The bloody crossroads . . .
posted by Kate Marie | 10:20 AM | Permalink
|
6 comments
What's the Rumpus? would like to thank our sponsor EPC Web Solutions. Please extend our thanks by visiting their website and referring them to others!
Rumpus Riddle
Take 500 from the opposite of light, and tell me where your father's father dwelt in the time of the Deluge.
Click here for the answer to the last Rumpus Riddle!
Quote Archives
Links
Contributors
E-mail Us!
Have questions or comments? Email us!
Recent Posts
Today is
"A word to the wise ain't necessary --
it's the stupid ones that need the advice."
-Bill Cosby
6 Comments:
In my younger, far more naive days, I actually tried on a badge by the Shining Path. Whoever designed it had an eye for color, so I kept it on -- knowing nothing about the group beyond vaguely being aware that it was 'Maoist' (whatever that meant).
I was later confronted by a student -- half Swede, half Greek -- who asked me if I really supported a terrorist organization that had killed thousands of Indios. I read up on the Shining Path and took the badge off.
And learned a valuable lesson: Ethics trumps aesthetics. Also: Know what you're 'endorsing.'
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Hi Jeffery,
I've been away this weekend and just noticed your comment.
It's really interesting that someone actually confronted you about the badge. I've daydreamed about confronting people with Che Guevara T-shirts, but I don't think it'll ever happen. For one thing, if I try to engage one Che-olator, I'd feel honor bound to engage them all, and in some parts of L.A. I might have to spend whole afternoons doing T-shirt activism.
And I like the lesson you learned. Ethics trumps aesthetics. I wonder if part of the problem for intellectuals and artists (of either the real or the Cameron Diaz variety) in the twentieth century was that so many of them came to believe that aesthetics trumps *everything,* no matter how they tried to dress up -- or dress down, as the case may be -- their aesthetic enthusiasms in ethical garb.
KM, perhaps you can write a short bio of Che -- perhaps just bullet points -- listing some of his ruthless accomplishments, and hand them out as needed. I'm sure the t-shirt wearers would appreciate knowing the history of the "celebrity" they are endorsing.
And this is the same brilliant political thinker who came on Oprah before the last election and stated "If you think that rape should be legal, then don't vote".
Great idea, CIV!
By the way, I forgot to confess that I was once enamored of Che, sort of . . . or at least enamored of Mandy Patinkin as Che in Evita. That little affair ended right quick, though, when I read a little bit about Che.
I still like Mandy Patinkin, though. :)
I think I wrote about this in a long-ago post.
This inspired a blog entry for me ... though not about one of my more upstanding actions.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Post a Comment
<< Home