I've been interested enough in Che Guevara to want to learn more about him, but troubled by the idea of lionizing him. Slate's Paul Berman does a good job of articulating why. Che advocated violence. And a helluva lot of it.
I have a feeling a lot of the kids wearing Che t-shirts don't know that and that it's the cool design, the iconic image they're buying into, while knowing Che's become a symbol of the left.
But why can't we have heroes like Vaclav Havel instead? He lead a revolution from the left, too, you know. But it had the distinction of being a velvet one. Maybe I'll work up a Havel t-shirt. Havel apparel.
Viva la Velvet Revolution!
(Via Andy Sullivan, moderate/right/not right enough lately for some icon.)
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