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Che Guevara condemns himself

These ten quotes by Che Guevara are getting quite a mention around the blogosphere, and deservedly so.

David Thompson includes a link to them in his latest clutch of ephemera. Instapundit linked to them. And now I’m doing it here.

This is exhibit number five of the ten, picked pretty much at random, to illustrate the atmosphere of these ghastly pronouncements:

To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary.  These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.  This is a revolution!  And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.

This posting is now at the top of this long list of Che Guevara postings here, but will surely sink downwards in the future, as we all continue to point out what a monster this man was.

30 comments to Che Guevara condemns himself

  • Paul Marks

    “Che” was indeed an evil person.

  • Peter

    …and a coward, I understand.

  • Barry Sheridan

    I doubt most who wear an image of Che Guevara are bothered by the facts. To them he represented a force against the things they believe are both amoral and corrupt. Regrettably most of these young people, and those ageing reactionaries who never grew up, are locked in a parallel universe, one unable to establish a method of assessing the benefits of human productivity when it is allowed its chance. The fruits of which have made their lives and those of millions and millions others better than they have ever been.

    Unfortunately, besides all the advantages of this energy and ingenuity there is always much that has the potential of becoming genuinely disagreeable. The only way to prevent these outcomes from destroying what is good is for as many people as possible to pay attention to what is going on and make sure their voice is heard. Alas, as we know all too well from experience in the older democracies, far too many folk cannot be bothered to engage their brain to think about affairs beyond the goals of narrow self interest, never mind actually get out and vote. From this indolence comes the unstoppable forces that destroy all that is created time and again.

  • To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.

    Sounds just like Tony Blair.

  • RAB

    I think we should henceforth call him Ernesto Lynch. Rather deflates the rock star iconography doesn’t it?

  • CaptDMO

    “To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary.”
    Well yeah! For “revolutionaries”.I didn’t know Ernesto spoke French with any comprehension. What is the Central American/Cuban word outlining the political science/ propaganda concept, “bourgeois”?
    Lest we forget….
    1. Men “sent” to the firing squad are disproportionally “unarmed non-combatants”, ACTUALLY “Intellectual”(look it up), and ALSO disproportionally, leaders of other actually productive men.
    2. The same “rules” must apply to such “revisionary intellect” revolutionaries, and anyone “persuaded” by their “deep thoughts”.
    3. Let’s have a chat about “uniforms” (including “print” and “speech”)

    You, yes YOU, in the trendy Che t-shirt you “liberated” from the shopkeeper. I’m STILL waiting!
    Still wanna’ play that game?
    Remember, confiscation, incarceration, and subsequent de facto slave labor is the ONLY historically “traditional” alternative to (ie)firing squad (why a “squad” che?) for apostates to Communism’s repeated promises of “Peoples/Workers” utopia.

  • Rob

    This monster was fond of executing middle-class bourgeois types. By an odd coincidence the vast majority of Che fetishists are middle-class bourgeois types.

    Perhaps it is another manifestation of their visceral self-loathing. Why can’t they go the whole hog and put themselves in front of the firing squad, save us a load of bother and irritation.

  • PersonFromPorlock

    In line with Daniel Patrick Moynahan’s great Progressive dictum “Everyone…is entitled to his own facts”, I’m sure we’ll soon be informed that these quotes are taken entirely out of context by reactionary forces funded by the Koch brothers, or possibly Emmanuel Goldstein.

  • bobby b

    “Hatred is the central element of our struggle! Hatred so violent that it propels a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him a violent and cold-blooded killing machine.”

    Does anyone doubt that many on the left could wear this quote on a tee-shirt just as comfortably as they wear Che’s face?

  • Or how about killing a completely innocent man in Bristol because he is seen (despite any evidence) as a peadophile. Same thing. Absolute hate. The CIA shot che and this evil bugger is doing a minimum of 18 on a life sentence.

  • PersonFromPorlock

    The fun thing to do would be to make banners signed ‘College Conservative Caucus’ (or some such) out of these quotes, hang them on campus and wait for the Progs to explode at the ‘right-wing’ violence. Any game student Samizdatists out there?

  • Julie near Chicago

    Early in 2010 Apple came out with an iPhone app via which you could (were you sufficiently perverted as to want to) listen to various quotes from Mr. Lynch:

    http://www.techhail.org/iphone/download-ernesto-che-guevara-iphone-app-for-guevara-quotes/3501

    If you are a “Guevara” fan then you can carry his popular quotes with you on your iPhone with Guevara iPhone App. Guevara iPhone App is available on the iTunes App Store for just $0.99. With Guevara iPhone App you can post the quotes to Twitter and update Facebook status. You can also Shake your device for random quote. Guevara iPhone App is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

    News of this “launch” (Townhall.com’s use of the word was offensive to some) entailed some controversy on a libertarian board that I frequent. In particular, I more or less thought Apple should be ashamed of itself for producing the aural equivalent of the T-shirt, and the other guy was trying to make that into a call for censorship. (I’m not sure he really meant it, though.) What, I thought Mein Kampf should be banned? Feelthy Peectures too, no doubt?

    The meat of my position was (and still is) this:

    Actually, the Guevara Å“uvre should be available for study. And there’s no problem at all with having his writings presented as audiobooks, in the iTunes store or anywhere else, PROVIDED they’re marketed not as products promoting as glamorous the contents of a psychopath’s head but rather as writings to be seriously studied for the purpose of seeing how Guevara’s mind worked, given that he was no one to admire. Just as there would be no problem with an honest and accurate biographical movie.

    But the genuine edification of the public is not the purpose of this particular app, any more than it’s the purpose of the makers and vendors of “Che” T-shirts, or of other and less savory uses of the famous photo. (And you’d better believe I’d boycott the vendors of same!) The reality is that Che is an “icon” in our culture that symbolizes the infantile dreamings of nihilists and encourages youth and the ill-educated to believe that Guevara and his masters symbolize healthy rebellion and “the way things ought to be.” He is, in short, a HERO to nihilists: A man they think worthy of emulating.

    (I’ll also observe that Apple enjoys considerable respect as a successful company that’s relatively ethical. As such it IS a role model of a kind. Surely they wouldn’t be a party to pushing toxic intellectual food at kids…?)

    That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

  • Where did the ‘lynch’ bit come from?

  • RAB

    Ireland apparently Alisa.

  • RAB

    Oh and Guevara is one of his dad’s christian names. Che is Boy in Spanish, so Che Guevara is… Kid Guevara. The importance of NOT being Erensto eh?

  • RAB

    Bugger! That should be Ernesto. My only excuse for buggering up the joke is that Wales are playing Australia at rugby at this very moment, and it is distractingly exciting… 😉

  • OK, I get it:-/ My question, of course, was: what does ‘lynch’ have to do with Guevara…

  • Dom

    Alisa, I believe that Ernesto lynch was his real name. Half Irish.

    Are there references for these quotes? I’m of the opinion that most of what is quoted on the web is wrongly quoted. Although I don’t doubt that it captures Che’s spirit. Little pig that he was.

  • Alisa

    Dom, all these quotes are referenced to various books. How reliable the books themselves are I have no idea.

  • Alisa

    Oh, and I see about the name now: sorry for being obtuse, RAB, and thanks to Dom too:-)

  • Rich Rostrom

    Rob: This monster was fond of executing middle-class bourgeois types.

    Somewhat. But my impression is that the vast majority of his victims, as with most other revolutions, were working-class people who opposed the Revolution or questioned the absolute rightness of the Party.

    One thing that is never mentioned by leftists is the racial component of the Cuban Revolution. Batista was a mulatto. Now obviously Cuba did not have a color line like the U.S., or Batista could never have risen to power. But there was (and still is) a racial skew; white Cubans were socially and economically dominant over non-white Cubans. Batista’s rule bent that skew and empowered non-whites, many of whom supported him, including serving in the army or police.

    Come the Revolution, all such “class enemies” were liquidated.

    The middle-class targets of the Revolution mostly fled the country, or found jobs with the new regime. It was a lot easier for those with education, with social and political connections in the political class, to talk their way around the purge than for a mulatto peasant private soldier.

  • Why not the picture of Che on the front, the quotes on the back, and proceeds to go to a victims of communism fund? No returns if you like the pic but don’t appreciate the quotes.

  • Paul Marks

    Yes RAB – Mr Lynch is not a very pop-star like name (although a very appropriate one for someone in the habit of killing people without trial).

    Mr Lynch executed many people without trial – and was himself executed without trial.

    He who lives by the sword…..

  • RAB

    How about this image of him on a T shirt? Trouble is you wouldn’t sell very many, would you?

    Jesus! that’s an awful lot of code. I play golf, Ernesto plainly didn’t often, not with a dorky stance like that and his hands reversed.

  • RAB

    Well that didn’t work. Just google Che Guevara playing golf to see what I mean.

    (Editor: fixed that for you RAB)

  • Dom

    RAB, have you ever seen those “Cheech and Chong and Che” t-shirts. All three, looking like the stooges.

  • RAB

    No I haven’t Dom. I like Cheech though. Good actor. Excellent in Tin Cup and Dusk til Dawn. Pretty fair guitarist too.

  • Sam I am

    If you understand Che’s ideas for his “new man” do you see how Obama is trying to do the same thing but without (as yet) the actual violent revolution? He said he wanted to fundamentally change America…well he’s doing it and the average American doesn’t even see it coming! He who controls the press controls the people!