Viva la Revolutionaries

I just want to address this issue shortly. The ideal of the 'revolutionary' in it's past state is a dieing breed. Staying within the 20th century, the ideals of past revolutionaries such as Che Guevara, Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. have usually either been thrown aside (more or less), been generally forgotten, or have been mocked in a rather ironic way (see picture to the side). These men have forfeit their lives to serve the greater good of the people they represent. They are not looking for glory or wealth or even recognition. They are just looking for a better way of life. Their ideals will probably last forever which have gained these particular men a sense of immortality but with so many historic figures, the ideals they fought for usually ends up becoming "altered" along with the passing of time.

Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) was a champion of civil rights among minorities within the United States. He faced many death threats, had his phone and hotel rooms "bugged" by the FBI, and even had his home in Alabama bombed with his family still inside (the family survived) and yet he still fought on. While his dream of his children growing up in the U.S. and being judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin has somewhat come true (its a work-in-progress), White AND Black Americans have done much to diminish his legacy. White student's at a university in the U.S. celebrated MLK day by having a "Gangsta" party where they dress up as hip-hop artist and gangsters where they drink 40oz of malt liquor and act 'thug'. For Black Americans, I'll go to the unlikely source of Aaron McGruder(creator of the Boondocks). The episode of the Boondocks which featured MLK went on to discuss what would happen if MLK were alive today. It is stated during the show that the current generation of black people have willfully assumed the negative racial stereotypes associated with them and that the people of the Civil Rights Era did not fight for this kind of future. I believe this to be true.

Che Guevara is a revolutionary who fought against neo-colonialism and capitalism within Latin America before his death in 1967. He sacrificed his life for his people through war and suffering and he eventually became a representative of the people on the world stage, which lead to his eventual execution. After all that he has taught the world, how do we honor him? By putting his image on a pair of fucking socks. It's quite ironic actually. A man who dedicated his life to fight foreign capitalism is now having his image printed on a T-Shirt and sold for $24.99 at Old Navy retail stores across the U.S.

There will always be revolutionaries as long as there is conflict within the world we live in today. But will they suffer the same fate that past revolutionaries have? I think so, but at the end of the day some will gain an amazing insight to what the revolutionary brought to their lives, others will ignore the message and go around wearing a Che t-shirt. Its the way of the world.