Che

Why the new historic high for Che almost 40 years after his death? Allow me to venture an outsider's explanation. The Che revival, or at least the biographical revival of a dreamy Che, shows a romantic turn in our political life. After all, only Che is quoted speaking of such things as "love": "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. .... Our vanguard revolutionaries must idealize this love of the people, the most sacred cause, and make it one and indivisible."

By Raul Pangalangan, Mao, John Lennon and Che, inq7.net, Feb. 18, 2005

Or is not simply because of, to paraphrase Noam Chomsky, "mindless rebellion" or idol-worship? Try asking a kid wearing a Che t-shirt if he knows the Che the man, his works, and his place in history, and I bet he wouldn't know anything.