Do you really want to know what I think about the saintly 'Che' Guevara and his communist revolutionary hero Lenin?
Vladimir Lenin was a stealth Hitler - he has never been held to account for the brutality and murder of millions. Ernesto "Che" Guevara was an ineffectual suck-up and brute who personally presided over torture of his adversaries - especially while running the main military prison in Havana after Fidel Castro began his reign of terror - and while planning a left wing coup d' etat against the democratically elected government of Bolivia at the time he was hunted down and killed like the terrorist dog he was. But some folks can explain it so much more artfully than I - like Matt Rosenberg of Rosenblog does here about Lenin. And now a new talent as well, in Matt Juel, with this excellent editorial in the student newspaper at Seattle Pacific University. Juel is a straight-shooter - a regular Michelle Malkin-in-the-making. Check him out:
Of course this is not the only irony that arises from looking at Guevara's legacy. It is the height of irony to consider that the image of this champion of communist principles has become a commercially lucrative product. A true socialist would roll over in his grave if he knew his face had been so commercialized. Maybe that is why his apparel is so popular. Maybe it is an elaborate, ironic protest. But somehow, I doubt it.
The success of Che's shirts could spawn a whole line of clothing -- The Heroes of Communism line. Who wouldn't want a T-shirt with a picture of Pol Pot? They would sell like hotcakes. Che himself might have bought a Pol Pot hoody. After all, he wanted the U.S.-led wars to fail in Vietnam and Korea. And he mentioned that if the U.S. began aggression in Cambodia, its people should fight the good fight against the imperialist invaders.
Here is a young writer who has found his voice! I really need to introduce him to Matt, who on July 4, 2001 gained a lifelong fan (and now friend) in me for what he wrote about that hideous, insulting, monstrous statue of Lenin in Fremont:
Respected historians agree Lenin laid the ideological groundwork for 50 million to 100 million murders in the name of 20th-century Communism. Still, some local media observers have suggested our Lenin is cloaked in "ambiguity" and the statue deserves a pass because he inspired solidarity among our Wobblies in their heyday, or because a democracy-promoting fragment of the Berlin Wall has been considered for installation nearby.
Such blithe rationalizations and the labored explanatory text adjoining the statue itself betray worries we're condoning something awful. We are. It's finally time for Seattle's limousine liberals and bicycle-riding bohemian bourgeoisie to face Lenin's real meaning. There just aren't two sides to it.
And back to Juel, who writes:
More importantly, why are we glorifying such a ruthless, violent man? He is not fit to be the poster child for anything except radically violent communism, nor would he want to be. We should respect this. Che Guevara should not be immortalized, and we should try our best to forget him.
This is a point that Juel might wish to reconsider in the years ahead. We never want to forget people like this - because if we do, we will deserve our fate when evil monsters following the example of Lenin and Guevara take human freedom and dignity by the throat and choke the life out of it.
Worthy indeed are the writers (like Rosenberg and Juel) who tell the stories and garner new audiences - to help them understand. We need them, and always will. So Matt Juel, don't forget Guevara, research him! You've got style, and there's a book in there for you!
3 comments:
you have no mind to think for yourself, do you? you believe what you are told, you have no ideas of your own.....you are the kind of people who could be easily fooled by governments who want people to believe what they tell them
If history had gone the other way, today you will be speaking ill of Thomas Jefferson, franklin roosevelt , Ronald reagen n all
sir,
have you no mind of your own?
how dare you compare Vladimir Lenin to Adolph Hitler.
Lenin was a revolutionist, he wanted change, and although its a shitty thing to say, you have to kill to get away from tyrrany in a country.
even the revolutionists of our country killed for independance.
we even fought a seven year war, so we killed people too.
but it was not unjust, we were subjected to tyrrany from the British same as the Russians were to the Czars.
Just because the Lenin had ideas other than democracy does not mean that he should be looked down upon.
any person who is properly educated on the subject would agree that Lenin was a genious.
and as for Che Gevarra, he wanted change as well.
he was going to be a leprasy doctor until he realized the horrible conditions of lower class citizens in Southern American countries. and i think its funny how you say that Lenin was a killer when our government killed Che Gevarra.
get your facts straight darling.
both of these men had very good intentions.
its pigs like Stalin & Castro that you should be attacking.
so stop listening to the propaganda and think for yourself.
um, hey eriatarka
hitler and the nazi party were also a socialist revolution and for that matter,so were mussolini and his fascista.
the only thing made them any different were that they preferred 'national socialism' to marx's dream of world wide socialism
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