December 12, 2003
BlogCuba - J. Scott Barnard
Fellow Florida blogger J. Scott Barnard of Burton Terrace is another one of my daily multi-stops. Here for BlogCuba he shows us just who El Che - lefty poster boy ala capitalism - really was:
Or so says the website, Che-lives. The website proprietor's sense of irony goes beyond the title. While promoting the legacy of the slain guerilla leader, there's a buck to be made.
Note: Che-Lives has to finance it's own web server and without this commercial section, Che-Lives can't stay online.
You can support the revolution by buying t-shirts, key chains, berets, even a brushed metal red star "zippo styled" lighter. And who wouldn't want that Che Guevara shot glass to while away their evenings playing quarters in the dorm room under their very own Che poster. Hasta la victoria siempre indeed!
You've seen them, I'm sure. All over campuses across the globe, the young flock to the image of Che. What is it about this failed revolutionary that drives the burgeoning adolescent mind to revere? Oh, sorry, I mean the martyr of the revolution. Yes, he lived, he fought, he believed in...something. He died. Brian Peterlinz thinks it more than simply the fervor and passion of a revolutionary that attracts young people to him.
Certainly his good looks didn't hurt.
Apparently Che was a quick learner too.
He quickly demonstrated the natural ability to take on new tasks that he showed through his life by swiftly rising to the command of one of the rebel columns. (...) His ability to take on various tasks was impressive. [Peterlinz]
So he wasn't a moron. Except that he really wasn't that bright either.
Despite later serving as minister of the economy (of Cuba), he had no notion of the most basic ideas of economics and ended up ruining the Central Bank. [Fontaine]
So really his forte was as a fighter, not an administrator.
And so, instead of working to build on the revolution, Che sought to export it.
I believe in armed struggle as the only solution for those peoples who fight to free themselves and I am consistent with my belief. [Ruiz]
Problem is, what if you held a revolution and nobody showed up? Before he joined Fidel's invasion force, he had sought to foment revolution in Guatemala. The people did not want to fight. Granted, it's more complicated than that. But the people chose not to rise up at that time. Guevara himself admitted as much.
In Guatemala...it was necessary to resist, but hardly anyone wanted to. [BEC]
Che of course found success in Cuba, but then becoming restless he left for Africa and then South America. But in Bolivia it came to an end.
There he tried to apply his theory of the guerrilla "foco"(cell), taking no notice of the policies of the Bolivian Communist Party. Not a single peasant joined his group there. Increasingly isolated and hunted by government forces, he was captured on 8 October 1967 and executed the following day. [Fontaine]
Valiant to the end, but for a cause with which sometimes he alone was willing to sacrifice for. I can see why some might naively find his adventures worth commemorating.
I admit, there's no love lost here in my heart for Che. I guess I'll count myself among those who Richard Ruiz thinks are too harsh on the revolutionary.
Although he was called cold and inhuman by his enemies, Ernesto was warm and compassionate toward those people deprived of fundamental social and economic privileges. The latter was a dominant part of this life; the part that made him the world's most known insurrectionist. He was a man that trembled with indignation at the sight of any injustice committed against the poor.
No matter that if the poor got in the way, the trembling and indignation turned to murder.
In the resistance, Guevara soon became commander of a detachment, quickly gaining a reputation for ruthlessness; a child in his guerrilla unit who had stolen a little food was immediately shot without trial. [Fontaine]
Cold and inhuman anyone? Che believed in channeling rage to achieve the goal of the revolution at any cost. Hate fuels the violence, and makes us better killers, he himself admits.
...extremely useful hatred turns men into effective, violent, merciless, and cold killing machines. [Ibid]
So keep that in mind when you proudly wear the shirts, key chains and knock-off Zippo lighters that bear his image.
Bibliography
Peterlinz, Brian: What is it about Che?
Ruiz, Richard M.: Ernesto "Che" Guevara
BEC: The Development, Maturation and Influences on Che Guevara's Ideology
Fontaine, Pascal: Essay on Communism in Latin America, from The Black Book of Communism
J.Scott Barnard is a writer and videographer living in N.E.Florida. When he's not incoherently rambling on about the communists, the terrorists and linking like mad at Burton Terrace, he plays guitar and is the lead singer of his punk/mariner/celtic band, the Scuba Chinchillas.
Posted by Val Prieto at December 12, 2003 09:07 AM
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Comments
Heh. This is why I, as a libertarian, have a Photoshopped picture of me as Che on my site. I love how the Che worshipers subvert Che's belief's by making a buck off him, and I hope the bastard is spinning so hard in his grave he's generating electricity for a small village.
Posted by: Dave at December 12, 2003 05:15 PM
The real irony is that Che thought Fidel ought to let small mom and pop companies, like this Che-lives site which is run by just a couple of folks, thrive in post-batista Cuba. As cold-blooded and ruthless as I obviously believe Che was, he had one or two market oriented ideas that got crushed under Fidel's boot. Even Che knew that once you overthrew your "oppressors" you needed a decent economy to pay for all of the socialist spending. Che I could care less for, but Fidel is even worse.
Your photoshop picture is just hilarious.
I'm glad Val's efforts are paying off today, lot's of interesting posts..and even an "Instalanche"!
Peace. --s
Posted by: Scott at December 12, 2003 05:38 PM
Once I saw a TV program here in Mexico. They were interviewing people who knew that bastard, I mean, that great revolutionary, back in Buenos Aires when he was young. A woman who went to high school with him told the story that one day that guy said: "Jesus Christ was a poor fool who didn't know a thing about revolution. I wish I could meet him personally, I would smash him against the floor with my shoe" Wow! That's the kind of sick bastard we are talking about, sorry, great revolutionary. Anyway, I guess his wish of meeting The Lord was accomplished, although I really doubt he could have crushed Him. LOL.
Posted by: Miguel at December 13, 2003 05:00 AM
TAKING A RED-COATED PILL AND STUDYING CHE
Sure, they put an idiot like Che in a position that required extensive banking experience, as Minister of the Economy, and that's just another example of the absolute stupidity displayed by Fidel Castro for the past 44 years. It is also such insanity as this that has led to the complete disintegration of Cuba.
Did you read where he offered to send some "advice" for Congressman Sam Farr on fiscal matters for the U.S.? Jeeezzz. Rep. Farr sat in a child-like trance and listened to that blow-hard motor-mouth Castro for almost the whole night. We pay him big bucks and endless perks, and then he pays homage to a mass-murderer. This was like a skit from Saturday Night Live, if you read the news report about Farr's investigative trip to Cuba last spring.
Farr was carrying a large painting "the size of a door" back from Cuba, a huge joke to his traveling companions. Obviously Farr was the only one in the group who succumbed to Fidel's charms, but to me it was like an American congressman congratulating Saddam for executing 300,000 Iraqis. I cannot fogive that type of stupidity.
Che, the hero? Tell me, what sort of a military genius was that two-bit joker? He got his ass whipped in a minor fight in S.A., by a small group of poorly trained soldiers. He died an ignominous death. The jerk has been so lionized and over-rated for the past 44 years that it is unbelievable to me that another joker would devote a whole web-site to him; he's just a tiny pimple on the ass-end of history.
He was one of the cucarachas that got squashed. They've built a mystique around a guy who was not even in the same class as an American with six months of U.S. Marine training! It's a joke, unfortunately one that has gone on far too long. It's Freshman History at Berkeley though.
Posted by: Howard E. at December 13, 2003 05:06 AM
Well said, Howard.
Posted by: J.Scott Barnard at December 13, 2003 12:34 PM
