NONE THE WISER
PATRICK BULGER: If the cap fits ...
Two codgers clash over the importance of being Ernesto in 2025 — the first of a monthly column on ageing gracefully (or not)
A libertarian friend recently got grumpy with me, on ideological grounds, for wearing a Ernesto “Che” Guevara peak cap with a red star in front. It’s just a souvenir I bought from a stall on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 10 years ago. The very font of liberty. It’s also my only peak cap, but I wouldn’t admit that for fear it would muffle my fashion statement. The red star is associated with Che, but for me it’s an all-purpose up-yours to the “common-sense” tech-brotherhood discourse that now rules social media, and the world.
It’s not the first time my friend has complained about my cap, but I realise that misleading him on its Che provenance, rather than its Chinese origin, agitates the ideologue in him, and I take secret pleasure in his erudite rants...
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