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Why worship Che Guevara?

I’ve been trying to take out The Motorcycle Diaries from my local video hire shop, but with no success. It seems that the film is particularly popular. It is based on part of the life of Che Guevara, a hero for many young people.

When I was at university, there were students who wore Che Guevara t-shirts or who put up posters of the man on their bedroom walls. People never said a bad word against this man. To some, he was their personal Jesus figure.

Problem was, no one really knew who the hell Che Guevara was. He was a revolutionary figure, something to do with Cuba. That was about all most people knew about the man. It always seemed odd to me that people wanted to associate themselves with someone they knew so little about. In reality, supporting Che was just about making a statement – of sticking it to companies, America and the West.

Making Che Guevara into someone worthy of admiration is the most successful thing the ‘Left’ has managed to do in the past fifty years. This is the man who had no shame in murdering innocent civilians, was a major human rights violator, and put gays (who were ‘deviants’), religious minorities and other undesirables into concentration camps. Some hero.

43 comments to Why worship Che Guevara?

  • Joe

    I had a friend in college who sold Che t-shirts, when i asked him he was very much aware that selling t-shirts constituted good capitalism, something that im sure Che would not have approved of. Despite the contrast he was otherwise considered to be a bit of a right on communist.

    Ignoring that little tale for a moment, im sure the appeal of Che for many is simply that teenagers like rebelion.

  • mike

    I share the sentiment; Che Guavara is quintessentially left and also the quintessential idol of adolescent worship.

    It is a pretty good film though. A better political idol (and better film?) might be Spartacus – though I’m tempted to be a traitor and announce my worship of slave-selling Peter Ustinov in that film, rather than iron-jaw Douglas!

  • djerzinsky

    again, this is only a film, and those who have seen it know it doesn’t glorify the revolutionnary aspect of the Che, but rather exposes his experience as a young lad.

    the movie itself is actually pretty good and if it wasn’t for its main character to become the cold blooded bastard we know of, it would just be a lad’s backpacking guide to south america.

    just cut the last 5 minutes out.

  • I'm suffering for my art

    Ah, great! No one likes slaughtering lefty sacred cows more than myself, and I’ve long been chasing some decent dirt on this irritating figure who seems to pop up in all kinds of places. If you do a search on Google for the guy, you get a plethora of laudatory pieces about him: “A hero file”, “A Revolutionary Life”, “che-lives.com”. I’m sensing you get the picture. So, does anyone know any references that recant history free of ideological slobbering? I’ve heard people refer to him as a baby killer. Is this so? Anyone know any decent references? Thanks…

  • It should be “Dzerzhinskiy”…:-)

    Imagine if someone made a pretty good movie about Hitler’s or Stalin’s days as young lads, before they became ruthless dictators. I am not saying that Che was as bad as those monsters (I don’t know, but I am sure he did not manage to kill as many people). What I am saying is that this film sounds just like another piece of leftist propaganda.

  • mike

    It is (somewhat subtly) a piece of leftist propaganda. It is still a good film.

  • Findlay Dunachie

    Note that it’s perfectly OK to wear a Che T-shirt, but not a swastika armband.

  • I liked how David Horowitz and Peter Collier summed up Che’s appeal. To the Sixties radicals and their heirs, he was “Jim Morrison with an assault rifle.”

  • Andrew X

    What should be done is to stylistically replicate the Che shirts (and the movement) with one celebrating Ernst Roehm.

    After all he was a socialist (National SOCIALIST German WORKERS Party… hello), he agititated for egalitarianism and against the German capitalists, on behalf of the German people, who were quite arguably much better off in 1934 when Roehm died, then in 1925, when he began agitating. Roehm was then killed (some say personally) by a man considered to be a “right-wing” fantatic murderer (the last two are correct), a real live martyr for the cause, I suppose.

    Hey, that’s a hero all-around, no? And if not, well, WHY not? Specifics please.

    Get a few Roehm shirts out there. That’ll make the point.

  • Euan Gray

    Note that it’s perfectly OK to wear a Che T-shirt

    Even in the early 80s, a officer cadet I knew thought nothing of wearing such a thing at the Woolwich artillery barracks. The crusty old colonels weren’t awfully impressed, mind you. Can’t think why.

    Hey, that’s a hero all-around, no?

    Since Roehm was gay, he’s surely even more of a hero?

    EG

  • RyMaN600

    I don’t think it’s available anymore, but I recall seeing a great Che shirt with “I have no idea who this is” written underneath his famous mug.

    There’s an even better one, with a dollar sign replacing the star on his beret, and with the words “this shirt brought to you by capitalism” written underneath. Awesome.

    http://www.curefornudity.com/product.cfm/chethisshirtbroughttoyoubycapitalism.htm

  • Mike, the fact that the film is good makes for a more effective propaganda, and makes it more potentially dangerous. I for sure am not going to pay to see it – that’s the least I can do.

  • Roy Cameron

    Che is a secular version of Jesus Christ. Secularists need their gods and goddesses as well.

    Roy Cameron

  • Alisa wrote:

    “Imagine if someone made a pretty good movie about Hitler’s or Stalin’s days as young lads, before they became ruthless dictators.”

    One of the cable channels here in the US made a movie recently about Hitler’s days as a struggling artist after WWI. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was on sometime last year, and had John Cusack in it.

  • Neil

    “… a movie recently about Hitler’s days as a struggling artist after WWI. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was on sometime last year, and had John Cusack in it.”

    That would be Max (no, I couldn’t find a better link). A film I rather enjoyed. Its most definitely not a flattering portrait though (for which I’m glad).

  • mike

    “Mike, the fact that the film is good makes for a more effective propaganda, and makes it more potentially dangerous.”

    Alisa: well I’m loathe to admit this, but you’re probably right! Nevertheless after I saw it (with a lefty friend) I remember discussing it in the bar afterwards and trying to put a libertarian spin on it (self-reliance, honouring of promises/contracts are strong themes). Don’t let the lefties have it all their own way, you know…

    But if I may make a recommendation – the film I’m sort of obsessing over with some friends at the moment is Glengarry Glen Ross. Now I read somewhere that this was a ‘critique’ of the Reagan administration’s economic policies – whatever – I would not miss this film for a wilderness of
    libertarian propaganda films.

  • mike

    Shock horror! I see my link didn’t work… let’s see if this is any better. I will be so embarassed if it doesn’t…

  • jon

    Go to imdb.com for info on Max, about Hitler’s starving-artist days.

    Che is an icon. He makes a good poster, t-shirt, button, whatever. He’s an image, just as is Elvis, Jim Morrisson, Hendrix, Cobain, Oscar Wilde, Jarvis Cocker, Madonna the singer, Madonna the religious figure, Jesus, Scarface Al Pacino, and James Dean. What matters is he lived fast, died young, didn’t compromise, made the world know who he was, had sex appeal, or some combination of those. Ethics, morals, politics, and even reality aren’t necessary.

    Analysis of why some things are the way they are won’t necessarily make them any more tasteful.

  • RAB

    Amazing what one image and a bit of lefty bullshit can do to create a myth eh?The Beret, the badge, the beard! Che is sheer cool alliteration in pixels.Now I would like to see the T shirt of a picture I saw in the Sunday Times a while back of good ‘ol Che chipping out of the bunker at the 17th hole of the Royal Rio De Janero Golf and Country club like the spoiled little rich kid he was.What do you think, will it sell?

  • Snorre

    Here in Norway, there’s a counterculture to that, actually. Fristud (free stud(ents)) sells t-shirts of Che with one of those red circles with a slash through it, and the text “Murderers are not heroes.”

    http://www.fristud.no/che-skjorte.php

  • The guys at Communists For Kerry like Che quite a bit

    *wink wink nod nod say no more say no more*

    http://www.communistsforkerry.com/

    (Hint : this is a parody site and not to be taken seriously – bring your sense of humor…or if you are a Lefty Che-worshipper, steal one at gunpoint…)

  • Che was a murdering pig who couldn’t die soon enough, really. He would stop buses, slit the peasants’ throats and steal their children to be raised as revolutionaries. He founded the Cuban gulags. He asassinated political prisoners whose only crime was desiring to be free.

    Free to make movies, for example.

    What’s (mildly) interesting however, is that while Hollywood imputes all this to Bush & Ashcroft, in reality, the ‘creative community’ would be the first ones to be murdered under any Che-style regime.

    This is Motorcycle Diarrhea, shat upon the Highway of Life by those who really have no excuse for not knowing any better.

  • Why worship Che Guevera? I was just wondering this myself, having stumbled upon a shrine, the other day, in an otherwise normal looking household.

    The answer I found was simple enough: Every bird must find its berry. Similarly, stupid people are obliged to be stupid. That’s really all there is to it.

  • I'm suffering for my art

    Noel (and anyone else) – any references to these facts? I’m reading a lot of rhetoric here about Che’s murdering ways but I can’t find much evidence on the net or at Amazon. Not that I don’t believe you; I really want you to be right! Just that there seems to be very few recollections that support the baby killer/murdering pig tag, and a great deal that recall the people’s hero.

  • Mike D

    I’m Suffering etc –

    There was quite a good hatchet job done on Che Guevara in The Spectator (may require free registration): http://www.spectator.co.uk/newdesign/article.php?issue=2004-08-28&id=4946

    Also a more appropriate version of the famous T-shirt is available here: http://www.thedissidentfrogman.com/bureau/000223.html

  • Che managed the No1 strategy of anyone who wishes to be eternally famous. He died young. A Communist James Dean. Had Castro died at the same time we would probably see posters of him on walls, ditto Stalin.

    As was previously mentioned he was also the good looking rebel, enough on its own to make many people ignore murder.

    The best thing to do about Che is to ask his supporters what it was he did that was so great. Push them hard, most won’t have a clue. Then dismiss him as a right on Boy Band Figure. Don’t argue about his legacy, leftist don’t care. Ridicule is the only thing they are scared of.

  • I'm suffering for my art

    Mike D – thanks for the Spectator link. Most interesting and much appreciated.

    As for Frogman, been there, done that, bought the T-shirt 🙂

  • I went in search of an answer to I’m Suffering’s question but first found
    Geurilla Warfare. Some of the user reviews are rather frightening, but it’s nice to see someone called Ghetto from the USA has the right idea.

    Some of the reviewers of A Revolutionary Life claim it’s unbiased, but they all seem to be Che fans.

    I’m disappointed, I’d like to be able to point to some good sources before I go confronting Che T-Shirt wearers.

    On the subject of T-Shirts, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Frogman’s design yet, modelled at Glastonbury by this handsome chap. 😉

  • I remember in the 80s while at my alma malus, Colby, I was accosted by someone for wearing a ‘Peace through Superior Firepower’ t-shirt, who was wearing a che-pin. When I challenged him on his hypocrisy, he got very angry and left, declaring me a fascist… naturally.

    He, of course, was completely unaware of what that commie scum Che actually stood for and did.

  • Of course the right has successfully promoted their own villians as heros also, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill spring to mind as people who, quite unjustifiably, are revered as cult heros.

  • I'm suffering for my art

    Rob – I liked this guy’s critique on the Guerrilla Warfare link you provided…

    Reviewer: jarot24@aol.com from florida
    Ernesto “che” Guevara’s book is great for information and history from his days with castro to his death in bolivia. Che is with all the grat others like Karl Marx, Mao Tse-Tung,John Dewey,Noam Chomsky….etc

    Attempting to muddle through his well-considered thoughts, despite the difficulty he clearly faces with written communication, I cannot help but think ‘Please tell me he’s taking the piss. Please….’

    Andrew Ian Dodge – funnily enough, my flatmate just came home sporting a Che t-shirt. I thought I’d hit him up about it. Before getting shitty at me and spouting some contradictory nonsense, he conceded that he wears it ‘cos his girlfriend likes it. Cute, huh?

    Paul – I agree there are dark sides to both men you mentioned. I’m less familiar with Lincoln than Churchill, so I won’t discuss Lincoln. The impact of Churchill’s great deeds far outweighs his more unsavoury traits and blunders, which on balance pale into insignificance IMO. I’m not sure we could say the same about Che. Thanks for the link by the way.

    Regards,

  • I’m suffering,
    Recommended reading:
    The books Waiting for Snow in Havana, by Carlos Eire, and Before Night Falls, by Reinald Arenas. to my own posts on Che, are a good start. First-hand accounts, both.
    Paul Berman’s article, http://slate.msn.com/id/2107100/, The Cult of Che
    For a list of people killed by Che, and verified by at least two witnesses: http://www.babalublog.archives.001225.html

    If you’d like to read my posts, http://badhairblog.blogspot.com/2004/10/beautiful-obscenities-and-forgotten.html
    http://badhairblog.blogspot.com/2004/10/more-on-beautiful-obscenities-and.html

    I also posted on AIDS and civil rights http://badhairblog.blogspot.com/2004/12/clueless-about-cubas-quarantine.html

  • ross

    As a socialist I agree, the left does need a new, untarnished pop icon. I suggest Victor Jara. With the trial of Pinochet coming up it’s probably about time.

  • Clarification:
    The books are 1st-hand accounts. My posts are not. Apologies for my mistake.

  • Never mind the t-shirts, an awful lot of people seem to get his mug tatooed on themselves.

  • John K

    I doubt he’d have been as popular if he’d kept the “Ernesto”. “Che” sounds cool, he had a great photo taken of him, he died young with his boots on. That seems to be what you need to become a Socialist Saint.

  • tre

    Image or substance? Imagine that…

  • Zevilyn

    Churchill was certainly not a villain. Popular perception of Churchill is that he was right-wing. Not so.

    He served in Asquith’s Liberal Government (to compare Charles Kennedy to Asquith shows how much that once great party has declined), and it is said that Churchill (while a Conservative) told a Labour MP in the 1950’s that he had always been a Liberal, and always would be.

    Churchill loathed socialism, but he also despised old etonian elitists and aristocrats. He was a Liberal in the mould of Gladstone and Asquith.

  • Manish Golder

    The whole page smacks of a marked lack of any objective thinking. No one really seems to be sure of their facts whether positive or negative. The communist paranoia is a malady that proves abject intellectual penury. Please read history books and definitely read the original ideolgy before making comments. Stupidity indeed seems relative here since the ones making such accusations are themselves sadly incapable of rational cogitation.

  • snide

    Manish wrote:

    Stupidity indeed seems relative here since the ones making such accusations are themselves sadly incapable of rational cogitation

    …and then proceeds to not explain which accusations (pro-Che or anti-Che) he is writing about as if it was just obvious… which is ain’t.

    And my two cents is that he was a murdering communist thug who was not even that good at being a guerrilla.

  • ANTHONY

    ARE U PEOPLE STUPID DONT U ALL GO TO COLLEGE CHE WAS A SOLDIER FOR A CAUSE OF FREEDOM CASTRO BACK STABBED HIM AND SENT HIS ASS TO BOLIVIA AND THEN SENT FAKE ASS SOLDIERS TO BACK HIM UP U NERDS NEED TO READ SO U CAN FIND OUT WHO WAS THE GREAST REVOLUTIONARY THAT EVER WAS BORN. HE KILLED CIVILIANS THAT WERE TRYING TO KILL HIM IM CUBAN AND DEFINETLY NOT A COMMUNIST. TILL THIS DAY NO 1 CAN SAY HE KILLED INNOCENT PROPLE. HE NEVER GAVE UP HE KEPT ON GOING WITH THE WAR THE MEANING OF A REVOLUTION IS U LIVE AND DIE BY IT NO MATTER WHAT.HE TRULY DID THAT BUT GOT STOPPED SHORT BY HIS OWN FRIEND.IF HE WOULDA STAYED ALIVE IN CUBA WOULD HAVE BEEN FREE.HE WAS 1 OF CASTROS GREATEST FEARS.ANYWAYS U CRACKERS DONT CARE ABOUT CUBA SO NEVERMIND THE GREATNESS HE WAS.

  • What a pathetic twit Anthony is. Not only can he not find the cap lock key on his computer, he is very ignorant of recent history. Try reading this(Link), you fool, and then maybe you will realise that Guevara was nothing more than a thug in the service of another thug.