“Sometime
in the 1930s, at the office of Gosplan, the central planning authority of the
USSR, an interview took place for the post of Chief Statistician. The first
candidate is asked by the interview board, "What is two plus two comrade?" He answers: "Five." The Chairman of the
interview board smiles indulgently and says: "Comrade, we very much appreciate your revolutionary enthusiasm, but
this job needs someone who can count." The candidate is politely shown
the door.
The
second candidates answer is "Three " The youngest member of the
interview board springs up and shouts: "Arrest that man. We cannot tolerate this kind of counter-revolutionary
propaganda, under reporting our achievements!" The interviewee is
summarily dragged out of the room by the guards.
When
asked the same question, the third candidate answers: "Of course, it is four." The
professorial-looking member of the board gives him a stern lecture on the
limitations of bourgeois science, fixated on formal logic. The candidate hangs
his head in shame and walks out of the room. The fourth candidate is hired.
What was his answer? "How many do
you want it to be."
Joseph
Stalin once asked his doctor if he read the news. The doctor told him that he
did. Stalin said to him, you know of course, that there's no news in Izvestiya
and no truth in Pravda. In spite of all the lies and propaganda that Russian
citizens were fed on a daily basis, most Russians knew that. They always
retained a healthy cynicism about what they were told but expressing opinions
publicly, could always be dangerous." In Russia today, it still is.
(Economics:
The User’s Guide – Ha- Joon Chang)
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