Adventure is worthwhile - Aesop

Worshipping Che
by Hal_10000

Reason opens up a full salvo on the Cult of Che Guevara:

The Cult of Che (and Mao, for that matter) represents everything that’s wrong with the dim-bulb left. They have no fucking clue what these men stood for or what they did. All the know is that they were “revolutionaries”. Actually, I don’t even know that they know that. All they know is they’re cool and that one can demonstrate his individualism by mindlessly following the herd.

In college, I once confronted someone who had a picture of Lenin on his wall about everything that Lenin had done. The response was that Lenin’s actions didn’t matter as much as what he stood for. Never mind that Lenin did stand for oppression, conformity and the empowerment of the state over the individual. By that logic, Anne Coulter was right to praise Joe McCarthy. After all, he stood for keeping America safe, didn’t he?

We don’t judge people by their intentions or their visions of proletarian salvation or whatever. We judge them by their actions. Having a picture of a “revolutionary” on your shirt would not make you cool. Having a picture of a murderous tyrant makes you an ignorant twit.

Update by Lee: I actually just logged in here to post this link, believe it or not. I thought this was great, for all the reasons Hal said. I have to admit, though, than when I lived in Los Angeles I used to eat at the Venice Beach location of Mao’s Kitchen all the time. I worked just a few minutes from it and I’d order food, then pick it up on the way home. The food is amazing, but I do remember having the same discussion with people one night while eating in there. For example, they have something called “Long March Chicken.” You can read about the Long March here, and see how many men died on it. I remember saying, “Can you imagine if a restaurant were selling something called Bataan Death March Chicken?” I also at the time made the comparison with Hitler’s Kitchen, so it was kinda cool seeing this.

Their food was fucking great, though.

Interestingly, I have a Che Guevara shirt myself, specifically this one. A few times when I’ve worn it out here people will see it and say, “Che Guevara, cool.” Then I’ll tell them to look closer, and they kinda scrunch their faces up.

The thing is, if it wasn’t for that famous photograph Che would be a footnote to history. But that incredible picture, with that stern look of passionate revolutionary zeal across his face, has made him an international icon.

Posted by Hal_10000 on 12/11/08 at 08:16 AM (Discuss this in the forums)

Comments

Posted by on 12/11/08 at 02:41 PM from

Last year, a Cuban guy in North Bergen NJ, went into a store and bought all their Che shirts and lit them on fire right outside the store.
There was an arrest and it made the paper. I wish I could find the story online (Bergen Record?)

Posted by on 12/11/08 at 06:12 PM from

I have to agree RE: Mao’s Kitchen. Their food is outstanding. And they seem to be pretty tongue-in-cheek about the communism stuff. Even though it’s Venice, there are no real political overtones going on there.

Posted by on 12/11/08 at 06:50 PM from

The thing is, if it wasn’t for that famous photograph Che would be a footnote to history. But that incredible picture, with that stern look of passionate revolutionary zeal across his face, has made him an international icon.

Just in looks, Che was HOT ...

Posted by on 12/11/08 at 06:57 PM from

Just in looks, Che was HOT ...

Especially after he got filled with bullets and turned into Cheburger.

Posted by on 12/11/08 at 07:03 PM from

One thing that always bothers me about liberals and artists (are they the same?) is that they strive so hard to appear to be individualistic in art, in clothing, in speech, in their actions etc but… if they even hear a whiff of political individualism and/or economic self reliance they shriek and begin to foam at the mouth in a mad seizure about the emptiness and moral decay of anyone who would contemplate such a notion.

Posted by on 12/11/08 at 07:04 PM from

On another note, if you wanted simply to display a ‘revolutionary’ why not have a t-shirt of Jefferson, Washington, of FA Hayek… fuck me that would be awesome.

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 12/11/08 at 07:28 PM from

Jefferson and Washington were Old White Guys. They don’t count…

I wonder how Che himself would feel about his image being marketed to upper-income white American kids. He’d probably think he’d pulled the greatest scam in the world (the first being the communism he followed).

Posted by on 12/11/08 at 07:53 PM from

Especially after he got filled with bullets and turned into Cheburger.

Must be a chick thing ...

Posted by on 12/11/08 at 08:02 PM from

I wonder how Che himself would feel about his image being marketed to upper-income white American kids.

Being turned into a personality cult seems to be a common goal for leftists of Che’s type, so he would probably be okay with it.

Posted by mikeguas on 12/11/08 at 08:18 PM from

Just in looks, Che was HOT ...

Well there’s still Hugo :)

Posted by HARLEY on 12/11/08 at 09:20 PM from

Being turned into a personality cult seems to be a common goal for leftists of Che’s type, so he would probably be okay with it.

ah witness Obama.......................

Posted by HARLEY on 12/11/08 at 09:23 PM from

Just in looks, Che was HOT ...

yeah he got them wet… that is all that counts, you know.
not the fact he was a killer and near madman.
a lot of women got Wet for Teddy Bundy too....
I geuss something gets lost in the translation ..

Posted by InsipiD on 12/12/08 at 04:25 AM from

Just in looks, Che was HOT ...

I’m guessing that isn’t based on how he probably smelled. I’ve read that he considered bathing to be a decadence and avoided it, like other famous socialists.

Most people of both sexes find clean people much sexier. I know I do.

Posted by on 12/12/08 at 08:53 AM from

I’m guessing that isn’t based on how he probably smelled.

Never smelled him.

yeah he got them wet… that is all that counts, you know.

Well, duh. You never hear women admit that there is something to the danger factor in these PC days. Dangerous men can be sexy, but are best avoided for the reasons listed and the fact that they will generally break your heart.

Posted by Santino on 12/12/08 at 10:57 AM from