The Myth of Che
Human beings love icons, indexes, and symbols. Wedding rings, sunglasses, dwellings, statues, flags, banners, cars, posters, money―all of these are in some way iconic, indexical, or symbolic in nature. Don’t think you have your own appreciations? Look at the way you style yourself for public consumption, think of the words that come out of your mouth, think of the fetishes you enjoy. Maybe it’s collecting troll dolls, or maybe it’s the new rims you just got for your ride, or maybe it’s the books you read in public spaces with the covers showing ever so slightly so that others can wonder at the genius who’d read such great works―each of these, and almost everything we do is somehow metaphorical or tropic (see number 2).
What happens when symbols are turned on their heads? (Witness the irreversible change in conventional meaning of the swastika from its roots.) What happens when a symbol of Marxist social and economic revolution becomes a meaningless icon for commercial consumption? Read about it at The Economist, “A modern saint and sinner”.
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