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The book that defines a pop culture icon
Popular Literary Classics
Book: Guerrilla Warfare
Author: Che Guevara
Contributor: Glenville Ashby, PhD
Decades after he was cut down my a hail of bullets in the jungles of Bolivia, the appeal of Ernesto Che Guevara continues to grow, not only among revolutionaries and social activists, but among fashion aficionados and purveyors of pop culture. Berets and T-shirts bear his image, he is the center of political studies at leading universities, his work is archived in the Che Guevara Institute in France and the Che Guevara Studies Center in Havana; and the school room where he was executed has become a tourist attraction. His nomination as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century by Time magazine only fueled his global standing.
Che’s mystique is not easily explained. We can attribute his appeal to his edgily attractive countenance and his compelling oratory. However, we must add an archetypal element to this narrative. Che represents the tragic hero immortalized in fabled history. He is the demigod of which ancient civilizations wrote. He is the warrior figure, the father figure, the protector that we yearn to become but have fallen short. He is the leveler of social classes, and for his adventures in the Congo fighting alongside black Africans, he is the color-blind hero that we can only strive to become.
Vicariously, we project our fantasies through the image of Che. It is in his 1961 classical literature ‘Guerrilla Warfare’ that we witness our fantastical self in action. Che’s revolutionary tactics, though, are arguably anachronistic. Gone are peasants that embrace Marxism as they wage skirmishes with far superior government forces. Such scenarios are no longer played out in Latin America and the Far East. Still, ‘Guerrilla Warfare’ still resonates. It teaches young revolutionaries that the mind is the ultimate weapon, and that they must be mentally impervious to the most inimical conditions. Sounding more like a sadhu than a warrior, Che touts abstinence, guarding against drinking and gambling. He finds strength in fasting. He writes: “To the stoicism imposed by the difficult conditions of warfare should be added an austerity born of rigid self-control that will prevent a single excess, a single slip, whatever the circumstances. The guerrilla soldier should be an ascetic.”
The steely mind is the shield of the revolutionary, Che argues. It is in the jungle in all its naked rawness that the revolutionary must excel. He teaches tactical and strategic methods of engaging the enemy and offers brief lessons on maximizing the effectiveness of small arms and the importance of stealth, intelligence gathering and infiltration. Embracing a comprehensive theory of revolution, he gives equal credence to establishing civil institutions in areas controlled by insurgencies. To Che, the revolutionary is more than a fighter. There is a humane quality, the anima that needs expression in the most robust fighter. The fighter must show his sincere gratitude every peasants he encounters. They are his friends and his protectors. He is also duty bound to convey to teach the existential value of his revolutionary philosophy.
Throughout, Che rejects the urban appeal of Soviet Bolshevism and, moreover, emphasizes social and political change through agrarian reform, an argument many today would dismiss.
Guerrilla Warfare is penned with a palpable passion that defines this iconoclastic figure.
It is ironic that Che’s own brother, Juan Martin Guevara calls for a more measured approach when discussing his famous sibling. In a 2017 interview with the Independent, he said that his brother was “an ordinary person” who would have “hated being turned into an idol.”
Interestingly, for the millions who never studied his life nor were directly impacted by his philosophy, Che is a pop icon and a cult hero. More than anything else, this reflects the disturbing cultural zeitgeist of modern society.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)
Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Guerilla Warfare by Che Guevara
Publisher: BN Publishing
ISBN: 13:9789562915717
Available at Amazon
Ratings: Highly recommended
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