From musicians (Santana, Madonna, Jay z, etc.), to actors and protesters, Che Guevera's face is everywhere. Yet, Che personally ordered the execution of anywhere from 400 - 1,897 political prisoners while he was stationed at the La Cabaña Fortress in Cuban. And while serving as the Minister of Economics in Communist Cuba, he drove the once vibrant Cuban economy into the ground. And to a lesser extent we see Mao t-shirts and paraphernalia, yet Mao was responsible for the murder of millions of Chinese and Tibetan civilians.
So, the question remains how can (seemingly) educated people idolize communist murderers and a failed bureaucrats? If Santana or Madonna wore a Hitler t-shirt, the public would be up in arms, yet very few people seem to care that they are sporting the image of a communist mass murderer. Why is that?
Three factors come to mind:
1. People put greater stock in images and symbols than they do in reality. What difference does it make if Che was a murderer if he represents "daring idealism"?
2. Also, we can say that while the media and academic world has done a good job publicizing the horrors of fascism, they have not adequately educated the public on the horrors of socialism, most likely because they harbor latent sympathy for socialism.
3. The public idealizes looks. If Che was a short, bald, chubby man, I doubt that his face would find its way onto t-shirts.
The same phenomena is at work with Obama. He is no less a corporate minion and a destructive spender than Bush, yet he is held in high esteem by millions, because of his good looks, charisma and of course because he has been marketed into a symbol of "change" and "hope."
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/130506.html
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=50C84DE3-56E9-44C4-B7E7-43305CB15405
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