Romanticizing Evil

Everywhere you look you see the face of evil. On t-shirts, on rings, on coffee mugs, on posters. Even in Iraq, I found the evil little picture on “cool” jewelry at silver shops. Yes, I’m referring to Che Guevara.

My friend Constantino Diaz-Duran has a column in the Washington Blade (D.C.’s local paper for gay people): “Don’t cry for Che.”

(Yes, I despise and hate the memory of Che Guevara, a psycopathic killer whose face has migrated onto t-shirts because of one dashing and romantic pose in one photograph. I blogged briefly on the phenonemon here and here. For an alternative to Che worship, order this or this.)

9 Responses to “Romanticizing Evil”

  2. magikal dragon

    Incidentally, I wore this button to work on Friday and this morning: http://bureaucrash.com/contraband/communism_kills_button. I’m lucky enough to work for someone who asks that I wear business attire everyday, but complimented me on my button nevertheless. (If you can’t wear the T-shirt: at the very least, wear the button.)

    I, too, have noticed that Che seems to be everywhere lately (I thought the Che T-shirt craze was over two years ago!), and I decided that I had to do something about it. Contraband is great for that. One of my other favourites: http://bureaucrash.com/contraband/mickey_marx_button.
    And: http://bureaucrash.com/contraband/jefferson_girls_tee
    And another: http://bureaucrash.com/contraband/hayek_tee

    …Sorry, I don’t mean to be an ad for the good folks at Bureaucrash; but they do help make libertarianism seem very cool. I mean: “What’s more badass than being a genious like Hayek?” That’s precious.

    More on the real Che and the real Cuba can be found on this not-so-professional, but heart-wrenching site: http://www.therealcuba.com/index.htm
    Particulary shocking is the video on this page: http://www.therealcuba.com/MurderedbyChe.htm.

    As I wistfully commented to my boss this morning; “so few people know about the real Che”, to which he responded: “Yes, because they prefer the legend. People tend to prefer a legend to the truth.” How true.

    (and the reason why I visited this site recently was because a colleague directed me to: http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm)

    December 5, 2005 at 10:56 pm
  4. N. Buccola

    I have been mentoring at an elementary school for the last few months. The other day, a little boy came in wearing a Che’ t-shirt. When he came by to say hello to me I asked him: “Do you know who that is on your shirt?” He responded: “I don’t know…Michael Jackson?”

    This episode was at once very funny and very sad. The humor in it is obvious enough. The sadness is a bit more complex. As I sat there thinking about it I connected it to a conversation I had earlier in the week with my mom. She was reminding me to “save a date” for my niece’s first communion. She told me that my niece really didn’t like the catechism classes and predicted she would turn away from the Church as soon as she got the chance. I thought to myself, “Of course she didn’t like the catechism classes – she’s 8 years old!” I hope one day, if I am lucky enough to become a parent, I will remember the little boy walking around in a shirt with the image of a murderous thug that he thought was Michael Jackson and my little niece sitting through hours of catechism classes.

    December 7, 2005 at 12:28 pm