At one time in my life, I knew just enough German to get myself in trouble in Cologne. Still, it’s more than I know now. So, I have to accept it on the authority of someone I know—a German soaker—that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels didn’t actually write “Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.” Rather, the last line is more properly translated as, “Proletarians of the world, unite!” The second part, “you have nothing to lose but your chains,” was added in a translation Engels approved.
Another aphorism commonly and mistakenly attributed to the authors of the Communist Manifesto is, “The truth shall set you free.” While they may have agreed with it, they—or, at least Marx—would not have approved of its source: the Bible, specifically, John 8:31-32.
It is therefore interesting to speculate about what they would have made of this:
Somehow I think they would recognize that the bicycle has liberated poor and working people—or, at least, given them mobility and even pleasure.
I know I have always felt freer while spinning my chains!
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