I heard it repeated once again and had to
smile; then of course make a comment. The Urban myth goes that when President
Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China’s Primer Mao Zedong in Beijing on
February 21st, 1972, that while discussing many topics Nixon asked, What
did the Premier think about the French Revolution? His reply was,
“It’s
still too soon to tell”.
This exchange is used (even today) as a
demonstration of how differently the two cultures measure time. From the
inscrutable Oriental mind camp, one might conclude that theirs is a long term
planning point of view, measured in hundreds of years versus our western manner
of calculating in decades. Where, here
was a case, after nearly two hundred years after overthrowing a monarchy the
Chinese thinker would consider it a short period of time and so not render a
hasty opinion as to the events or predictions based on those issues that led to
the revolution.
But
in truth, it wasn’t the French Revolution of 1789-1799 that Richard Nixon was referring
to, but the May 1968 protest involving the first wildcat general strike ever to
that date that brought the economy of an advanced industrial country to a
virtual standstill.
The revolution Nixon
was speaking of involved 11 million workers (over 22% of the total population
of France at the time), for a continuous two weeks. It’s impact nearly caused
the collapse of President Charles De Gaulle’s government.
Still, it’s a cool twist of meanings that serves a
different point of view. And boy, do we
like dramatic examples to drive an opinion home.
No comments:
Post a Comment