CONTEMPORARY NONSENSE
"The contradictions between ourselves and the enemy are
antagonistic contradictions. Within the ranks of the people, the contra–
dictions among the working people are non-antagonistic, while those
between the exploited and the exploiting classes have a non-antagonistic
aspect
in
addition to an antagonistic aspect.
"The three Main Rules of Discipline are as follows:
( 1) Obey orders in all your actions.
(2) Do not take a single needle or piece of thread from the
masses.
(3) Turn
in
everything captured."
(Chairman Mao Tse-tung.
Quotations from Chairman Mao
Tse-tung,
Foreign Languages Press [Peking, 1966], p. 47; p. 256)
"
. When Lowell wrote to the President-and it was a skillfully
written letter-he stated his motives of conscience, his fear that his
presence would commit him to the President's foreign policy....
"I think this was unfortunate. The President wasn't telling Lowell
how to write his poetry, and I don't think he's in any position to tell
the President how to run the government...."
(Ralph Ellison. "An Interview with Ralph Ellison,"
Harper's
Magazine,
March, 1967.)
" 'Nobody in the world understands me,' [Ky] said. 'Mai, my wife,
understands me a little, but nobody really understands me.
"'I'm a simple man,' South Vietnam's Premier went on. 'Yet, I'm
very complicated. First of all, I'm a patriot. But I'm also an artist and
a poet and an aviator.' - From a CDN dispatch in the
New York Post's
weekend edition."
(New York Post,
March 24, 1967.)
EDITORS' NOTE: Contemporary Nonsense
is a new depart–
ment in
PRo
Readers are invited to send in examples of nonsense. A
free subscription to
PR
will be awarded for each contribution used. In
case of a tie, single copies will be sent to the latecomers, though we're sure
that there's enough nonsense to increase our circulation substantially.
