Let Them Eat Che
by Veronica DiPippoMuch has been written about Hollywood’s obsession with Communist poster child and fashion icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Despite the protestations of those who actually knew and were tortured or persecuted by Che, the stories of hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles and a vast body of easily accessible knowledge on the failed state he helped create, the bad boy “Butcher of la Cabaña” still holds an unholy fascination with the historically-challenged. Though Che was opposed to free elections, freedom of religion, free speech, free press, freedom of assembly, and even freewheeling rock and roll, he has morphed into the ultimate freedom fighter célèbre. Is the phenomenon of the world’s wealthiest and most privileged paying homage to a destroyer of wealth and privilege unique? In a word: no.
In school, we’re told we learn history in order to prevent ourselves from repeating the mistakes of the past. If only that were true. For those who study history and pay attention to its warning signs, this is a particularly painful period in the annals of western civilization on many fronts; a virtual smorgasbord of willful ignorance and denial.
The warning signs are everywhere and have been reported in this blog and in major publications the world over. But, to Homo sibi destruens, such signs are, once again, patently ignored. Students of history’s flashing red warning lights debate: “Are we repeating all the worst follies of 1929, 1933, 1936 or a combination thereof?” While we’re at it, I’d like to throw another date into the ring: 1782.
That was the year a new play by Pierre Beaumarchais really began to make ripples in pre-revolutionary France. “Le Mariage de Figaro” was a clever comedy about the continuing exploits of The Barber of Seville’s main character, Figaro. The inspiration for Mozart’s opera was, in fact, considered revolutionary, because its main character openly criticized the nobility.
Pierre Beaumarchais
At a climactic moment in the play, Figaro laments:
What! Because you are a great man, you fancy yourself a great genius…. While the obscurity in which I have been cast demanded more abilities to gain a mere subsistence than are requisite to govern empires. And what, most noble Count, are your claims to distinction, to pompous titles, and immense wealth, of which you are so proud, and which, by accident, you possess? For which of your virtues? Your wisdom? Your generosity? Your justice?—The wisdom you have acquired consists in vile arts, to gratify vile passions; your generosity is lavished on your hireling instruments…and your justice is the inveterate persecution of those who have the will and the wit to resist your depredations…But this has ever been the practice of the little great; those they cannot degrade, they endeavor to crush.
- Courtesy of The Online Library of Liberty
Pretty heady stuff for the 18th Century. No wonder it was banned. One would imagine that France’s nobility would shun a play that so blatantly attacked and ridiculed them. Au contraire, mon ami! Instead of identifying with the character of Count Almaviva, the nobleman Figaro was railing against, the French aristocracy, in a fit of cognitive disconnect worthy of a Hollywood liberal, identified with Figaro, the Count’s lowly servant. Soon, Beaumarchais’ bon mots became all the rage among the very people they scorned and sought to undermine. Despite King Lous XVI’s ban, Figaro quickly topped the must-read list of the French elite. All those who desired a reputation as a wit, daring lover of the risqué and trend-setting raconteur simply had to have it read in their parlors by the author himself.
The so-called “smart set” went mad for Beaumarchais’ little golden piece of “Parisiana,” and the mocking relish with which the writer recited it to their faces. The fact that it decried everything they stood for was of little consequence. By being in on the joke, by nodding and winking along with Beaumarchais, weren’t they proving that the author was, in fact, not talking about them? He was speaking of other obscenely wealthy, privileged members of the nobility.
As the French royalty’s disconnect with reality grew, so concurrently did Figaro’s cult status. By June of 1783, the demand for a production of the play half the nobility already knew by heart was so overwhelming, a performance was ordered for the Court. However, King Louis lost his nerve at the last moment and had it cancelled. The French courtiers, unable to endure any deprivation when it came to their enjoyment, reacted by mounting their own private production that was “secretly” played before over two hundred of high society’s crème de la crème. They laughed and cheered and applauded the play whose very words – when finally performed for the public in 1784 – would, according to biographer Hilaire Belloc, “act like an acid, to the destruction of all their world.”
As we know, the French Revolution did not deliver on its promise of replacing a repressive society with “liberté, égalité, fraternité” as originally intended. Instead, the vacuum of power it created escalated into the Reign of Terror, during which many of the very people who supported Figaro were murdered, and ultimately culminated in the rise of a dictator. This historic pattern was also repeated during the Cuban Revolution.
Cuban Firing Squad
Today, free societies have unprecedented access to information. Unlike the French nobility who could not even conceive of the terrible results a revolution would yield, we do know how Che Guevara’s brainchild played out in our world. The Internet is filled with first-hand accounts of Cuban repression and brutality. Most poignant, perhaps, for any artist enjoying the free exercise of their art in a country of unparalleled freedom, are the accounts of writers, poets, artists, and musicians who have been persecuted and imprisoned for the crime of merely expressing themselves.
The fact that any self-respecting artist would champion an oppressor of artists is disturbing to say the least. In a breathtaking act of obstinate unawareness, America’s Che-lovers have recklessly endorsed a system of government, which – were it ever allowed to flourish on these shores – would necessarily result in their own destruction.
The Reign of Terror
If you don’t believe me, just ask “Joe.” I met Joe at a Hollywood party a few years ago, sitting silently, shaking his head amongst all the animated political discussions loudly commandeered by those whose primary sources consisted of MSNBC’s talking points or the latest Wahhabi mouthpiece planted here by our enemies.
Born in Cuba, Joe’s successful parents were big supporters of the Cuban Revolution. Unfortunately, after Castro ousted Batista, he neglected to establish a democracy. As Castro seized control of the country, he also decided to seize control of Joe’s family home along with all their assets. After being tipped off by a friend that there was a price on their heads, Joe’s parents fled with him to America.
One wonders if it will take something equally catastrophic to awaken America’s elite Che-worshippers to the bitter fruits borne of their political preferences. Safely ensconced in wealth and luxury on par with the pre-revolutionary French nobility, the red flags of history sadly pass them by. Instead, they choose to remain blissfully unaware of how easily the bubbles of privilege can be burst.
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296 Comments
At least the French aristos knew they were privileged, but were foolish enough to enjoy parody of themselves. Today's pampered idiocracy, particularly in academia–students and faculty–actually believe themselves to be the poor and downtrodden. Thus, today's "elites" can be attacked because the "oppressed" are hanging in there together. Add the complete lack of any sense of historical context and social reality, and they don't have the slightest clue that when they attack the "elite," it's self-parody. For them, "speaking truth to power" unknowingly equals "talking to themselves."
What will be the next movie of historic fallacy, "How Stalin Saved the Soviet Union" or "How Hitler Modernized Europe" or "Pol Pot the Great Bestower of Decency"
I'm a firm believer in "those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." I think we've just hit a point in our society where the masses are not interested in learning but being spoon fed their information.
Although I do always smile at the great irony that capitalism is using a staunch anti-capitalist to make money. I hope Che is rolling over in his grave.
Che always looked like a stand in extra for the movie "Planet of the Apes" that was right in the middle of makeup…lol
He was a natural….he already had the nose….snicker
I heard that favorite t-shirt wearer, Carlos Santana, signed a multi-year contract to play in Vegas. Irony is completely lost on these people.
It's not that hard a leap. I've gotten into shouting matches with my old liberal friends who steadfastedly hold to the view that Gorbachev won the cold war and saved the world from a nuclear holocaust.
Aw, Carlos. He has considerable musical talent, but his political views derive from a combination of Latino solidarity and years of being perpetually stoned. Most of the Cubanos who now live in Florida don't exactly see it the same way.
Aw, Carlos. He has considerable musical talent, but his political views derive from a combination of Latino solidarity and years of being perpetually stoned. Most of the Cubanos who now live in Florida don't exactly see it the same way.
Great essay, Veronica. Unfortunately, the truth will be always be muddled by the image, and the ignorant slaves of image will always be duped in the most facile way possible, as evidenced by the adulation of the iconic picture of Che. In our times, a T-shirt of Che trumps the truth. I would like to think that people know this image has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, but it's not to be. If you want to propagndize, use a beret. It's worked for Che and Basque Separatists. Sad, very sad. So let's refer to these Che T-shirts as T-Shats.
It has always amazed me how so many of the priviledged set smear the freedoms that have been bought and paid for on their behalf. The relating of the story of Joe however should be a required EXPERIENCE for that group of people. Someone said that freedom has a particular flavor to those who earn it. I would encourage Hollywood to live in Chavez's socialist utopia for a year WITHOUT their money, live in Cuba for a year or in any other third world country that does not, can not, and will not extend the very freedoms that they enjoy here FOR FREE! Even more to the point if under the age of 40 WEAR THE UNIFORM! Then tell me how free it is.
SUA SPONTE
There is beautiful irony in that. Every single t-shirt sold with his image on it must be like a stab to the heart.
So you're saying Osama should drop the turban?
No Andrew, I'm saying the media should drop the image of Obama's water-walking can't do no wrong veneer of competence.
Veronica,
I learned so much from your essay, I need to take breath and reflect.
You write like Thomas Paine.
And I'm lovin' me this Beaumarchais…Vive la difference !
That's going to be a hard sell in the news cult. Truth is hard to accept when it's battling hopes and dreams. Obama could have robbed the Queen today and they would be fallen over themselves to praise the smoothness with which he pistol whipped her.
Give it time though, more and more people are starting to see the truth behind the fiction. Some day the media will have to catch up to the rest of us.
Didn't he give her an I pod? Isn't that more wierd than removing the bust of Churchill from the White House? So…righteous dude like?
All his gifts have been bizarre. I can't think of an instance where our government has ever handed out something as chinzy and as commercially available like an Ipod or a set of DVDs. It's like the State Department opened a Walmart account.
It makes me long for the days (not too long ago) where Condoleeza Rice performed a piano concerto for the Queen. What a class act!
The only people who think Che is cool are those who will never in their lives have to live in a communist state.
good, God…..they actually do think that way……
thanks……..I just had that flashback again of a Japanese band doing "Black Magic Woman" in the E-Club at MCAS Iwankuni….
yeah, and she already has one. Nuance!
You have DEFINITELY had a far more interesting life than I could ever have had. That image you just painted will probably have me laughing for the rest of the day.
They have never had to work for it. Why would they appreciate it?
What will be left when they do? Well, we'll always have the soaring rhetoric now won't we..
Absolutely stellar post; love the Mozart/Figaro analogy. Impressive display of both history and political philosophy… Che' was, like his benefactors the Castro brothers, a pig. Period. Nothing honest or noble about him. He had workers knock out a wall in his office in Habana so he could watch the torture/execution of his opponents without having to get out of his chair. Nice guy, huh? The left's obsession with him is based on total ignorance of the facts, and the guilt they feel from not doing anything 'for the cause'… they love slogans, it makes them feel one of the proletariat, so ergo the iconic shirt.
So weak, so sad, so utterly predictable.
That makes total sense. For liberals, losing equals winning. That's why they're incapable of rooting for the home team.
These are the only Che shirts I like: http://www.thoseshirts.com/anticheshirts.html
I lived in Nicaragua for a couple of years after the overthrow of the Sandinistas. I could show you the mass graves. Communism must die.
no one can 'tell it like it is' like a Ranger… so simple,so elegant, so correct. Hooah, bud…
It's so strange. While it's obviously an intentional snub, I can't understand the choice of consumer products. What does he give to the President of the Czech Republic, a can of Campbell's soup?
Right, Brisco, they will only view it from the safe, comfy couch of the protection of our great country, and for how long? I don't know. How long can we be like the Roman Empire in terms of longivity? They only lasted four or five hundred years.
I used to work with a guy who was originally from Cuba and just became a citizen this year. He loved the land he was from (although obviously loved this country enough to obtain citizenship as well), but hated how it was run. He had absolutely no love for Barack Obama. Told me all I really needed to know.
Say what you will about Che– at least he shot a lot of Social Democrats.
Why is your score at 0? Are these things like crappy odometers that roll over after 99?
Sadly, an inordinate number of Americans "get their history" from the History Channel. That bilge pump of lefty propaganda is about as historically correct, as the "Discovery" channel is scientific, or the National Geographic Channel has anything to do with geography. As our school systems have systematically replaced history with anti-American/anti-free market/ anti-religious lefty interest group agendas, today's "atheist" bookstores shill for the party line, while television does the same for those without the inclination to open a book. The phony history and science channels simply parrot lefty party lines to reinforce the anti-American and anti-religious propaganda first planted in the schools. American education and media are an embarrassment. Fifty years ago, FCC chairman Newton Minnow referred to television as a "wasteland". Today, the English language does not possess words enough to express the vile decay that floods our airwaves today.
These American Royalty all think they'll be amongst the ruling elite. What they never cared to learn is that once a people rely on government, they must relinquish control to the government; hence, lose their freedoms. When the government becomes sufficiently powerful, the thugs unafraid to kill take over. The estates of the Royalty who welcomed 'Change" with open arms will have their jeweled estates carved up and dispersed amongst the new and brutal enforcers. It's happened time and time again. Thugs rule and dispose of the intellectuals and wealthy who got them there.
I'm torn between being sad for their twisted point of view and giving them a swift kick to the nether regions and yelling "wake up!" (And I don't mean the nether regions located in Northern Europe)
The only recourse for the non-competitive is to pretend they're too good for the game.
(I just made that up, but I'll let you have it for free).
My avatar sinned something fierce. No seriously, I don't know, it has happened several times before. Each time it returned within a couple hours. I'm not worried about it.
I don't understand it either. Even if it was just Obama showing bad taste, I would think someone from the State Department would tell him. I would be really embarrassed.
Regarding the Czech, I'm betting he would give them a poster of Stalin or Kruschev.
I don't understand it either. Even if it was just Obama showing bad taste, I would think someone from the State Department would tell him. I would be really embarrassed.
Regarding the Czech, I'm betting he would give them a poster of Stalin or Kruschev.
Another significant consequence of the French revolution was Bourgeois phobia– fear and hatred of the wealthy. It's a common trait in human nature, but was pandemic in France and passed down through the generations. A good example of the afflicted is Michael Moore, who hates anyone who doesn't claim to hate wealth themselves.
Another significant consequence of the French revolution was Bourgeois phobia– fear and hatred of the wealthy. It's a common trait in human nature, but was pandemic in France and passed down through the generations. A good example of the afflicted is Michael Moore, who hates anyone who doesn't claim to hate wealth themselves.
I'm with you 100%. It really pis..s me off that the left has been allowed to get away with whitewashing the mass killings of communists all over the world. How many millions does it take before they start to wonder if maybe communism is evil?
I kept juggling it downwards, but you always caught it. I'm never going to be able to catch up without cheating.
Is the phenomenon of the world’s wealthiest and most privileged paying homage to a destroyer of wealth and privilege unique? In a word: no.
As soon as I read this, it came to me how much of Hollywood's puffy liberalism is "Ooohh, I've been so naughty, I need to be punished!" It'd be interesting to see their reaction if someone seriously came at them with a riding crop and a claw hammer.
I thought it was you. You'll never catch me. I told the administrators that you're really the illegitimate grandfather of A. Huffington. They told me they'd never let you get to 100.
Soring perhaps, but not soaring…
They're still trying to clean up the mess inherited from the Bush administration. Laura is wondering how a box of movies got lost while moving and the iPod was found in a staffer's desk.
Or better yet, an album by the Soviet-sponsored 80's hair metal band, Gorky Park (Perestroyka proves that it rocks!).
I'd like to ask my former classmates from art school what they think of Obama's tacky Egg of Power sculpture. Maybe his bad taste will recompense me for all the battering I took for Bush's public speaking.
No fair. I'm telling mommy on you. You're being mean. And she's my daughter, not my granddaughter, so there. OOOPS.
Hey, I'm back to 99. Oh oh, that means I'm close to 100. Nobody knows what happens then. Could it be cosmic one-ness? Perhaps we start over? Maybe we just flash out of existence. This is scary stuff…
You know what's interesting to me about the French Revolution, is how it wanted to emulate ours, but it went so wrong so fast. I think that says so much for our Founding Fathers that they never fell into dictatorship or chaos. It really shows how extraordinary they were.
Brisco's probably on the right track. You'll roll over, and we'll have to put an imaginary 1 in front of your numbers. And like a rolled-back odometer, you will appear newer than you actually are. Isn't that fraud?
I thought of getting a Solzhenitsyn t-shirt to offset this nonsense.
They do make them.
Not all liberals think Che is a hero. I for one do not.
And actually 'Hollywood' is being used in a broad way here. The movie Che was financed by two companies; One was a French sales and production company, and the other was a Spanish television and film production company.
It was then released by IFC pictures, which is Independent – not a studio. They just wanted to make a buck. And why not?
Soderberg had a tough time selling it. No one wanted it in part because of its length.
But he points out: "the weird paradox about this guy – here he is the icon of Marxist/Leninist economic ideology, and you stick his face on anything and it sells."
So if you want to lay blame then lay blame on the Americans that buy Che stuff.
That depends on what the meaning of "is" is.
So if you had control of everything the world would be right wing conservative?
I think you need to rethink your position here.
First EVERYBODY shills for something.
It is up to people to parse the facts from the propoganda.
And BTW what is an atheist book store? Every bookstore I have been in sells religious books. Should they only be religious bookstores? They have those, which is fine – but I don't think bookstores in general try to be religious or non religious.
Thank you, counselor. I knew you hadn't lost your edge.
Also, I've posted this before, but in case you didn't see it, the blogger Baldilocks makes the case for why Obama's snub of Gordon Brown is related to Kenya:
http://www.luoamerican.com/baldilocks/2009/03/ven...
Ok, reading that while drinking OJ is not a safe exercise.
I'm wondering if he'll give Sarkozy American made brie and wine.
Great article.
“What! Because you are a great man, you fancy yourself a great genius…. While the obscurity in which I have been cast demanded more abilities to gain a mere subsistence than are requisite to govern empires. And what, most noble Count, are your claims to distinction, to pompous titles, and immense wealth, of which you are so proud, and which, by accident, you possess? For which of your virtues? Your wisdom? Your generosity? Your justice?—The wisdom you have acquired consists in vile arts, to gratify vile passions; your generosity is lavished on your hireling instruments…and your justice is the inveterate persecution of those who have the will and the wit to resist your depredations…But this has ever been the practice of the little great; those they cannot degrade, they endeavor to crush.”
Beautiful.
I also enjoy the fact that Robespierre was put on the guillotine face up while typically you are placed face down.
Sarkozy's a strange dude, but one thing I can admire about him is that he's not a kiss@ss, so Obama knows not to snub him. If he does, it will be one instance where I look forward to French nuance.
might be putrid, but it brings home to bacon,
no reason to exacerbate…
T-shats, good call.
Veronica wow! That was one of the finest pieces I’ve read on Big Hollywood. It was wonderful how you juxtaposed Hollywood elite with Louis’s court. And using Mozart’s “Figaro” to illustrate the equivalent of a circular firing squad. In Revolution one of the first to fall are the wealthy and the intellectuals, that would clean out Hollywood and Academia, “hey not a bad idea?” Once again a tremendous piece and an example of the quality you find at BH, touché.
Andrew – what did you expect the big O and Michelle to give – books? First off, the big O spent 3 years trying to write an outline of his first book, he even traveled back to Malaysia. He flopped and had to give the advance back – at which point the 'guy in the neighborhood' sat down and wrote the damned thing for him. Second – well, if you think the big O can't write, you should look at Michelle's Princeton thesis. I swear, my 9 year old niece could write something better with a crayon. Nope – face it – next to these two, the people at WalMarts are a BIG step up in the taste department.
After all the Obama/state department insults of UK and the crown, I'd say the best riposte by QEII would have been to greet Obama with, "So, what African country do YOU represent, sir?"
Thanks, Stan. I'm a history buff and when I came across this info recently, I just couldn't resist. The parallels are just so clear.
"..Che is the icon of Marxist/Leninist economic ideology…you stick his face on anything and it sells."
Bwwwaahhhahahahahah! Here's what 'Che' sold in America. $1,369,740. Yup, that's it folks – less than one and a half million bucks on a picture that cost 3 years and (at least) $40,000,000 to produce and sell. And if you're thinking overseas might love the little sadistic bastard any more than us, guess again – foreign box office for 'Che' was $236,423. Yup, less than quarter of a million.
Oh, pay back is so sweet!
Here's a question for you. What was the real disposition of Aristide ouster in Haiti. The American government put him into office under Bill Clinton. It is my understanding he is a Marxist. I was surprised how little seemed to b e reported on that story.
Maybe Obama can give the Queen a DVD of that……….
I think, as the author mentions, most (at least the younger ones) are never really educated to the reality. When they are they can't personalize any of it. I mean we've been at war for nearly a decade now and because these people still have their big screen TVs, their cell phones, their iPods, their Prius', their 5 minute trips to the convenience store at any hour, their bar nights… things haven't changed for them. Even when the "evil" Bush was running things, they never had to give anything up, make any kind of sacrifice, unlike the people who actually had to live under thugs like Che. There's nothing wrong with those material things by the way, but it lends to the disconnect they have. They can't relate. To them, it's just a cool image on a shirt and the word revolution.
I think, as the author mentions, most (at least the younger ones) are never really educated to the reality. When they are they can't personalize any of it. I mean we've been at war for nearly a decade now and because these people still have their big screen TVs, their cell phones, their iPods, their Prius', their 5 minute trips to the convenience store at any hour, their bar nights… things haven't changed for them. Even when the "evil" Bush was running things, they never had to give anything up, make any kind of sacrifice, unlike the people who actually had to live under thugs like Che. There's nothing wrong with those material things by the way, but it lends to the disconnect they have. They can't relate. To them, it's just a cool image on a shirt and the word "revolution".
One of the great villians of the French Revolution was I believe the name is Fabre d'Eglantine. This guy would accuse the landed gentry of some crime and the mob would guillotine them. Then he would use his influence in the Councel of Twelve to quietly abscond with their wealth all legal like.
Government bailouts are now used today to take over interests in private enterprises and political hacks decide who is a CEO, who gets a bonus, what cars we will be allowed to buy…………
There are the beginnings of stark simularities.
In my opinion, the greatest distinction between the French Revolution and America's is that America was free of Europe's baggage, which allowed for the promotion of John Locke's individualism and the protestant work ethic. To this day, Europe's most detrimental influence is its own history.
CLAIM: "Che killed innocents"
REALITY: Jon Lee Anderson, author of the 800 + page 'Che Guevara: A Revolutionary life', who spent 5 years researching the man:
"I have yet to find a single credible source pointing to a case where Che executed an innocent. Those persons executed by Guevara or on his orders were condemned for the usual crimes punishable by death at times of war or in its aftermath: desertion, treason or crimes such as rape, torture or murder."
It's common knowledge that Ronald Reagan's right-wing contra death squads led to the deaths of 100,000 in Guatemala, 70,000 in El Salvador, and 30,000 in Nicaragua.
Che Guevara was 'created' through the United Fruit Co & CIA 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected Arbenz in Guatemala (while Che was living there). Any actions of Uncle Sam's induced ‘Frankenstein's’, ultimately lead back to U.S. foreign policy – and the brutal tyrants it supports, arms, and chooses to head it's allied financial oligarchies.
… Then you should realize that foreign policy is very Machiavellian. If he kills for U.S. interests (Pinochet, Marcos, Somoza, The Shah, Trujillo, Batista, Suharto, Mobutu, Saddam (1980-88), Mubarak, Osama Bin Laden during the Soviet Invasion, King Abdullah etc) then he is an important allie who Uncle Sam backs with mine and your tax dollars.
…The chutzpah of Che to want to free Cuba from being an American pleasure palace and gambling hangout for Frank Sinatra & Co. while 50 % of the population remained illiterate.
[FACT] … Che visited Hiroshima and saw U.$. policy up close
Che was fighting against
- American Oligarchy (United Fruit, Texaco, U.S. Sugar)
- The US based Mafia (1959 Havana)
- The Monroe Doctrine rationale for Latin American Imperialism (Bay of Pigs)
- The idea of Banana Republics (Arbenz 1953 coup)
It just kills Conservatives that such a heroic man will not go away. That is because these troglodytes cant fathom that he lives in the hearts of the hungry and the oppressed and that ideas never die.
"Che's life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honor his memory."
— Nelson Mandela
"Che is not only an intellectual, he was the most complete human being of our time, our eras most perfect man."
— Jean Paul Sartre
Hmm … civil rights icon and intellectual giant of 20th century philosophy … or some hack blogging on a right-wing website ???
This is a tough one (eye roll)
"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality… We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force."
~ CHE GUEVARA
Well, that didn't take long.
Oh no, appeal to authority!
Or would you like to talk to some of my professors, who were beaten senseless by Castro's Secret Police for merely leaving the UofHavana's print shop available for non-sanctioned cartoonists to use?
Maybe you'd like to go down to Versailles Cafe and talk to people who have lost their brothers and sons to Che's firing squads?
Never mind, they merely witnessed what Che was really about. They don't matter.
*MissQuinn*
If Che defines love, I could find plenty of people who wish he loved less.
*MissQuinn*
To: "Oh no facts ! … " and "Mark H"
Re: Che
See Wikipedia article. You two should like Wikipedia, where if you don't like the facts you can change them!
(…until someone calls BS…)
Interesting bit: During this period he acquired his famous nickname, due to his frequent use of the Argentine diminutive interjection che, a slang casual speech filler used similarly to "eh" or "pal." See che article.
Shouting "Che! Che!" is like shouting "Dude! Dude!" Makes as much sense too.
Did anyone ever stop to think why Che went to Bolivia? OK, so you know about the fomenting revolution and the peasant class being a place where he thought he could start. But go back to Cuba first. Who is Castro's chief rival and growing more popular? Che. So, with grandios ideas in head and gun in hand, Che takes off on his magnificent journey. Castro wishes him Adios Amigo! Viva el victorio en Bolivia! But what does that leave in Cuba? Only Castro. No competition. No threat. No nothing. Che gets to Bolivia. Sure the CIA gets information leading to his permanent and handless residence at the end of the runway…but did any of that information come by way of Castro's Cuba? (OK, this last part is speculation by me). end part 1
PT 2 But folks it is simple. Totalitairans cannot abide someone more popular that they also cannot control. It was a stroke of genius to send Che to Bolivia to die. What an idiot. Castro is an a-hole, but he is smart, and he is still around in a turnip kind of way. Where is Che, JFK, RFK, Johnson, Nixon, Ford (Carter is reportedly alive, but nothing living could be as stupid and bitter), and Reagan? Khruschev, Brezhnev, Yelsin, Mao, Kim Il I, Ho Chi Min? He outlived them all. Comments please, unless you are one of the legion of ghouls that still like Carter of the living dead.
You might want to check your Thomas Paine. I think there is a divergence between the two writers that can only be described as a "world apart". Patrick Henry may have been a more suitable candidate for comparison. So back to Easy Company, and put another cigar in your pie hole Sarge, there's a platoon of German Panther Ds occupying that next French village and the longer you spend being wrong about Thomas Paine, the less chance you'll have getting a pass to Paris.
"Versailles restaurant" in Miami is home to the Cuban exile assassins, TERRORISTS and CIA backed killers, the likes of Luis Posada Carriles ("South America's Bin Laden" who blew up Cubana Flight 455 in 1976), Orlando Bosch (his partner in crime), Felix Rodriguez (point man for Oliver North in Iran/Contra, trained central American death squads, ordered execution of Che Guevara), Alpha 66 (Latino Al Qaeda), Brigade 2506, etc – they all attack Cuba, blow up hotel lobbies, hijack ferries and planes, strafe Cuban beaches with gun fire, drop poisonous pathogens on Cuban crops, poison Cuban water supplies, etc while being harbored in Miami with U.S. $$$. I think I'll pass chatting with those brown shirt traitors who would gladly starve their former countrymen when not literally killing them.
… Well eventually someone was going to break up the groupthink right-wing circle jerk.
Reality is such a buzzkill. American conservatives little often encounter it.
The biggest histroic fallacy presently is that Capitalism won the cold war …
when really it is just now starting to collapse under its own contradictions.
Eventually a vulture runs out of blood to suck and corpses to scavenge.
Marx will appear prohetic in about 20 years.
Yeah, and those would be the family members of Batista’s goons, BRAC secret police, and WAR CRIMINALS who killed 20,000 Cubans (a few hundred of which did get the firing squad at La Cabana after a revolutionary tribunal process Che Guevara oversaw).
Oh yeah, and the former MAFIA (and their relatives) who ran Cuba as America's W#orehouse and Casino. There is a reason that pre-Castro Cuba was the favorite hangout for mobsters Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante, and Lucky Luciano.
vd (appropriate name), a "history buff" (haha)
She actually shows very little understanding of Che Guevara or the French revolution. But then again appearing witty to the low hanging fruit that frequents this site isn't exactly a chore. Any literate person who has ever read any of the 10 main Che biographies would instantly spot the littany of myths, lies, and outright fables that she regurgitates with ease (most taken from Humberto Fontova the comical clown).
Stick to make-up, or maybe fashion design baby … leave books to the adults.
A prime example of a blithering spoon fed intellectually lazy liberal nit-wit. Che was a murdering thug whose ideas are as stupid as the people that follow his myth. Such hollow misguided idol worship is a true sign of an Obot, and a definite degree holder, or seeker at one of our finer universities. Reorder a latte’ at your local Starbucks, pack your bags and haul a$$ to that garden spot Cuba, Venezuela and join the movement, “free health care,” don’t you know. All the while bask in the searing wisdom of Mandela, and Sartre as you begin to yearn for a simple cheeseburger and your X-Box, fool!
If you get your history only from sympathizers of Communism, you'll miss the whole truth. There are thousands of testimonies from eyewitness accounts of his brutality, torture and murder. I guess it was all for the common good, tho', correct?
Of course let us respond by not responding, by ignoring the thread and by refusing to counter the reality of what Che was, historically. There is really no dispute what he was and what he did. If youwould like to change the subject, go for it, it merely reinforces the truth that you have no answer for his atrocities, and that either you are mis-informed, or a fascist thug who approves of his methods. Neither speaks well of you or what might pass as character.
"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. "
~CHE GUEVARA
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