Originally posted by: Proletariat
Obviously you haven't read ANYTHING about Che. I've read quite a bit about Ayn Rand and I don't like her take whatever you want just because you can philosophy, which deals with the fact that you are screwing over people with the absurd logic that if you aren't actively thinking about screwing over people, you aren't doing it. Remember, to her:
"Objectivism rejects any form of altruism"
I'd also like to talk about this archipelago theory, but first a quick question: are you high? That still means everyone is an island. An archipelago is a chain of islands. It is still a bunch of different entities; there may be less space in between them but there is still water and if you follow her philosophy you will never have enough to actually make that boat and go out and connect with another island.
If people are abused, then the abuser should be brought to fair justice.
Ok we all agree about this... and? When in the history of Western civilization has the imperialist stood on trial for his crimes except in Cuba. Che did it. He put the vile men who would rob an entire people of a life on trial. People who would sell out to a foreign power for some money and leave their own poor and diseased to rot. Unfortunately, to him, the only proper punishment at this trial was death.
As for my love of humanity, it is my love for humanity that does not allow me to let me succumb to Gandhian ideals of self-mutiliation. Ideals which insured the almost perpetual proxy and sometimes live war in the Subcontinent and the perpetual gain for richer countries who can sell arms to both sides. It is my love for humanity that does not allow me to succumb to the searing negativity and soul-less vitriol of the South-Park/Simpsons generation.
Che was also never a true communist. Che was Che. He realized that Communistic ideals were much more humanistic, so like you said earlier he stuck with the the lesser of two evils. Sadly he was impatient, he had a fire burning in his heart. He spread himself too thin, too fast.
I have read Che, but disagree strongly.
Am I high? No. Perhaps I should clarify myself better. You cannot regard a whole without addressing its parts. That is what communism tries to do. Perhaps a better analogy would be that communism would cut off its right arm in order to play the piano better. You would not increase an archipelago by destroying some of its islands, would you?
Altruism is inherently dishonest, that is why it is to be rejected. No one operates in a state of true disinterest, or possibly could. Even Mother Teresa did what she did because she wanted to. Even Christ was motivated by self-interest, that being his own moral absolutism. The ideal system is one where everyone voluntarily operates to their own individual self interests, and those self interests add up to the betterment of society of the whole. In this fashion, society improves, not by force, but by choice. Oddly enough, that's exactly how evolution works as well, and are not the existence of humans proof of its success? Hence, reality.
Imperialism != capitalism. That is yet another political misconception you've brought up. Imperialism is a type of fascism (or more rightly, fascism is a type of imperialism).
The system you love loves that negativity and apathy. Rights cannot be stolen from the vigilant, only from the apathetic.
Still a murderer. Ends do not justify means, means are ends unto themselves.
Edit: as for your Gandhi example, all I can say is that most people talk the talk, and while a few actually walk the walk. Gandhi definitely walked the walk.