Do Now - 2/27

America's 6-word Memoir

Life, liberty, happiness; jobless, homeless, "recession".

Do Now - 2/26

Personal Ideology

I think that at this point in my life I cannot really formulate a true ideology. I think growing up in a household with solid parenting you can gain a legitimate base of your ideology, but, until you get out on your own I don't think that you truly have a personal ideology. There may be certain subjects or topics that you feel very strongly about, but, I don't think you know enough about the world and what goes on to truly come up with your own ideology. I think one of the main goals in life is to find this "ideology" and that's what we should all be striving for.

Apples to Apples?

Do Now - 2/25

Is U.S. involvement in Pakistan the same as Che's involvement in Bolivia?

I think this is a fair comparison of overall goals but the exact specifics are not the same. You can compare the essential point of the U.S. in Pakistan to Che being in Bolivia; but, certain things, such as, the resources the Che lacked and the amount of manpower, navigation and technological support does not compare. The secrecy of the operation is comparable and the final goals are definitely the same. I think the means at which that goal is achieved are different and the U.S. involvement is just more modern than in Che's time. Overall, I think it's not wrong to compare these two occurrences, they're just not exact replicas.

Do Now - 2/24

Che's voice is one that is very distinct in the Motorcycle Diaries. You can see this voice in two excerpts within the book...

The first: "I suddenly felt myself flying off with the sailor to far-off lands, far away the current drama of my life. A feeling of profound unease came over me; I felt that I was incapable of feeling anything." (pg. 54)

It seems to me that Che uses a specific tone within most of his writings. I sometimes feel as though he can be almost too philosophical and tries to describe things more than necessary. Although, he uses great imagery and really can capture the reader at the same time.

The second: "The bike exhaled with boredom along the long accident-free road and we exhaled with fatigue. Driving on a gravel-covered road had transformed a pleasant jaunt into a heavy job." (pg. 40)

This small passage shows the descriptiveness of Che's voice that is very prevalent in his writing. You can really feel as though you're part of his diary and can see the bike "exhaling with boredom". Che uses great detail and I think that's what attributes to his great success in story telling.

Both passages help to gain insight into Che because his descriptive passion for writing and his great detail with his words really assists in building a personal relationship with the book and into his diary.

Che's Ideology

What do think Che's personal mission statement/ideology could be? What doctrine or set of beliefs seems to have guided him?


I think Che's personal mission is to create a perfectly socialist world. Reform all of mankind, not just physically, but mentally and morally as well. I think he wanted to create a place, a sort of Utopia, in which everything was equal; the powerful countries shared their wealth and resources with the third world countries and everyone stood at the same level. I believe he wanted everyone to have the same ideals, hard-working attitude and views toward life. Che, I think, wanted to move away from the materialistic ways of the world and focus solely on what's "really important". Che probably focused a lot on communist and socialist writings and most likely received most of his influences from men such as Marx. Overall, I think Che just wanted to create a better world and did not really care how that came to be.

My Che Documentary

Based on what I know about Che, if I was going to create a documentary I think I would mainly focus on Che's younger life and how he came to understand and get involved with his slightly communistic ideas. I would focus on his influences and the things that really drove him. Also, I would try to answer certain questions about Che such as, why did he kill so many people, or what made him who he was. When you want to cover a man with such a legacy as Che's you really want to encompass most of his life and that's what I would definitely try and do.

Judging Books by their Cover

Books are quite easy to judge by first glance. When speaking on this topic it makes me think of reading the book, Blink. In that book, it was all about first impressions and how they constantly affected your beliefs about a certain topic, specifically a book. Based on the picture on the front cover or certain colors, a book can really catch a reader’s eye. If you see an image or color that is particularly appeasing to you, the reader most likely gets an urge to pick it up and “take it for a spin”. An occurrence of this for me, was the book, “Josh Hamilton: Beyond Belief”. It had an iconic baseball player on the front and a picture that really drew me in. Despite the saying, most people still judge books by their cover.

"Of a Revolutionary Che Guevara"

I think that Beck is absolutely correct. It is undoubtedly appropriate to compare a Che Guevara t-shirt to a Hitler t-shirt. Any man that is connected with cold-blooded, mass murder should not be glorified on a t-shirt. Think about it, you don’t see t-shirts printed with pictures of Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson or any well-known serial killers; it’s exactly the same thing with Che and they should not be sold. Beck stated that Guevara was on track to kill more people than Hitler; this is what makes it shocking to me that people would wear t-shirts supporting him or anything he believed in. I think that Beck’s sarcastic demeanor and manner of getting his point across really helps him get he attention of the viewers. By taking the side that he did he made it quite apparent of what his view was and was able to support why the t-shirts were wrong with facts and solid ideals. It is not even a question that the Che Guevara t-shirts are inhumane and inappropriate; get them off the shelves!