Today's callow youth blithely wear T-shirt
bearing the image of Ernesto Guevara without having the slightest clue
as to what he stood for. They call him "Che" assuming that this was his
name when that's just Argentine slang, which loosely translates to English as "dude."
When asked what was admirable about their mascot, the neophytes natter that he is a symbol of "anti-establishment" and
"revolution." It is a little-known fact that in the aftermath of the
U.S. orchestrated a coup in Guatemala, Guevara swore on the picture of
Stalin that he would not rest until he crushed the "capitalist octopi."
Less than a decade later, the Communist Commandante urged the Soviet
Union to mount a nuclear attack on the United States. It goes without
saying that the likely possibility of permanent annihilation of all
civilization was completely inconsequential for him.
Sentimentalized hagiographies portray this man as a martyr who abandoned
his privileged life in Cuba for the global revolution against Yankee
imperialism. The truth is much less inspiring: Fidel Castro deported
"Che" because he compromised the fledgling communist state's alliance
with the Soviet Union.
When your hero's intransigent ideology
is far too extreme even for the most totalitarian state in the history
of humanity, think twice before plastering his face onto a banner
symbolizing your rallying cry for "social justice."
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