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Daily Reflection 3.08.21
Mar. 8th, 2021 08:42 am Sun Tzu elaborates on the uses of secrecy in the following verses:
All these dicta can be boiled down into two:
Be where the Enemy is not.
Force the Enemy to be where you want him to be.
When we think about actual warfare, it's very easy to see how to apply these ideas, both in imaginary and in historical examples. Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North in 1863 was an attempt to force the Union to withdraw their armies from Virginia and defend Harrisburg and Philadelphia. It worked. Union armies followed Lee into Pennsylvania, where they met at Gettysburg. There, the tables were turned. On the third day of the battle, Lee ordered a massive infantry assault on the strongly defended Union position at Cemetery Ridge. This was Pickett's Charge, and its results are well known. The attackers were repulsed with heavy losses, and the North was victorious at Gettysburg.
Invading the North is a good idea; Pickett's Charge is not.
In ordinary life, this means that we will be more likely to succeed in any given task or goal if we can figure out beforehand where and how we are most likely to meet resistance, and avoiding this. To pick a fairly well known example, if you want a career in education, you will have a much easier time finding a job if you can teach Math or Chemistry than if all you can teach is English.
We've discussed this sort of thing before, though. What new ideas can we glean from this passage?
In relation to defensive warfare, Sun Tzu discusses "throwing something odd an unaccountable" in the Enemy's way. In a military setting, this can mean bluffs, tricks, or diversions. But what might it mean in daily life?
For many people, the conquest of their own souls means the overcoming of an addiction. Habitual and involuntary use of porn, alcohol, TV, social media, video games, caffeine, tobacco, gambling, shopping, sugar or hard drugs all stand between the individual and the "total conquest of his faculties and his future." Some people-- those with strongly trained wills-- are able to attack addictions head on, and simply choose to quit them. I knew someone who smoked every day until he was 40, decided to quit, and never had another cigarette. Most of us aren't like that, though. So what can we do?
Here's where the use of diversions comes in. For most people, an addictive behaviors are provoked by fairly specific and regular triggers. You might be used to having a cigarette after lunch, or with your morning coffee. If you want to stop smoking-- that's if, by the way; smoking may be the least fashionable of vices these days, but that doesn't mean it can't be your favorite one-- but as I said, if you want to stop smoking you're going to need to recognize these triggers. They're like forces of the enemy, overcoming your defenses and getting a cigarette into your mouth. Once you see them, though, you can do something about them. Sometimes, all it takes is to create a little time delay. If you feel a craving for a cigarette, don't fight it. Just tell yourself that you can have a cigarette if you still want one in 15 minutes. A lot of the time, you're going to find that you don't anymore. The triggering event has passed, and so has the craving that went with it.
Of course, you can simply pass your 15 minutes waiting for the moment when you're allowed your cigarette (or your cell phone, your whiskey or whatever it is). Do that and you're probably going to fail. Find something else to do instead, and-- this is critical-- make sure it's something you enjoy. Instead of smoking, spend 15 minutes playing the guitar, reading a book, walking in the woods or enjoying a really cool daydream. Once your time is up-- if you even notice it-- you'll probably find you'd rather keep doing whatever you're doing.
You may advance and be absolutely irresistible, if you make for the Enemy's weak points; you may retire and be safe from pursuit if your movements are more rapid than those of the Enemy.
If we wish to fight, the Enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need to do is to attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve.
If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the Enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out upon the ground.
All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in his way. By discovering the Enemy's dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated, while the Enemy's must be divided.
If we wish to fight, the Enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need to do is to attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve.
If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the Enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out upon the ground.
All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in his way. By discovering the Enemy's dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated, while the Enemy's must be divided.
All these dicta can be boiled down into two:
Be where the Enemy is not.
Force the Enemy to be where you want him to be.
When we think about actual warfare, it's very easy to see how to apply these ideas, both in imaginary and in historical examples. Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North in 1863 was an attempt to force the Union to withdraw their armies from Virginia and defend Harrisburg and Philadelphia. It worked. Union armies followed Lee into Pennsylvania, where they met at Gettysburg. There, the tables were turned. On the third day of the battle, Lee ordered a massive infantry assault on the strongly defended Union position at Cemetery Ridge. This was Pickett's Charge, and its results are well known. The attackers were repulsed with heavy losses, and the North was victorious at Gettysburg.
Invading the North is a good idea; Pickett's Charge is not.
In ordinary life, this means that we will be more likely to succeed in any given task or goal if we can figure out beforehand where and how we are most likely to meet resistance, and avoiding this. To pick a fairly well known example, if you want a career in education, you will have a much easier time finding a job if you can teach Math or Chemistry than if all you can teach is English.
We've discussed this sort of thing before, though. What new ideas can we glean from this passage?
In relation to defensive warfare, Sun Tzu discusses "throwing something odd an unaccountable" in the Enemy's way. In a military setting, this can mean bluffs, tricks, or diversions. But what might it mean in daily life?
For many people, the conquest of their own souls means the overcoming of an addiction. Habitual and involuntary use of porn, alcohol, TV, social media, video games, caffeine, tobacco, gambling, shopping, sugar or hard drugs all stand between the individual and the "total conquest of his faculties and his future." Some people-- those with strongly trained wills-- are able to attack addictions head on, and simply choose to quit them. I knew someone who smoked every day until he was 40, decided to quit, and never had another cigarette. Most of us aren't like that, though. So what can we do?
Here's where the use of diversions comes in. For most people, an addictive behaviors are provoked by fairly specific and regular triggers. You might be used to having a cigarette after lunch, or with your morning coffee. If you want to stop smoking-- that's if, by the way; smoking may be the least fashionable of vices these days, but that doesn't mean it can't be your favorite one-- but as I said, if you want to stop smoking you're going to need to recognize these triggers. They're like forces of the enemy, overcoming your defenses and getting a cigarette into your mouth. Once you see them, though, you can do something about them. Sometimes, all it takes is to create a little time delay. If you feel a craving for a cigarette, don't fight it. Just tell yourself that you can have a cigarette if you still want one in 15 minutes. A lot of the time, you're going to find that you don't anymore. The triggering event has passed, and so has the craving that went with it.
Of course, you can simply pass your 15 minutes waiting for the moment when you're allowed your cigarette (or your cell phone, your whiskey or whatever it is). Do that and you're probably going to fail. Find something else to do instead, and-- this is critical-- make sure it's something you enjoy. Instead of smoking, spend 15 minutes playing the guitar, reading a book, walking in the woods or enjoying a really cool daydream. Once your time is up-- if you even notice it-- you'll probably find you'd rather keep doing whatever you're doing.
