Engels flies on an airplane, Stalin wears Dacron.

[David Tenner]

"'Engels never flew on an aeroplane; Stalin never wore Dacron.' Thus China's
late leader, Deng Xiaoping, to a meeting 30 years ago that is now officially
seen as the starting-point of his economic and political reforms. Deng's
words meant Maoist dogma was out and pragmatism was in.."
https://www.economist.com/node/12758848

AHC: Engels flies on an airplane, Stalin wears Dacron. Actually, both are
conceivable. Engels died in 1895, but one can imagine him living until, say,
the age of 90 in 1910, seven years after the Wright Brothers' famous Kitty
Hawk flight. As for Stalin, DuPont debuted Dacron in 1951, two years before
his death... https://www.wired.com/2009/05/dayintech-0508/

[jerry kraus]

Post by David Tenner
"'Engels never flew on an aeroplane; Stalin never wore Dacron.' Thus China's
late leader, Deng Xiaoping, to a meeting 30 years ago that is now officially
seen as the starting-point of his economic and political reforms. Deng's
words meant Maoist dogma was out and pragmatism was in.."
https://www.economist.com/node/12758848
AHC: Engels flies on an airplane, Stalin wears Dacron. Actually, both are
conceivable. Engels died in 1895, but one can imagine him living until, say,
the age of 90 in 1910, seven years after the Wright Brothers' famous Kitty
Hawk flight. As for Stalin, DuPont debuted Dacron in 1951, two years before
his death... https://www.wired.com/2009/05/dayintech-0508/
--
David Tenner

David, you have to understand that, because of their pictographic language, the Chinese think a little differently than people in the West. They're more inclined to generalize very creatively from tangible, physical reality than we are, because that's precisely what their language does. Effectively, it wouldn't have mattered a damn whether Engels flew on an airplane, or if Stalin wore Dacron, Not a damn, wouldn't have changed anything at all. However, Deng is simply making the point that socialism/communism isn't the be all, and end all of existence. Fair enough, eh?

[SolomonW]

Post by David Tenner
AHC: Engels flies on an airplane, Stalin wears Dacron. Actually, both are
conceivable. Engels died in 1895, but one can imagine him living until, say,
the age of 90 in 1910,

One of my in-laws is 90, they do not fly. I doubt that many 90 years old in
1910 did.

[Rhino]

Post by SolomonW

Post by David Tenner
AHC: Engels flies on an airplane, Stalin wears Dacron. Actually, both are
conceivable. Engels died in 1895, but one can imagine him living until, say,
the age of 90 in 1910,

One of my in-laws is 90, they do not fly. I doubt that many 90 years old in
1910 did.

Also, the *average* human lifespan was only around 60 at the start of
the 20th century (if the pilot episode of The Knick was accurate) so a
90 year old Engels wouldn't have been inconceivable at that time but
pretty close to it.