SERIES 05: Measuring things

THIS SERIES IS INSPIRED BY A STORY THAT I LOVE. One that embodies a vital spirit I will call the joyous fuck you. This is the way I heard it:

It was the 1980s, in China. Mao Zedong’s murderous Cultural Revolution had been superseded by the more pragmatic rule of Deng Xiaoping.

Deng was in his 80s and appeared as a weary old man. But he was a vicious and effective operator. He had been close to Mao, then banished, and had painstakingly plotted a path back through the Chinese Communist Party and to power as one of Mao’s successors. He had too many titles to list here. But he was effectively the country’s supreme ruler.

He had gone from running a lathe in a tractor factory, and writing apologetic letters to Mao, to inspecting troops, riding in limousines with outriders, and greeting a succession of dignitaries and businesspeople. Thatcher. Reagan. Mitterrand. He laid the foundations for modern China. He was feted and respected. He was also extremely short, and very self-conscious about it.

The government had thrown a celebration, rows of neatly dressed tables under chandeliers, at which Deng was the guest of honor. The small press corps allowed into China was present, expected to dutifully record the glorious occasion for posterity.

But, as they watched Deng drift through the room, surrounded by guards, regally greeting well-wishers, they had a different idea. How short was Deng really, they wondered? He was standing right there. Surely they could find a way to measure him?

They drew straws. John Burns of The New York Times pulled the shortest. He had to improvise a method, and deliver the results to his colleagues. Burns was over 6 feet himself, and wearing a white shirt, and he decided he’d simply walk up to Deng, stand as close as he could, and mark a line on his shirt with a pen at the correct height.

Burns had many strengths. Being unobtrusive was not among them. As soon as his pen touched his shirt sleeve, one of Deng's guards looked over, and immediately understood what was happening. Burns told me that he felt this was why he was seized and jailed, then expelled from China for spying. (Though the official story is different.)

I adore the spirit. The sensibility to understand that, beyond the pomp, beyond the grand plans and intellectual weight, there was a man as petty and insecure as any other, who deserved to be revealed as such, and the swagger to act on it.

It seems more necessary now than ever, in an era where the rich and powerful increasingly want to set their own terms. To dictate reality, as Deng sought to do. And where the response from journalists and commentators has split evenly between fawning for access and spite for clicks.

Our solution is simple. This series will measure things that people don’t want measured, with as great a degree of precision as we can. That’s for two reasons. Firstly, because ultimately, no matter the velvet ropes or status-primping security details, the physical world belongs to all of us. And secondly, the idea of measurement, of data, is a kind of religion now. We want to see where its limits are.

To do this, we and some very fun helpers, will be applying technology and techniques that people usually reserve for analyzing war zones, or identifying mass graves.

Burns understood that those horrors are often the result of scarred little boys who become the kinds of silly little men who need to control everything. And so it seems only right that we should begin by answering a question that has raged since 1988. One that is vital to the democratic future of the United States, and perhaps the world.

But more on that Thursday, when we’ll be partnering with one of our favorite cultural institutions, The Fence, to put out the first story. ⸭