While sitting here in my “Viva La Reagan Revolucion” t-shirt, I stumbled upon an interesting column by Jeff Jacoby on the communist inspired fashion that is so popular these days.
As Jacoby explains,
The glamorization of communist imagery is widespread. On West 4th Street in Manhattan, the popular KGB Bar is known for its literary readings and Soviet propaganda posters. In Los Angeles, the La La Ling boutique sells baby clothing emblazoned with the face of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro’s bloody henchman. At the House of Mao, a popular eatery in Singapore, waiters in Chinese army uniforms serve Long March Chicken, and a giant picture of Mao Zedong dominates one wall.
“A French government agency, the National Lottery, was crazy enough to use Stalin and Mao in one of its advertising campaigns,” observed Stephane Courtois in his introduction to The Black Book of Communism, a scholarly survey of communist crimes. “Would anyone even dare to come up with the idea of featuring Hitler or Goebbels in its commercials?”
I wonder how many of the people wearing the Che and Hammer-and-Sickle t-shirts truly understand the meaning of those symbols and how many are just wearing them because they have some vague understanding of the symbols and think they’re “cool.” But, as Jacoby concludes, “Communist chic?” The blood of 100 million victims cries out from the ground. To wear the symbols of their killers is no fashion statement, but the ultimate in bad taste. ”
But, as Jacoby explains,