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Eric Clapton sang, “If I could change the world.” Many men dream about changing the world, but very few actually attempt it. Some succeed in bringing change, but is that change healthy, or does it create more problems than it solves?

As a student radical, growing up in the late sixties, I believed it was possible to change the world. Of course, when you are young, and want to change the world, you are always on the lookout for revolutionary role models.

One of those was Che Guevara. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Che was born in Argentina in 1928 and grew up with a love for poetry, philosophy, political science, mathematics and literature.

In 1951 Che Guevara took a year off from his medical studies at university to motorcycle across South America. He was confronted with the abject oppression and poverty of the poor. This trip became a catalyst for him to take up arms on behalf of the oppressed.

Jesus Christ, another revolutionary that my generation looked up to in the late sixties, said, “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” Perhaps this was more than prophetic, because Che Guevara died a violent death at the hands of the Bolivian military in 1967. Violence begets violence. Hate begets hate.

Alvaro Vargas Llosa wrote in an article about Che Guevara, called the ‘Killing Machine’,

“Guevara might have been enamoured of his own death, but he was much more enamoured of other people’s deaths. In April 1967, speaking from experience, he summed up his homicidal idea of justice in his Message to the Tricontinental: ‘hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine.’ … Guevara murdered or oversaw the executions in summary trials of scores of people—proven enemies, suspected enemies, and those who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time… He did not show the full extent of his rigor until Castro put him in charge of La Cabaña prison. …

Historical records show that Guevara was personally involved in the death of hundreds during this time.
Gerard Brookes writes about a 14-year-old boy and other victims of Che Guevara: ‘San Martin who was a reluctant guest in early days of Castro’s Gulag recounted that on one occasion Guevara’s thugs dragged a 14-year-old boy out of his cell and into the prison courtyard where the heroic Guevara was waiting for him. He bellowed at the boy to kneel in front of him… the lad eyeballed Guevara and shouted in his face: ‘If you’re going to kill me you’ll have to do it while I’m standing! Men die standing!’ Guevara then put his pistol to the boy’s head and blew out his brains.’”

However, Che Guevara wasn’t the only one who wanted to change the world in the late sixties. During this time, radical feminism was born. One of its many leaders was Germaine Greer. She said, “All societies on the verge of death are masculine”.

Another feminist, Linda Gordon said, “The nuclear family must be destroyed”, and Robin Morgan said, “We can’t destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage.” I would put to you that sadly, they have done a pretty good job of destroying marriage. Unfortunately, we as men have been complicit in the destruction process.

Noted feminist Andrea Dworkin was more to the point, “I want to see a man beaten to a bloody pulp with a high heel shoved in his mouth, like an apple in the mouth of a pig”.

The radical feminists’ solution to change the world was very simple. They watched which gender was responsible for most of the violence, theft, rape, war and crime in the world. After identifying that the greatest proportion of evil was coming from the male of the species, they decided to demonise masculinity and manhood.

After further research, the radical feminists realised that masculinity and manhood is passed down from father to son, and so they deducted that fatherhood (patriarchy) was in itself evil. Patriarchy became the source of all evil. That’s how the campaign to destroy fatherhood (patriarchy) was born, and haven’t they done a great job? Again, we as men have been complicit in our own demise.

How do we answer the diatribe of hate against masculinity, manhood, marriage and family by our feminist friends? Do we return their hate with hate? Martin Luther King said, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality … I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” His words have more than a ring of truth about them.

Last Easter we celebrated the greatest example of manhood yet known.

Jesus Christ was a revolutionary but not like Che Guevara. His revolution was based on love and forgiveness, not war and hate.

As the nails were driven into his hands he cried out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”, the sacred masculine, in bodily form.

We need a revival of real manhood, but the only way we are going to get it is when we each have our own encounter with the sacred masculine in bodily form.

Lovework

Tell the story to your children of the courage of the greatest man that ever lived. Also tell the story of the brave unknown fourteen-year-old boy who would not bow to evil, even in the face of his own death.

Yours for more real men,
Warwick Marsh

PS: I would like to encourage you to consider coming to the Men’s Leadership Summit, 9-11 August 2019, at the Tops Conference, Centre, Stanwell Tops, New South Wales, Australia. It is almost booked out so you will have to be quick. Download the conference brochure here; Book Here NOW.