Che and I don't know

I know that Stuart isn't a fan of Che. I looked on his blog for reasons but he hasn't written much about him. I know he isn't a fan because he told me.

I have a biography that I haven't yet read, a viewing of 'The Motorcycle Diaries', and now the two parts of the Che movie (and that is all) to my knowledge of the man.

So far, all I know is that I am very glad to not have lived in a time when I was forced to be at war. We can't say we are grateful to not live in a time of war since large parts of the world still are at war. Thing is I know that if someone I loved was shot or raped, or at risk of that happening on a daily basis... it would take a fair amount of restraining to stop me from blood shed. So, I know that somewhere in me there is something that is capable of being in a war. That said, the only thought that goes through my head time after time when I watch these war movies is how glad I am that that is not my every day. I can't remember where I heard it, but there was a scene somewhere where someone was complaining to their grandmother about something that was going on in their lives. She listened carefully, and when he was finished said, 'That's awful, when your grandfather was your age, he was fighting the Germans.' It kind of puts things in perspective.

I don't know enough about Che to pronounce whether I object to what he did. In all I have seen, he was symbolic of a raw passionate fight against poverty and oppression, and I can see why he is made into the icon for revolutionaries.

To be honest, when it comes to history and knowledge of the past and what was good, and who was good, I feel at a complete loss. Growing up, I did half South African History, and half World History which concentrated on the two World Wars. Most of the history I learnt at school divided the world quite clearly into good and bad.

I am not sure how you go about correcting that other than reading perspectives from other sides. My gut feeling boils down to that I know next to nothing about what has happened in the past, there was no 'good side', and that the world is moving forward.