Che Guevara and the Peril of Power

From Random Hipatia

I have seen much discussion recently about Che, whether those who’s life was deeply touched by him and his deep love of humanity, or we speak of Che, the icon of the man against the system, or Che the Martyr of world revolution, or those he see and feel what is said to be “the dark side” of Che the ideologue, Che the enforcer of the Cuban revolution, or as some have said Che “the product of his times and circumstances.” All these things may well be true, but I think his legacy and the contradictions found in it cannot be fully explained or reconciled without first understanding the terrible peril of popular leadership.

To understand the seduction of power, and the consequences of it, I think is to better understand the real Che, and the very real problems he faced. My own understanding of power, and it’s exercise, was sufficient to eventually make me choose to reject it, which, oddly enough is part of why I am here posting this article now, and why I now often choose solitude and anonymity.

Much that is in my profile actually says very little about me, and this was deliberately done. Some here do know a few things about me, including some of the more useful things I have done, such as my efforts to get the Trinidad Library Authority to bring accessibility terminals to blind users. I was also deeply touched by the woman who runs an organization to secure labor rights for the disabled that came just to hear me speak at some risk to herself when she heard I was on the Island. However, there was another side to this as well.

For example, one day I chose to post on a mailing list I was personally not going to attend someone’s event, which was a major government sponsored conference. Really I never expressed any reason why I chose to do this, though in reality I did not approve what he was doing. In any case, from that offhand comment, an international boycott of that conference was organized by others within days, and eventually, when it was held, people went there explicitly to protest in person. All from an offhand and initially thoughtless comment I had made.

Oddly enough, I found myself speaking Prague on the eve of our Invasion of Iraq, in part because of that event which I had chosen not to go to, where I experienced and so well demonstrated one of the other perils of power, the arrogance that can so easily creep in as it’s companion. I recall speaking to the Czech deputy finance minister before a broadcast audience at Cvut about how he was doing his job wrong. When arrogance arrives, it often has no bounds.

Fortunately I never had such power that I could manage to do terrible things with it, and I was able to let it go and am much happier in some ways for that, but I can see how seductively easy it might be to do so if I had been. Power, even when democratically given to you by your peers, can still be dangerous. Che was given exceptional power while facing appalling circumstances. I no longer feel I can so easily judge many of the choices he made that some are able and willing to do. Perhaps it is best to remember him most for what he said best, “If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine”, in this we can all find common solidarity with Che.