Perhaps it was a good for Che Guevara, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary, that he was killed in a time when the flames of revolution were still bright. Though it has to be said, death came to Che in inglorious conditions amidst hunger, dirt and a bit of disillusionment inside the Bolivian jungle.
Maybe the setting in which Che died had an air of prescience because so many years later, the word socialist revolution does not send shivers down the spine….would I be wrong in stating that the rather decrepit ambience in the Bolivian jungle back in 1967 was a warning of what was to come for Marxist visions?
Won’t say that Communism has failed because a leading nation in global geo-politics, China, is still a Communist country by label! Read that again and pay attention to the word ‘label’.
The tag says Communism while the rest is everything Capitalism has to offer – spledour, glamour, glitz, wealth and heart attack inducing opulence.
I hear that the reason why British TV serial Downton Abbey has been praised by so many economists is because the programme, set against the backdrop of an Aristocratic household, has revived global interest in ‘propah’ British customs.
They do say pretense of posh always works!
After all, the art of doing something with panache is a class of its own!
While Downton Abbey provides much needed advertisement for bespoke clothes, good living, fine food and British courtesy, it has revived the profession of butlers and soft spoken, courteous household staff.
In simple: Jeeves is back with a vengeance! And the top importer of British class in the form of household staff is none other than China.
Most Chinese wealthy people now want a chunk of that sophistication.
Er, ummmmm what about Communism, austere living and communal sharing of frugal comforts?
Oh that…….nah, the Chinese have decided to take Communism through evolution so the drab is left out and the dazzling is taken in.
There is however the ultimate Communist feature which remains in place, insurmountable, almost absolute – the authority of the state.
This means: pursue individual contentment, wear Chanel, drive a Porsche, have rave parties in penthouses and live in Victorian style but don’t ever express dissent with the government or challenge it!
Fair enough, though how much Che would have approved is a matter of debate.
As the air of deep suspicion, spanning over four decades, begins to clear between the USA and Cuba, the revolution of 1959 which brought Che and Fidel Castro to limelight and triggered an idealism-based egalitarian movement, comes also under scrutiny.
Where does Che Guevara’s philosophy stand in the modern equation? When hip young people in jeans and t-shirt sport the Guevara image on their chest with the fiery glance, the division between Capitalism and Communism becomes blurred.
The world has changed so much that hitherto rigid dogmas have evolved to fit into a modern template where, I am sorry to say, low living and high thinking doesn’t have a place.
Now I am not saying Capitalism have won either because what was once deemed by the Western nations as the fault free system has given us a world where inequality is at its highest.
Contrary to Capitalist predictions, wealth of the super- rich did not trickle down to the middle/lower classes to make the social conditions better for the masses.
The Utopian values of Communism either faltered or, like in China’s case, saw certain reforms.
But Che still has a place in world history because all romantics do. While we grapple to live with hard core practical realities, inside, deep inside, there is a spot where people like Guevara are revered.
They do say dying for a dream elevates a man into the position of a saint.
Cuba, as we have found in too many reports, faced harsh economic sanctions from the US since relations between the two nations were snapped following the revolution in 1959 and the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962.
There is poverty, hundreds have fled the country to find what may be called the ‘capitalist dream’ but many have stayed back.
Then again Cuba, despite struggling along, did not fall flat.
After the Soviet Union fell, Venezuela and other Latin American states provided support plus the country developed a special cachet for becoming a tourism haven caught in a delicious time warp.
But as I mentioned earlier, times change and in an ever evolving world, Cuba has to re-think her adherence to a form of Marxism which is no longer viable.
Let the Communist tag remain. Only adopt a few reforms so that life standards improve with people earning more to possess some material items.
There has to be candid admission: old style Marxism is dead. It doesn’t work; in fact it never did.
Back in the former Soviet Union, a fine line always divided the masses and those in power.
Eventually, it was this polarization which eventually brought the hammer and sickle down.
So far, USA has announced relaxing of embargos while Cuba has also opened up for talks with the warning that the main ideology of the country will not change too much.
Well, as a fervent admirer of all romantics, we would not want Cuba to fall into the vulgar Capitalist trap either.
Perhaps Che Guevara’s image, found in several commodities in Capitalist markets, belittles the value of what he represented though in the hearts of millions, the death in a Bolivian jungle will never be an ignominious one…like Che said…..I don’t care if I fall as long as someone else picks up the gun and keeps on firing…..so, relax Che, have a cigar wherever you are, someone will pick up the gun, maybe with a little amendments to the battle strategy.
Comments: towheedf@yahoo.co.uk