Ultimate Justice

Che Guevara, iconic icon of hipsters' tshirts, is an enigmatic historical figure. He was an ardent foe of capitalism and ultimately died in his extremism. But not after he had murdered thousands and associated himself with brutal dictators.

There is something, I think, to be said about moral relativism, and also something to be said about the revolutionary movement. Both are important, and blindly turning away from them in a manner of moral black and whiteness often glosses over the intracies of human society and causes more harm than the good it is reputedly defending. An example would be George W. Bush's foray into Iraq - he too simply viewed the world as one between "good" and "evil," thinking that invading an "evil" country such as Iraq was simply moral good sense. Guevara's brutal tactics, viewed with a sympathetic eye, were the inevitable product of disastrous American economic imperialism in Latin America. He then becomes champion of the poor, downtrodden, victim of irresponsible capitalism. A beacon of revolutionary hope in the face of a powerful and self-interested machine.

Nevertheless, allowing oneself to forgo morality and embrace relativism allows for some pretty horrific things. Hitler's actions can be portrayed, in this sense, towards achieving some type of greater good, if you believe in that sort of thing (and hate Jews). Discarding our moral compass results in immorality. Guevara, bluntly, was a murderer. Forgiving his murderousness because he was working towards some sort of greater good allows for more murder in the future. The means really do matter, because they are the standards with which we judge ourselves as a people. If we allow murder as an acceptable means to an end, we become murderers. Unless we wish to alter our moral code and embrace murder as acceptable, murder can never be used, regardless of what end it achieves. Therefore, we must reject Guevara, regardless of the noble vision he might have had, or the beautiful world he wished to create. He was a murderer, murder is not acceptable, and therefore Che Guevara is not acceptable.

It is with delicious irony, therefore, that America's capitalism has ultimately defeated Guevara in the best manner conceivable: not by killing him (which it did), but by immortalizing him, and best of all, by making money off of him. Guevara is the ubiquitous face of overpriced tshirts the world over, and that is the ultimate justice for Guevara's atrocities.