The Art of War is a medieval Chinese military manuscript by Sun Tzu, on the strategies and techniques of winning wars. It goes into the nuances of interpersonal relationships, diplomatic negotiations, psychological readiness and many of the more subtle elements of fighting a war. The lessons and strategies taught by Sun Tzu have been applied up till modern military operations, and even business negotiations.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Winning a war is nothing like winning a battle. Winning a war takes strategising. Winning some and losing some. Re-strategising based on the wins and losses. Fighting again. Winning some and losing some. It is a continuous process of evaluation and execution, as plans have to constantly change and adapt according to the outcome on the battlefield. There is no such thing as a single winning strategy. Politics come into play. Intelligence comes into play. Interpersonal relationships with the soldiers come into play. Every element adds or takes away from the chances of winning the battles, and eventually the war.
Winning the war, however, is not a aggregate sum of all battles won. It is hardly ever the case. One can be losing majority of the battles at hand, and eventually win the war on a strategic move. Winning wars requires a whole different mindset. It takes analysis of information, situational awareness and appropriate strategy and execution. It is not always about having the best technology and weapons. It is rarely just the sheer size of the army. The Art of War is more subtle than that.
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
I have always avoided engaging in conflict, simply to avoid fighting. I stood by peaceful relationships with everyone, friendly negotiations and mutual agreements. Never forming enemies and never engaging in conflict for anything. Never ever meddling with politics. Be it in academic projects or professional environments, I trusted good intentions in everyone and everything, blindly believing that good intentions will return good results. If I do my part, I will receive what I deserve. A basic system of reciprocity that I believed the world to operate on. I’ve never been keen on politics, strategies and manipulation. I find it moderately disturbing at a core level, to conceive plans which knowingly can negatively affect others. I believed in doing no harm unto others, even those whom are not too kind to me. I saw myself as being the bigger person if a conflict arises, taking upon myself the negative outcomes of the situation, and empathising with the opposite party. Most of the time, never even addressing an unhappiness or disagreement, simply in order to avoid conflicts which might blow up an otherwise friendly relationship. In this sense, I was always the chill guy.
However, life is far from chill. It is a fucking war.
If you are not fighting the war, you are losing. And as long as you are losing, someone else whom does not have the same good intentions and good heart is winning. Some fucking Donald Trump is going to end up becoming a President just because the fucker is good at meddling in politics, strategies and manipulation.
He knows damn well how to make people listen to him, believe in him and vote for him. And at the core he might have no substance at all, but he is fighting the war with a strategy that no other good man has pulled off. And these fuckers are everywhere. In the corporations and banks that handle your money, to the governments and leaders that define your state of existence. Majority of them are simply in it for the wealth and power, with no real intention of contributing to any form of good to the society. However, it is indeed these fuckers whom are in positions of power and influence, simply because they played the right cards, the right people and the right strategies at the right time. It’s simply politics.
Politics is not a bad thing, I realise. Politics is the synergy between awareness and intelligence. There are many intelligent people whom are unaware. And many whom are aware but not applying intelligence to this awareness. Politics can indeed be played without the notion of doing something wrong. Politics can be played the right way, the good way. Politics, in essence, is three things. Knowing yourself, knowing the enemy, and knowing the situation.
1.Knowing thyself
Knowing yourself is the awareness of your strengths and weaknesses. Not being delusional about your capabilities but being realistic. It is the ability to access one’s current status, financial, emotional and psychological. Every aspect of one’s current status must be known. Knowing oneself is not limited to the self however. It also includes knowing your allies. Who is on your team. Who is willing to fight with you. Who is willing to die with you. A comprehensive analysis of oneself cannot be done without knowing all information about oneself. That is the first step.
2. Knowing thy enemies
Next up, one has to understand the enemies. These enemies are not necessarily people. They can be systems, organisations, policies, but in most cases, people. One might often have multiple enemies, given the multiple battles that one might be fighting at any one point in time. Work, academics, health, relationships, enemies can be strewn across all aspects of life. Understanding the enemy is to understand the intentions and motivations of the enemy. What are they in it for? What can they seek to gain out of it? And on top of the motivations, it is also important to understand the strengths of the enemy. What is the size of their army? How has it been deployed? Who is overseeing certain operations? Who are the key players? Sometimes certain information requires intelligence and external sources. Only through the accumulation of information, can one deduce the possible strategies that the enemy might deploy.
3. Knowing the situation
However, these strategies may not always be predictable. Situational knowledge is the ability to access the situation based on the various strategies that are being deployed and how they are performing. Sometimes, regardless of the best strategies, some battles cannot be won. It is important to retreat and refocus the attention on other battles. Sometimes an ally might turn out to be an enemy. This would again require reassessing the situation based on the new knowledge. The war is constant, the struggle is constant, and the awareness and strategising need to be constantly modified and adapted according to the situation.
One could just stay away from all of this, saying that politics and war is not my thing, and should be left to those whom meddle in these dark arts. However, the darkness associated with politics and war arises from the fact that the good men are failing to strategise and play as much and as well as those whom are less concerned with values and more concerned with strategic play for power and influence. We need to fight. And we need to fight the good fight. It might take losing a lot of battles, a lot of men and resources. But at the end of the day, when goodness wins the war, that will be all that matters.
Keep glitching.