To the hard workin' folks
Out of context: Reply #11
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- drgss0
Chairman Mao Tse-tung at the enlarged session of the military affairs committee and the external affairs conference, september 11, 1959
"I really learned to swim well only in 1954; previously I had not mastered it. In 1954, there was an indoor swimming-pool at Tsinghua University. I went there every evening with my bag, changed my clothes, and for three months without interruption I studied the nature of the water. Water doesn’t drown people! Water is afraid of people, people aren’t afraid of water, of course, there are exceptions, but it should be possible to swim in all kinds of water. This is a major premise. For example, the Yangtse at Wuhan is water, so it’s possible to swim in the Yangtse at Wuhan. So I refuted those comrades who opposed my swimming in the Yangtse. I said, ‘You haven’t studied formal logic.’ If it’s water, you can swim in it, except in certain conditions: for example, if the water is only an inch deep you can’t swim in it; if it’s frozen solid you can’t swim in it; you can’t swim in places where there are sharks, nor where there are whirlpools, as in the three gorges of the Yangtse. Apart from certain circumstances, it should be possible to swim wherever there is water, this is the major premise, the major premise derived from practice. Thus, for example, the Yangtse at Wuhan is water; hence, the conclusion follows that it is possible to swim in the Yangtse at Wuhan. The Milo and Pearl rivers are water, you can swim in them. You can swim in [the sea of] Peitaiho; it’s water, isn’t it? Wherever there’s water, you should be able to swim. This is the major premise; apart from the fact that you can’t swim in one inch of water, and you can’t swim in water that’s at a temperature of over 100 degrees, or in water that’s so cold it’s f! rozen, or where there are sharks or whirlpools — apart from these circumstances, all water can be swum in; this is a fact."
- took me more than 3 months to figure that one out. smart guybrandelec