Pitch Black Hat
Mao Zedong once dropped this fat glob of truth: “黑暗即将过去，曙光即在前头.” Loosely translated – and we mean loosely translated, because we learned Chinese from watching a subbed Snake in the Eagle's Shadow DVD – this phrase means “The darkness is about to pass, the dawn is ahead.”
But while Mao did create many interesting things, including the People's Communes (人民公社) which led to widespread starvation, the Four Pests Campaign (除四害) which led to widespread starvation, and the Widespread Starvation Campaign (广泛的饥饿运动) which led to widespread starvation, he did not actually coin the saying “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” That distinction belongs to Thomas Fuller, a 17th century preacher and historian who is largely forgotten because he never starved anyone.
We’re not certain who coined the decidedly less optimistic phrase “It's always darkest before it goes pitch black,” but it speaks far more directly to our hearts. We’re reminded of it whenever politicians ask us to sacrifice a significant part of our net worth or freedom in exchange for some benefit that we’ll never receive. It’s also a cool thing to scream at your wall after you’ve smashed an empty liquor bottle against it during the climax of “Free Bird.”
So why is The Burning Platform offering this fine piece of merchandise with these sage words emblazoned across it? It’s so you can constantly remind yourself and others around you that the world is going to $#!& (拉屎), even though the world has abundant ways of making that perfectly clear already.
