To read this content please select one of the options below:

The Dirty Hands and Pure Hearts of Revolutionary Leaders: Love and Hate in Jesus and Che Guevara

Conscience, Leadership and the Problem of ‘Dirty Hands’

ISBN: 978-1-78560-203-0, eISBN: 978-1-78560-202-3

Publication date: 25 July 2015

Abstract

Given the multiplying and intensifying global systemic crises (ecological, financial, etc.), the question of revolution resurfaces. The paper addresses a crucial dimension of this question: the issue of revolutionary leadership. Two exemplary leaders are analysed: Jesus of Nazareth and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. The key purpose of the analysis is to show how these ‘pure-hearted’ leaders were ‘paradoxically’ willing to employ ‘dirty hands’, which in this context denotes revolutionary violence. Consequently, while peaceful approaches to structural transformation are obviously preferable, revolutionary violence should remain an ethical option.

Key findings advanced by the article include: (i) confirmation of the reasonableness of remaining actively open to the option of an ethical revolutionary violence; (ii) recognition that revolutionary love involves a dimension of hate; and (iii) confirmation that Jesus was a political revolutionary.

The paper is innovative and valuable in several respects: (i) it dares to broach the question of revolution; (ii) it shows how ‘the ethical’ may be inclusive of ethical violence; (iii) it challenges mainstream perceptions of Jesus as strictly a religious/apolitical figure, recalling and foregrounding his radical political dimension.

Keywords

Citation

Manolopoulos, M. (2015), "The Dirty Hands and Pure Hearts of Revolutionary Leaders: Love and Hate in Jesus and Che Guevara", Conscience, Leadership and the Problem of ‘Dirty Hands’ (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 89-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620150000013006

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited