for what we could call these bourgeois defects

[SuprunP]

Roberto Castaneda, a photographer and dancer, had travelled "behind the Iron Curtain and is a sincere admirer of all that but won't enter the Party. He lacks theoretical knowledge of Marxism, and maybe he wouldn't be a good militant for what we could call these bourgeois defects [...]
(Jon Lee Anderson; Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life)

Should I read it as follows:

'for what we could call these defects (probably being a photographer and dancer, lacking theoretical knowledge of Marxism) bourgeois defects'.

Thanks.

 

[Loob]

Here's a clearer translation, Suprun:

He has travelled behind the Iron Curtain and is a sincere admirer of everything there although he hasn't joined the Party. He lacks knowledge of Marxist theory, and perhaps would not be a good militant because of those, let's say, bourgeois defects.

Source: Back on the Road by Che Guevara, English translation by Patrick Camiller.

 

[ewie]

Ermmmm ............. so what are the bourgeois defects? Or does he mean that bourgeois defect [i.e. 'lack of knowledge of Marxist theory']?

 

[Loob]

Ah, I thought Suprun was asking about the meaning of the phrase "for what we could call these bourgeois defects" - all I was trying to say was that "for" is yet another mistranslation....

As to what the defects actually were, I agree it's not very clear. The text I found had this before the part I quoted: He strikes me as a person with an artistic temperament, clear-sighted intelligence, and a desire to be perfect in everything he does. Maybe those would count as bourgeois defects?

 

[ewie]

They sound pretty bourgeois-defective to me

 

[SuprunP]

Thank you Loob and ewie!