Larissa
11th May 2003, 19:34
How to understand, then, Che Guevara's pervasive popularity,
especially among the affluent young?
Perhaps in these orphaned times of incessantly shifting
identities and alliances, the fantasy of an adventurer who
changed countries and crossed borders and broke down limits
without once betraying his basic loyalties provides the restless
youth of our era with an optimal combination, grounding them in
a fierce center of moral gravity while simultaneously appealing
to their contemporary nomadic impulse. To those who will never
follow in his footsteps, submerged as they are in a world of
cynicism, self-interest and frantic consumption, nothing could
be more vicariously gratifying than Che's disdain for material
comfort and everyday desires. One might suggest that it is Che's
distance, the apparent impossibility of duplicating his life
anymore, that makes him so attractive. And is not Che, with his
hippie hair and wispy revolutionary beard, the perfect
postmodern conduit to the nonconformist, seditious '60s, that
disruptive past confined to gesture and fashion? Is it
conceivable that one of the only two Latin Americans to make it
onto Time's 100 most important figures of the century can be
comfortably transmogrified into a symbol of rebellion precisely
because he is no longer dangerous?
I wouldn't be too sure. I suspect that the young of the world
grasp that the man whose poster beckons from their walls cannot
be that irrelevant, this secular saint ready to die because he
could not tolerate a world where los pobres de la tierra, the
displaced and dislocated of history, would be eternally relegated
to its vast margins.
Even though I have come to be wary of dead heroes and the
overwhelming burden their martyrdom imposes on the living, I will
allow myself a prophecy. Or maybe it is a warning. More than 3
billion human beings on this planet right now live on less than
$2 a day. And every day that breaks, 40,000 children--more than
one every second!--succumb to diseases linked to chronic hunger.
They are there, always there, the terrifying conditions of
injustice and inequality that led Che many decades ago to start
his journey toward that bullet and that photo awaiting him in
Bolivia.
The powerful of the earth should take heed: deep inside that T
shirt where we have tried to trap him, the eyes of Che Guevara
are still burning with impatience.
http://www.cheguevara.info/che-guevara/
especially among the affluent young?
Perhaps in these orphaned times of incessantly shifting
identities and alliances, the fantasy of an adventurer who
changed countries and crossed borders and broke down limits
without once betraying his basic loyalties provides the restless
youth of our era with an optimal combination, grounding them in
a fierce center of moral gravity while simultaneously appealing
to their contemporary nomadic impulse. To those who will never
follow in his footsteps, submerged as they are in a world of
cynicism, self-interest and frantic consumption, nothing could
be more vicariously gratifying than Che's disdain for material
comfort and everyday desires. One might suggest that it is Che's
distance, the apparent impossibility of duplicating his life
anymore, that makes him so attractive. And is not Che, with his
hippie hair and wispy revolutionary beard, the perfect
postmodern conduit to the nonconformist, seditious '60s, that
disruptive past confined to gesture and fashion? Is it
conceivable that one of the only two Latin Americans to make it
onto Time's 100 most important figures of the century can be
comfortably transmogrified into a symbol of rebellion precisely
because he is no longer dangerous?
I wouldn't be too sure. I suspect that the young of the world
grasp that the man whose poster beckons from their walls cannot
be that irrelevant, this secular saint ready to die because he
could not tolerate a world where los pobres de la tierra, the
displaced and dislocated of history, would be eternally relegated
to its vast margins.
Even though I have come to be wary of dead heroes and the
overwhelming burden their martyrdom imposes on the living, I will
allow myself a prophecy. Or maybe it is a warning. More than 3
billion human beings on this planet right now live on less than
$2 a day. And every day that breaks, 40,000 children--more than
one every second!--succumb to diseases linked to chronic hunger.
They are there, always there, the terrifying conditions of
injustice and inequality that led Che many decades ago to start
his journey toward that bullet and that photo awaiting him in
Bolivia.
The powerful of the earth should take heed: deep inside that T
shirt where we have tried to trap him, the eyes of Che Guevara
are still burning with impatience.
http://www.cheguevara.info/che-guevara/