
Originally Posted by
tylerdurden
according to legend:
stalin, on his death bed asked his two most aspiring replacements to come to him. he commanded that they be given two small birds and he told them to hold on to the bird and never let it get away. one of the aspirants held his struggling bird too tight, crushing its small body and killing it. stalin frowned. the other one, seeing what happened, held his bird too loosely and it escaped.
stalin then asked for a small bird for himself. once it was in his hands, he then removed every feather on its wing until a small, naked bird sat on his hand, shivering and unable to fly away and escape.
stalin then said, "And now the bird is even thankful for the hands that imprison him because of the warmth that it gives him"
---take from this what lesson you can---