Intellectual Dishonesty – The Case of the Fan Club of Che Guevara

Intellectual Dishonesty – The Case of the Fan Club of Che Guevara
By Gideon Isaac, on November 8th, 2014

Robert Redford produced a movie about Che Guevara called "The Motorcycle
Diaries." It was based on Che's real diaries, no doubt modified by the
Cuban government, but what disappoints me greatly about Redford is that
he wasn't honest enough to include some very revealing passages from
that diary in his film.

Intellectual honesty calls for showing the dark side of the person you
admire, if you are doing a biopic.

Che said "a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated
by pure hate." Che did not have time for "archaic bourgeois details"
like judicial evidence. He declared that "individualism must disappear".
He ordered the deaths of many people who disagreed with Marxism.

An estimated 80,000 Cubans, trying to get away by boat or raft from the
socialist paradise of Cuba, died of thirst, exposure, or drowning, or
were ripped apart by sharks.

Nonetheless Time magazine felt Che was worth of being placed next to
Mother Teresa.

A few more juicy examples:
The actress and U.N. humanitarian award winner Angelina Jolie has a
tatoo of Che on her body in an undisclosed location.
The model Giselle Bundchen walked a fashion walk displaying a scanty
outfit with mini-Che pictures all over it.
The singer Madonna has a Che outfit.
Al Gore – who almost became our president – and his wife Tipper stood in
rapturous ovation for Redford's movie. This prompted Humberto Fontova,
from whose book I collected all this, to ask: do the Gores know that Che
jailed Cuba's best filmmakers, poets, etc and transformed Cuban cinema
into a propaganda machine?

Does Jesse Jackson, who wrote a book against capital punishment, know
that it was incongruous with his beliefs to shout "Long Live Che!" to a
crowd at the University of Havana? (Che's firing squads were by
definition implementing capital punishment, and created many orphans,
widows, and widowers).

Before Che and the Castros took power, Cuba was a magnet for immigrants.
It had a higher per-capita income than Japan and Austria.
Now even the impoverished citizens of Haiti would not dream of sailing
toward the socialist paradise of Cuba.

Some more examples?
Burlington put out a line of infant wear bearing Che's face. And the
famous picture of Che adorns T-shirts, posters, watches, skis,
surfboards, baseball caps, etc.

What is Humberto Fontova's explanation for all this passion for a
Marxist ideologue and mass executioner?
He said "Ignorance of course, accounts for much Che idolatry. But so do
mendacity and wishful thinking, all of it booted – covertly and overtly
– by reflexive anti-Americanism."

I think that there is a class of people who are not bad people, but who
don't see why the wealth should not be distributed to uplift the poor,
and pay for all sorts of social goods, and they admire a man who
traveled with his friend on a motorcycle, observing the plight of the
poor, and then resolved to bring about a fairer system in Cuba.
But why do these people ignore some very inconvenient facts?

You can respect people who have attitudes that are different than your
own, as long as they are fundamentally honest. But I don't think these
people are honest even with themselves. They see what they want to see,
and miss what they want to miss.

Is there something romantic about Che? The spirit of rebellion? The
beret? Is there an alienated side to all these celebrities that
resonates with something dark and evil?

Cuban agents in 1962 were prevented by the FBI from putting five hundred
kilos of TNT in New York city at: 1) Grand Central Terminal, Macy's,
Gimbel's, and Bloomingdales. In contrast, remember that the Muslim
terrorists who bombed the Madrid (Spain) subways and killed and maimed
almost 2000 people used only one hundred kilos. Imagine five times that
explosive power in the three biggest department stores on earth, all
packed to suffocation on the year's biggest shopping day.

Previous to this plot, Che had been in New York for eight days, but
could barely accommodate all the Beautiful People jostling to meet him.

You might think that Che was ungrateful for all the hospitality and
adoration, and that this plot was inexplicable and an anomaly, or even a
right-wing lie – but then again – maybe you need to study the psychology
of evil. Totalitarian ideologues flew airplanes into high rise building
in New York not so long ago.

As Che strode toward the UN, wearing his trench coat and beret with the
red star, a young woman raced down Forty Third street. A large knife
flashed in her hand. "Arriba" she shouted, as she headed for Che. She
was intercepted and her murder attempt prevented by New York City police
who found out that her name was Gladys Perez and she had been tortured
in Castro's jails. After being caught, Gladys was sent off for "mental
observation".

Che Guevara, on the other hand, was feted by New York High Society. Who
really needed "mental observation"?

If you dance with the devil, you become an accessory to more evil than
you can imagine.

Sources:
Exposing the Real Che Guevara – Humberto Fontova (2007)

Source: Intellectual Dishonesty – The Case of the Fan Club of Che
Guevara | Intellectual Conservative -
http://intellectualconservative.com/intellectual-dishonesty-the-case-of-the-fan-club-of-che-guevara/