrelenting tide.    In Venezuela, these beliefs permeate not only the private sphere but also governance, health, and social order.    Esoteric and occult forces whisper through the corridors of power, amble in the choices of those who lead, and take root where institutions crumble.

Beyond superstition lies witchcraft—the deliberate act of bending unseen forces to one’s will.    It is a force feared, spoken of in hushed tones, its practitioners both sought and condemned.    Unlike passive belief, witchcraft asserts itself upon the world, shapes outcomes, and influences destinies.    It exists in the margins, yet its shadow stretches across every echelon of society.

As Venezuela contends with its trials, superstition remains a steadfast companion.    It soothes, it explains, it beckons.    Yet, between its comforts and constraints lies a question—does it fortify or does it fetter?    The answer, as always, remains in the spaces between faith and reason, between what is seen and what is merely believed.

Ricardo F Morin, February 8, 2025, Oakland Park, Fl.

Editor, Billy Bussell Thompson

New York City, February 14, 2025

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“The Allure of Amalfi: A Journey Through History“

February 7, 2025

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Untitled Landscape
22″ x 30″
Watercolors, charcoal, oil, white-out and ink on paper
2006

Prologue

This is not a historical account, but an invention—honest and emotional, a reverie spun in the baroque folds of poetic prose. It is not a logical manifesto but a sensuous invocation of a place that has haunted my imagination.

Ricardo F. Morín Tortolero,

February 10, 2025, Oakland Park, Florida

*

Ulysses knew it as the land of the sirens, a place that, during the Middle Ages, would rise to become a great maritime empire.     Nestled at the foot of the towering Mount Cerreto, the Duchy of Amalfi once sought refuge here, as if embraced by a chrysalis of ancestral muses.

The tragedy of The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, the realism of Henrik Ibsen, and the Gesamtkunstwerk of the much-maligned Richard Wagner have all echoed the fate of this legendary caryatid of pleasure, perched above the Gulf of Salerno.      Amidst the cliffs, the thunderous dance of cascading mountains unfolds with grandeur; they seemed to move to the rhythm of the Podalirio butterfly to have us recall the less venerable Crusades, cloisters, and monasteries of times past.     The mountains and cliffs exhale back the residue of a barbaric metamorphosis from countless civilizations.     And yet, now, our restless gaze traces the genesis of the past as it discovers the seductive fragrance of la dolce vita.

Carved into a promontory at the edge of a precipice, between the villages of Cetara and Vietri—renowned for their anchovies in oil and multicolored ceramics—stands our magnificent hotel, the Cetus.      In the chromatic cacophony of the rainbow and its rocky outcrops, the eternal compass guides the rowing regattas that zigzag along the coastline as they navigate from south to northwest, from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Ligurian Sea.

Nearby, the Canneto River winds down through the Valley of the Mills, where the whisper of the wind carries Renaissance ballads written over the famed bambagina paper.      As if retracing our steps through time, the fjords shrink beneath a radiant sky, caressed by the delicate mist of cold winds.     We hear the hum of bees and inhale the piercing aroma of sfusato lemons from Mount Etna, while the limoncello releases its intoxicating golden essence.     The depths of the peninsula exude the taste and scent of their most captivating fruits.

So intense is the essence of the Amalfi Republic that it seems to sow lava into the turquoise waters and the cliffs that have long shielded it from collapse.     We sing the Falalella under the twilight haze, then float above the shimmering coastline of Salerno, Positano, and Ravello, as they are gently bathed in a cool drizzle.      With the ebb and flow of life, crimson clouds gaze into the mirror of the still waters and cast their glow upon the blue bay of Salerno.

Amalfi, a jewel of Salerno, is framed by the Campania region, where the majestic sanctuaries of Herculaneum and Paestum stand in solemn grandeur to salute us.     And from the ashes that wove together mythical times, the 18th-century archaeological expeditions of Pompeii unearthed, among many discoveries, ancient frescoes depict the Cycle of the Roman Mysteries, as well as the conquests of Alexander the Great.

The touch of ancient hands still reverberates through our senses.      Sweet is the vision beneath the spring sun, bouncing from ravine to valley, as it sways from stairway to cascading steps, until we reach the ancestral pier.      We had anchored there near the dock from which the great galleys once set sail to unknown lands.      They, like my beloved and I, drifted away from it and left behind the vision of the sirens’ paradise.

*

Ricardo F. Morín, February 7, 2025, Oakland Park, Fl

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“The Fetters of Power”

January 14, 2025

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Ricardo Morín
Ascension, CGI, 2005 by Ricardo Morín

Introduction

Power, in its rawest form, bends and distorts.    It reflects the body depicted in Ascension as it strains against the scaffolding of control—and embodies the turbulent forces we inhabit.[1]    These elements frame a reflection not only on Venezuela’s struggles but on the universal gravity of power that entraps us all.    I wonder if blaming these forces oversimplifies a system thriving on collective complicity.    Can self-compassion hold us accountable without succumbing to guilt—when despair paralyzes?

Positioned between The Stream of Emery, a fable of renewal, and Unmasking Disappointment, an upcoming essay on historical reckoning, this story continues a journey through entanglement, responsibility, and the enduring search for self-liberation.[2]

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THE FETTERS OF POWER

I

While my husband drove from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando, I had a conversation with my friend BBT.    It was one of those unsettling conversations that reveals how vast forces can overwhelm us.    He spoke of power, not as a tool, nor even as a desire, but as the primal force that pushes humanity toward authoritarian oligarchies.    Greed, according to him, is secondary, a symptom of something deeper:    the irresistible gravity of power itself.

II

I thought of Michel Foucault and his theories on power, and for a moment, I felt a flash of clarity.     But the more I tried to articulate his ideas, the more inadequate they seemed.        The weight of reality crushes academic musings as the world descends into ruin.      We fail to recognize ourselves as creatures trapped by our own errors.

III

Then, I remembered my cousin Ivelisse’s voice, trembling while holding back tears, as she recounted Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration, January 10.     For her, it was not just a political event; it was a symbol of our fall, of our dissolution as a people.     Her despair was mine, and ours was Venezuela’s—a nation habitually entrusting faith in saviors who never arrive.

IV

Across the world, power and greed—legitimized by crime or not—justify the rise of tyranny.   And we, in our confusion, have no answers in the face of these tides of unchecked ambition.

 V

BBT, ever pragmatic, said simply:   “Just enjoy yourself.”    His advice both stung and comforted me.   But how could I?    How could I enjoy anything when the world feels so fragile?   Every thought circles back to the same questions:   What can I do to counteract these forces?    How can I make sense of this struggle?

 VI

Still, I cling to one belief:  that one day, a collective awakening will emerge, a rising tide of awareness.   If there is to be a better world, it will not come from saviors or struggles for power, but from an alignment of minds and hearts.   My role, if I have one, is to contribute to that legacy—not for fame or ambition, but for peace.

 VII

Peace is what I seek, not only for myself but for others: a legacy that transcends my own life, one that serves as a quiet resistance to the forces of greed and power.    Only then, perhaps, will I find the simplicity BBT spoke of—not as surrender, but as understanding.

Postscript

It is easy to lose sight of the deeper currents that drive us, particularly when we are immersed in the tides of ambition, power, and cynicism.     In moments of crisis, these forces surge, often obscuring our judgment and steering us off course.     Yet, amidst their overwhelming presence, one truth remains:     surrendering to love sustains us.

Ultimately, what really matters is love.    It alone sustains us above all else.    It can anchor us against the forces that threaten to lead us astray.

Perhaps with that recognition is where peace begins—not in the world outside or its lack of validation, but in the quiet acceptance of what we can change, and what we cannot.

~

Endnotes:

[1]   “Ascension,” CGI, 2005, https://www.ricardomorin.com/06_3-D_html/01.html , Artist’s website’s repository https://www.ricardomorin.com/3-d-digital.html

[2]   Ricardo Morín, “The Stream of Emery,” WordPress, December 29, 2024, https://observationsonthenatureofperception.com/2024/12/29/the-stream-of-hermes/

 

Ricardo F. Morin Tortolero, January 14, 2025; Oakland Park, Florida.

Billy Bussell Thompson, February 14, 2025, New York City

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“Platonic Interactions”

August 5, 2023
Figure 1: Platonic Series # 00023 - CGI by Ricardo Morin © 2018
Figure 1: Platonic Series # 00023 – CGI by Ricardo Morin © 2018

Within the last two decades, I have turned my pictorial interests to the depiction of regular polyhedra, their history since the classical period, and their different motivations.    Plato believed that regular polyhedra represented the 5 elements of the universe and in how they were a sacred part of geometry.    For modern geometers, the universe fits together into the shape of a dodecahedron, somewhat like a soccer ball.

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Figure 2: «Platonic Interactions - Tessellated Composite» – CGI by Ricardo Morin– ©2023
Figure 2: «Platonic Interactions Composite» – CGI by Ricardo Morin– ©2023

«Platonic Interactions» began with the beauty I found in Plato’s forms and how their own mathematical formations involved the proportionality of the golden mean.     Their geometries stand as a unified and congruent visual harmony.     Akin to mandalas for meditation, they evoke the world at large.     My vision of the regular polyhedra is set by having them nested within each other in an openly latticed forest of complementary and analogous hues and shapes.     Although regular polyhedra are essentially symmetrical, the rotation of their three-dimensional structures allows for a multiplicity of visual angles, with each one filled by wondrous feats of energy.      «Platonic Interactions» is an orchestration of life-inspiring images, arranged to the melodic musings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude – Cello Suite 3 – as interpreted by Jon Sayles.

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Figure 3: Figure 3 «Platonic Triangulation» by Ricardo Morin, 22’ x 30”. Body color and graphite on paper, ©2008
Figure 3: Figure 3 «Platonic Triangulation» by Ricardo Morin,
22’ x 30”. Body color and graphite on paper, ©2008

As early as 2005, I had begun a series of oil paintings and drawings entitled «Infinity,» which were based on the premises previously mentioned.     In this context, the painting’s perimeter serves the same function as the golden mean does for proportionality.     The superimposition of the triangle’s right angle over the surface of the painting reinforces the golden mean.    The very surface of the painting and the forms expressed on it imply infinitude.    

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Since 2018, no longer involved in the medium of oils, I have dedicated my attention to digital paintings.     Printed and manipulated on canvas, today these digital paintings count sixty four images.     «Platonic Interactions» uses fifty of these images, sequentially arranged.     They are further composited into two tessellated tiles (like mosaics), one 5 x 5 squares and the other 7 x 7 squares – as in Figure 2 above.

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Ricardo F Morin

Edited by Billy Bussell Thompson

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Bala Cynwyd, Pa. August 3, 2023

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