Our Crab Mentality

the AZEL PERSPECTIVE Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 70

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It is a funny thing about crabs; when a single crab is placed in a bucket, it will surely seek to climb up and escape. However, in a bucket full of crabs, none can escape as the crabs pull each other down preventing any crab from climbing the bucket and escaping to freedom. Sociologists use the term “crab mentality” or “crabs in a bucket” in metaphorical  reference to anyone who is trying to better his or her circumstances, but is prevented by others who do not want them to be successful and drag them down to share the collective fate of the group. Crab mentality expresses the “if I can’t have it neither can you” idea when members of a group seek to negate or diminish the accomplishments of any member who achieves success above others in the group. I have no idea why the crabs do it, but in the analogy to human behavior, envy and jealously are the usual suspects for crab mentality.   The crabs in a bucket syndrome is the negative attitude people have toward the success of others. Many of us can relate to efforts to start a business, to improve our education, to begin exercising or dieting, only to be dissuaded by some around us telling us that it is not worth the effort. But crab mentality is not limited to individuals. It can be observed in the behavior of groups, communities and nations. And although crab mentality is universal, in some societies it becomes a coordinated national activity under the disguises of egalitarianism, wealth redistribution, income equality, and similar efforts to pull down those who reach for success. This is, of course, the official policy of communist regimes such as Cuba and North Korea where collectivist ideologies appeal to our sense of envy and promote a desire for the unearned.  In China, when communist leader Deng Xiaoping introduced market reforms in 1984, he sought to counter the crab mentality by famously telling the Chinese people that “to get rich is glorious.” In contrast, in Cuba General Raul Castro has insisted that “non-state” economic activities will not be allowed to lead to the “concentration of wealth.” In Eastern Europe, following decades of communist experience, post communist societies today still suffer from severe cases of crab mentality syndrome as they try to foster entrepreneurship and elevate economic success. More subtle and unofficial forms of crab mentality can be observed in Latin cultures, among others, where there is a certain stigma towards the business community and success in general. Historically in Europe, and by cultural transmission in Latin America, the good life aspired by most was a life of leisure; a life free from work, epitomized by the gentleman aristocrat who did not dirty his hands with business. In Latin America, this translates into governmental policies that fail to foster the conditions under which individuals can create, trade, and prosper to escape their poverty bucket, and in occupational choices overwhelmingly emphasizing medicine and law. In the United States, we are beginning to condemn individuality, businesses, and the profit motive and to promote a culture of being taken care off inside the communitarian bucket.  We seem to forget that when someone is taking care of us, it means someone is deciding for us.  Our freedom is diminished.   To escape the bucket we need to promote societal attitudes where the focus is on making the most of our own lives, not on envying the achievements of others. We need to value, not punish success. We need to appreciate that the unconsumed wealth (i.e., accumulated capital) of those that have escaped the poverty bucket before us, are the savings that, when deployed by entrepreneurs, fuel the economic growth of a nation. We should find inspiration in the success of those that have escaped the bucket and we should mentor others to climb the sides of the bucket.  Perhaps, if we climb together, we can tilt the bucket and we can all get out. Please let us know if you  this article. This article was originally published in English in the PanAm Post and in Spanish in El Nuevo Herald.   José Azel, Ph.D. José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.   He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies as a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami and has published extensively on Cuba related topics. In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami.  Dr. Azel is author of Mañana in Cuba: The Legacy of Castroism and Transitional Challenges for Cuba, published in March 2010 and of Pedazos y Vacios, a collection of poems he wrote as a young exile in the 1960's. José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp. They cycled St. James Way (El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary. They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast.  Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them.  Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro. Books by Dr. José Azel Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future. Buy now   Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish. Buy now

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