Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
NYT's Kakutani on the Heroic Hunk of La Cabaña
Writing in the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani reviews journalist Michael Casey book Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image, a meditation on Alberto Korda's iconic photo of the brutal (but handsome!) Argentinean revolutionary. The first attempt at crafting a Guevera "brand," Casey points out, was by his former compañero Fidel Castro, shortly before Guevera was killed in Bolivia:
It was a clever marketing plan on Mr. Castro's part: Che's denunciations of the Soviet Union made him popular among "thinkers and artists of the Western European left, many of whom had lost faith in the Soviet Union," while his condemnation of imperialism "sat well with young radical students in the United States and Europe, who were impatient for societal change and for whom the very word revolution was inspiring."
It's a decent piece, free of most of the mythologizing one consistently finds in press accounts of Guevera's nasty, brutish, and short life (though an article on Che that fails to mention his stint as executioner at La Cabaña prison is sort of like a piece on Squeaky Fromm that ignores her vacation cottage at Spahn Ranch. In Che's Afterlife, Casey writes, with just a touch of understatement, that the stories from La Cabaña "paint a disturbing picture of Che."). Kakutani is a bit off, though, when dismissing those who have tried to correct the Che-as-freedom-fighter myth:
Though anti-Castro Cubans continue to denounce him as a murderer with a cold capacity for violence, Che is embraced in Latin America and the Middle East and by antiglobalization protestors as "a die-hard foe of yanqui imperialism"; in Hong Kong as a symbol of rebellion against the authoritarianism of the Beijing government; and in the United States by immigrant activists, demanding "the right to inclusion, to be considered part of the American Dream."
Kakutani observes inadvertently that only those with direct experience of Guevera's murderous reign in Cuba—Cuban exiles—have a negative opinion of him. This is a great oversimplification, as is the idea that he is uniformly "embraced" in Latin America. After an informal check, it appears that Reason.tv has no Cuban exiles on staff, though my colleagues Ted Balaker, Nick Gillespie, and Alex Manning managed to produce the terrific video Killer Chic:
|4.21.09 @ 7:11PM|#
A great cartoon about the real pirates:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/cartoons.aspx
Back to the topic, my favorite picture of Ernesto:
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9512/che_excavation/che.jpg
engineer|4.21.09 @ 7:12PM|#
Every Che-worshipper should be slapped once, firmly, across the
face. And then they should get a swift kick in the rear. Just once.
If that doesn't fix the problem, nothing will.
Bonus: We can create a new government agency to do it as part of
the stimulus package, cause what matters is that the money is
spent, not that it's spent efficiently!
engineer|4.21.09 @ 7:14PM|#
"Kakutani observes inadvertently that only those with direct
experience of Guevera's murderous reign in Cuba-Cuban exiles-have a
negative opinion of him."
Obviously, they are simply reactionary bourgeois trying to
undermine the Glorious Workers' Revolution!
Paul|4.21.09 @ 7:26PM|#
in Hong Kong as a symbol of rebellion against the authoritarianism of the Beijing government
Irony? You decide.
|4.21.09 @ 7:34PM|#
Every Che-worshipper should be slapped once, firmly, across
the face.
Like that will ever happen.
I haven't given up hope that in 50 years or so it'll become 'chic'
to debunk Che-chic though.
50 years ago Christopher Columbus was a mythologized hero, and
eventually it became cool to talk about him as a genocidal mass
murderer. So I suppose eventually people will have to admit that
Che Guevara was at least as bad.
BakedPenguin|4.21.09 @ 7:45PM|#
I couldn't get through Motorcycle Diaries. Such hagiographic bullshit would be hard to take on someone I liked; watching it about a mass murderer was unbearable.
Jordan|4.21.09 @ 7:46PM|#
I haven't given up hope that in 50 years or so it'll become 'chic' to debunk Che-chic though.
I waiting for the day when the children of envirowhackos bitch
about "Big Solar" or "Big Fusion" or whatever magic green
technology has replaced oil thanks to The Won.
Jordan|4.21.09 @ 7:47PM|#
I waiting for the day when the children of envirowhackos bitch about "Big Solar" or "Big Fusion" or whatever magic green technology has replaced oil thanks to The Won.
Pre-empting the grammar nazis: "I'm waiting..."
engineer|4.21.09 @ 7:48PM|#
Hazel Meade,
I highly doubt it will ever be "chic" to debunk Che-chic. Mostly
because the people with the time on their hands on to make
something "chic" rarely hold real jobs, and latch onto the worst
idols.
The Engineer\'s Grandchild|4.21.09 @ 7:49PM|#
"I waiting for the day when the children of envirowhackos bitch
about "Big Solar" or "Big Fusion" "
You're just shilling for Big Rabbit Crap!
Syd|4.21.09 @ 7:49PM|#
Hey, that's Squeaky Fromme with an "e" at the end. Failed presidential assassins get no respect.
|4.21.09 @ 7:58PM|#
"Though anti-nazi Westerners continue to denounce him as a
murderer with a cold capacity for violence, Adoph Hitler is
embraced in the Middle East and parts of Europe and America and by
skinheads and pan-Arabists as "a die-hard foe of Jewish
imperialism"
There fixed it. It says the same thing just in terms people can
understand. The guy who wrote that sentence as it referred to
Guavera is a fuckwad.
|4.21.09 @ 8:00PM|#
I waiting for the day when the children of envirowhackos
bitch about "Big Solar" or "Big Fusion" or whatever magic green
technology has replaced oil thanks to The Won.
Neither is going to replace oil any time soon. We're more likely to
start experiencing energy shortages.
When our living standards fall, people will start caring less about
the environment.
Too bad that the enviros with their socialist tendencies are sowing
the seeds for exactly the kind of economic stagnation that will
undermine their own goals.
We'll have "clean coal"... produced by state-run unionized coal
industries doing mountaintop removal.
|4.21.09 @ 8:10PM|#
I highly doubt it will ever be "chic" to debunk Che-chic.
Mostly because the people with the time on their hands on to make
something "chic" rarely hold real jobs, and latch onto the worst
idols.
I highly recommend you watch 'The Assassination of Jesse James by
the Coward Robert Ford'.
Jesse James used to be mythologized as a 'robin-hood' type figure -
showing up in Bob Dylan's lyrics, for instance.
The film totally debunks that image. Jesse James was a
proto-klansman, ex-irregular, fighting on behalf of the
Confederacy. Also a sociopathic murderer.
But the film is actually about the phenomenon of mythologizing
certain figures in general. On a personal level, you have this
story about someone who believes in the 'myth' of Jesse James and
gets disillusioned when he's exposed to the reality.
Fantastic movie. Really a lesson to anyone tempted to hold up Che
Guevara, or Jesse James, or Pancho Villa, or any other similar
figure as a hero.
occasionally these things do come full circle.
|4.21.09 @ 8:24PM|#
I heard that was a good movie Hazel. I will have to watch it. It is interesting how myths work. When I went to grade school in Kansas, James was portrayed as basically a terrorist. Then I went to Missouri, where he was from, and I got the whole bullshit robin hood myth.
MNG|4.21.09 @ 8:30PM|#
"only those with direct experience of Guevera's murderous reign
in Cuba-Cuban exiles-have a negative opinion of him"
Well, that is pretty bad reasoning, as of course those who left the
nation because of the movement Che was a part of are going to have
a negative opinion of him...
MNG|4.21.09 @ 8:33PM|#
Che was a cheap, brutal thug.
But I would think one might want to know, why in the world do so
many in the 3rd world like the guy?
Maybe because there was horrible, horrible, government backed
inqeuality and repression that Che was seen as standing up to, and
the U.S. was seen as sanctioning or backing...
The Bearded Hobbit|4.21.09 @ 8:40PM|#
Maybe because there was horrible, horrible, government
backed inqeuality and repression that Che was seen as standing up
to, and the U.S. was seen as sanctioning or
backing...
Yeah, and Pol Pot was just some guy who figured he had 'way to many
Cambodians.
Just don't get me going on the traitor George Washington.
.. "Whiskey Rebellion" Hobbit
|4.21.09 @ 9:05PM|#
But I would think one might want to know, why in the world
do so many in the 3rd world like the guy?
Maybe because there was horrible, horrible, government backed
inqeuality and repression that Che was seen as standing up to, and
the U.S. was seen as sanctioning or backing...
Yes, and no.
This isn't about "government-backed" inequality, so much as
capitalism vs. communism. Most of the people on the left saw, and
still see, the capitalist system as a system of oppression and
exploitation. Which is why they supported Marxist guerilla
movements like those Guevara was involved in.
In order to view America's anti-communism as an act of "oppression"
you first have to see capitalism as oppressive and communism as
liberating. If you aren't looking at it through that historical
lens, then Che is no liberating hero, and America is no repressive
imperialist.
Try looking at it through the other lens. We were RIGHT to oppose
all these Marxist-Leninist-Socialist movements. Millions of people
in Latin America are freer today, and economically better off,
because of our "meddling". But we get no credit for that. Instead,
the psycho left continues to insist that we're a bunch of evil
capitalists bent on exploiting those poor Latin Americans. Cuba is
a socialist paradise, and Mexico is a sweatshop ridden maquiladora
hellhole.
MNG|4.21.09 @ 9:10PM|#
All the peasants of the 3rd world probably knew of communism was
the rhetoric, and all they knew of the US was its support of
regimes which used force and fraud, or supported the results of
past systems of force and fraud, to put them in the crappy place
they were.
Who cares if the psycho left of the US love Che? What should
concern us is his appeal to the peasants of the 3rd world. And that
is somewhat understandable is my argument...
MNG|4.21.09 @ 9:12PM|#
Hazel
The U.S., in taking a massive dump on the 3rd world poor, and
supporting regimes which targeted opposition, made it so that for
many of those folks the only alternative to shitsville was
Marxist-Leninist-Socialist regimes...We're not faultless
there...
|4.21.09 @ 9:32PM|#
MNG,
Maybe it's just possible that the US and European left TOLD THEM
that we were rich and they were poor because we stole from them. Ya
think?
I doubt they really understood much of Marxism-Leninism other than
the rhetoric. However, it's very easy to tell a poor person that
the reason he's poor is because he was stolen from. It's much
harder to teach him economics.
It's easy to say "your life sucks because of those evil people
exploiting you. go kill them."
It's difficult to say "your life sucks because of a complex
combination of institutional and cultural weaknesses and a lack of
industrial development."
economist|4.21.09 @ 10:19PM|#
We have that turgid, syphilitic, rabble-rousing, now-embalmed piece of shit Lenin to thank for the popularity of Marxism in the third world. I think it might be worth the death sentence I would get to go to Moscow and blow up the rat's coffin.
B|4.21.09 @ 10:28PM|#
When watching that video, one thing really stood out: the laughable yet stomach-turning faux-earnestness of Sean Penn as he announced to the audience at Cannes that Del Toro had won another bullshit "let's pat ourselves on the back" award. His pathetic, deliberative posturing is indicative of everything that is wrong with Hollywood: the belief that their utterances are somehow more weighty than those of the common man because they make $20 million for 2 months work; the bullshit notion that what actors do is so necessary and vital to the health of the United States. The ridiculous belief that their political utterances reveal how brave they are, even though working in an ideologically homogenous Hollywood and living in the United States pretty much guarantees they will suffer no real consequences for their "activism"'. Or perhaps it is their smug assertions that latching on to the latest cause du jour (Darfur, Tibet, debt forgiveness) somehow makes people who get paid to act like Moe Howard, for example, worthy of taking a seat next to global decisions makers. These preening pieces of shit are a fucking joke.
B|4.21.09 @ 10:31PM|#
"All the peasants of the 3rd world probably knew of communism
was the rhetoric, and all they knew of the US was its support of
regimes which used force and fraud, or supported the results of
past systems of force and fraud, to put them in the crappy place
they were."
Instead of speaking in generalities, perhaps you should give us
concrete examples of what the US has done to so wrong those of the
third world.
economist|4.21.09 @ 10:33PM|#
"Or perhaps it is their smug assertions that latching on to the
latest cause du jour (Darfur, Tibet, debt forgiveness) somehow
makes people who get paid to act like Moe Howard, for example,
worthy of taking a seat next to global decisions makers."
Given that many "global decision makers" are political slugs, I
figure these useless twits aren't bringing down the average too
much.
B|4.21.09 @ 10:33PM|#
"Well, that is pretty bad reasoning, as of course those who left
the nation because of the movement Che was a part of are going to
have a negative opinion of him..."
Yeah, and you also forgot to add all the people who have half a
brain and are repulsed by mass murderers will have a negative
opinion of him.
B|4.21.09 @ 10:43PM|#
"Well, that is pretty bad reasoning, as of course those who left
the nation because of the movement Che was a part of are going to
have a negative opinion of him..."
You are so right. The dislike of Guevara is entirely due to the
animosity those unforgiving grudge-holders have concerning their
flight from Cuba. Those he forced to leave were probably all
stooges who worked for the previous horrible regime; they just
won't let go. All those murderers he committed, the torturing of
dissenters and political opponents? Those were merely the result of
quirky personality traits that made him all the more charming,
right?
B|4.21.09 @ 10:46PM|#
"Che was a cheap, brutal thug."
Given the content of your other posts, the above sentence wins the
"Most Unconvincing Statement or Qualification of 2009 Award".
|4.22.09 @ 1:05AM|#
We have that turgid, syphilitic, rabble-rousing,
now-embalmed piece of shit Lenin to thank for the popularity of
Marxism in the third world. I think it might be worth the death
sentence I would get to go to Moscow and blow up the rat's
coffin.
Do you have, like, a profile on some online dating site somewhere I
can check out?
MNG|4.22.09 @ 7:46AM|#
B
You're not what one would call "smart" are you?
Yes, those that left Cuba probably hate Che and Castro because of
the things they did to them, fucking duh, that was my point. MM
made imo a poor point by arguing thus: "well, the author didn't
mention what those who were brutalized and opposed by Che thought
of them, and they had a familiarity with him." This would be like
saying "well, the author of a book on George Washington did not ask
people who actually had a familiarity with him, like the
Redcoats."
A better argument would be to point to anyone who came across the
guy's path.
MNG|4.22.09 @ 7:56AM|#
"Instead of speaking in generalities, perhaps you should give us
concrete examples of what the US has done to so wrong those of the
third world."
You really need me to list the petty dictators and thugs we have
provided support to in that area in the past? Or our direct
military interventions in S. America? Jesus read a book. Or just go
to the internet
http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/resources/interventions.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Public_Safety#Uruguay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Charly
|4.22.09 @ 11:00AM|#
The U.S., in taking a massive dump on the 3rd world poor,
and supporting regimes which targeted opposition, made it so that
for many of those folks the only alternative to shitsville was
Marxist-Leninist-Socialist regimes.
Kind of a chicken and egg thing here. If the opposition to the
current regime was already Marxist-Leninist-Socialist, then US
support for the current regime didn't really make it the "only"
alternative.
I suspect there are a lot of messy details on just how, in various
countries, a bourgeouis/liberal/democratic center was obliterated
from both the "right" and the "left", but lets not pretend that one
branch of the opposition in many countries wasn't funded by the
Soviets and had as part of its revolutionary mission the
radicalizing and polarization of politics.
JB|4.22.09 @ 1:10PM|#
though an article on Che that fails to mention his stint as
executioner at La Cabaña prison
This is the NYT you are talking about. They always leave out
relevant facts. This is the newspaper that white-washed even
Stalin!
The NYT is a piece of shit. Anyone that claims the NYT is a great
newspaper is a piece of shit.
|4.22.09 @ 5:38PM|#
[Yawn] ...
I'm a libertarian, but the "Che Hating Obsession" gets old.
Remove the speck from our "own eye" first as the good book
says.
|4.22.09 @ 5:40PM|#
- The U.S. allied itself with the brutal Stalin against Nazism.
Thus he was "our monster" ... Hitler on the other hand was the
"enemy monster".
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.
However if he kills against U.S. interests (Allende, Khomenni,
Castro, Che, Arbenz, Lumumba, Ben Bella, Franco, Chavez, Ortega,
Saddam (1991-2001), Ahmadinejad, Osama Bin Laden post Soveit
Invasion etc) then he is an "evil" villian who must be
destroyed.
I believe that both Ron Paul (R) and Dennis Kucinich (D) have done
a good job of pointing this out. We as Americans should be the ones
to demand an end to propping up any brutal tyrants !
economist|4.22.09 @ 6:11PM|#
"Do you have, like, a profile on some online dating site
somewhere I can check out?"
Heh heh. I'm old. It just wouldn't work out.
|4.22.09 @ 7:11PM|#
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.
However if he kills against U.S. interests (Allende, Khomenni,
Castro, Che, Arbenz, Lumumba, Ben Bella, Franco, Chavez, Ortega,
Saddam (1991-2001), Ahmadinejad, Osama Bin Laden post Soveit
Invasion etc) then he is an "evil" villian who must be
destroyed.
Depends on the interests. I don't mind if the 'interest' at stake
is in opposing (say) Soviet expansionism, or Marxist guerilla
movements.
Don't really see the problem with using Islamic nutjobs as tools
either, as long as we clean up afterwards. We should have gone
through and assassinated the lot of them when we were done.
|4.22.09 @ 9:12PM|#
Speaking of "murderers" & "killers" ... maybe 'reason' (oh
the irony) could do a report on the CIA trained terrorists like
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 contra death squads, ordered execution of Che
Guevara), Alpha 66, Brigade 2506 etc
all blow up Havana hotel lobbies, strafe Cuban beaches with gun
fire, poison Cuban water supplies and crops, and basically run
their very own "exile" Hezballah in South Florida while Uncle Sam
either looks the other way, or helps them.
Go to Versailles restaurant in Miami & these old cowardly
Gusano Assassins will be sitting up front.
|4.23.09 @ 2:14AM|#
All Libertarians should abhor the travel restrictions on U.S.
Citizens to Cuba. A damn North Korean is free to fly to Havana, but
I can't take a flight there from Tampa.
I would never even visit Cuba (except maybe to get cigars), however
I'm disgusted by the fact that supposedly "free" Americans are
unable to visit Cuba to see for themselves and make up their own
minds.
Existentialist|4.23.09 @ 4:10PM|#
"Che was the most complete human being of our time, our era's
most perfect man."
--- Jean Paul Sartre
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245