What Are Hippies Views On...

It's a very poor analogy... and respecting something for the ideal behind it is stupid.

It's like saying that Communism in Russia was cool because of the idea.

 

I'll admit it was probably not the best analogy, but it got my point acorss. Clearly Che and the whole revolution is more serious and extreme.

And who the hell are you to say that respecting something for the idealism is stupid? Sure if that's your opinion then its all good, but from the sounds of it your trying to dictate that it is, which would be incredibly ironic if true.

 

I respect him more for that than I would someone who stood outside government buildings waving a placard.

It might work on some level in these countries, it didn't in that one. It'd land you in jail or dead.

You can't be peaceful 100% of the time.

EXTREME pacifism is wrong. Somtimes you're really left with no options. What you're suggesting is things like we can't appreciate the English or American revolution because they were acheived in blood. Or that we can't be proud of victory in world war 2 because we shot some nazis. A poor example i know, but it's the easiest to relate to.

 

I never made mention to anything being better now. As I said, how successful it was is totally subjective.

Now it's mentioned though, my opinion is it's FAR better. They have one of the best healthcares in the world, free and good education. One of the highest literacy rates in the world. I believe they've topped the lowest child mortality rates for several years running. And managing this with little to no natural resourse, and massive US Sanctions against them (and pressure on other Latin American countries to follow).


Of course it is a dictatorship still. There is no democracy in Cuba, but to compare what is happening in Cuba now to Cuba under U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista is a little bit absurd. Though there are human rights issues still, and there are other causes of concern, the comparison I (and you) are making are between Cuba Pre-1959 and post. Not Cuba V USA.

Peace

 

Hmm ok, in 1959 i was seven, so I hardly knew what was going on in Cuba, or cared, my main concern was collecting pop bottles and what the going refund rate was, I'm shallow so i tend to care about whats relevent today, but you have made some good points, so tell ya what I'm gonna do, I'll copy and paste your assessment of all the good things Cuba has to offer it's people that are still stuck under an archaic and oppressive communist regime, and I'll send copies to the Florida Coast Guard so they can hand them out to the next group of boat people or the ones that float over on inner tubes, they can hand them out to these obviously stupid people, that way they can see the err of their ways in thinking that it sucks in Cuba, but I'm sure they will be very happy to know it's better than it was in 1959 while they are on their way back to the paradise called Cuba..

Peace

 

Regardless - you have to see that those points *are* relevent, despite your feelings towards Fidel's "archaic and oppressive communist regime".

 

You have truly made a believer of me, now what you need to do is convince the people that live in Cuba that it really doesn't suck to live there, good luck on that one, Ooh you might try telling them it's better than it was in 1959, that should win them over to your way of thinking..

Peace

 

You're completely missing my point. But whatever.

Peace

 

Yea, I'm sure I'm missing your point, can't we just both agree that Cuba sucks :cheers2:

Peace

 

We need to remember that "hippies" were not some all-encompassing social group that included everyone from 14 to 29. There were ALL sorts of splinter groups that believed in different things. Some of the "hippies" in the '60's were just radicals in hippie clothing. There was a whole franchise called The John Brown Society that was based on supporting radical, revolutionary thought in America. Many of these guys were not above blowing up, oh... say, The Bank Of America building. Was Abby Hoffman a hippie? Debatable.

These are the "hippies" that made the Che shirts so popular.
If the pacifist hippies had anything in common with Che, it might have been that he was a communist and something of a romantic figure - but then again, there were plenty of hippies who were anything BUT communist.

 

To be fair, I saw a man this summer wearing a Che Guevera shirt and he had a Nike checkmark tattoo on his leg.
Che Guevera is simply that in our culture. He is a face on a t-shirt, his image weakened by the suburbanite kids who think they're rebels for wearing his face.
It's sick.
That being said, the violence wasn't cool, but they knew what they had to do.