Sarah Paine

So he has provided insights.

Oh, also the other thing to mention about him is he's really modest.

I had to dig around to find these biographical details.

They're not on the cover of his book, which is where they should be.

And his service to his country continues to this day because it's his translation that continues to educate officers now, what is it, over 40 years after his death.

But here's his take.

In every apparent disadvantage, some advantage is to be found.

The yin is not wholly yin and the yang is not wholly yang.

It is only the wise general, said the Sun Tzu, who is able to recognize this fact and turn it to good account.

And of course, Mao could, and he did.

But in peacetime, choices are not binary.

They're graduated.

And evolution is much more conducive to economic development than revolution.

Oh, well, first of all, you need to think about what his objective is, which number one is stay in power, right?

And number two is probably Communist Party in power and his visions of revolution.

So that's one thing.

So then you're worried about welfare of people as if that's the primary objective.

It most certainly is not.

And then he may have assumed that it came along with these things.

And that's a whole problem with communist ideology is people don't believe it because they know it's wrong.