Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 9: 2 "Cross mountains, stay close to valleys; camp high, and face the open; fight downhill, not up."

So, let's get this right. In crossing mountains:

1) Stay close to valleys
2) Camp high
3) Face the open
4) Fight downhill, not up

I have two illustrations to give for what we're working on here. I call in 3-dimensional thinking. A car driver, you just hit the gas pedal going uphill, the breaks going down, and everything else is steering and slowing down or speeding up. It all feels 2-dimensional.

Now, try the same on your bicycle. What an entirely different story. Do you know how shift your gears down, going uphill? do you know how to shift your gears up going downhill? Do you know how to push to conquer on level ground, or slow down to a near coast? Gear shifting. Wow!

The formal term for the kind of thinking we're discussing is topography. It really only means the lay of the land, but it includes the up and downs and the flats. I'll come back to that, but let me turn to my second illustration now, soaring, more commonly known as gliding.

On a bicycle, you have your pedaling to still attempt to smooth out your endeavor, or, at worst, up too steep a hill, you can always climb off and walk. I'm done that many a time! When soaring, that's hardly an option. Consider the dimensions of soaring.

To gain new altitude you have only one option, find an updraft. Highways are good. They're hot. They absorb and reflect the heat of the sun, creating updrafts. {Digression: why don't global warming people ever talk about highways? End digression.} Updrafts can raise you up.

Other than updrafts, you can spend speed by raising your incline - that's how you slow down - but you can't replace the altitude lost that way. Want to speed up? Easy, point a bit downward, but you best monitor your gliding distance, or you can be in a lot of trouble.

Got it? Point down and speed up. Point up and slow down. Catch some updraft to re-attain altitude and go again. Other than that, you're coming down, faster or slower, but you're coming down. 3-dimensional driving, with no engine or even pedaling to smooth anything out. Awesome!

This is mountain warfare. Close to the valleys, you can move readily, bringing men, materiel and wagon train of supplies along the most rapid path. Camp high, so the enemy can't sneak down on you in the night. Face the open, so as to not be trapped or surprised.

And most important of all, fight downhill, not up. We'll work on all four again tomorrow, when our translator gives a summary verse of what we just laid out. I wonder about him sometimes! Let's apply the last point, the most important one, to our #MAGA work right now.

To do so, let's look again at yesterday's map and see if we can't see which are downhill:

1) Democrats who vote
2) Democrats who may vote
3) Swing voters who vote
4) Swing voters who may vote
5) Republicans who vote
6) Republicans who may vote

Group 1 is uphill, don't even think about them. Group 2 is mostly uphill - EXCEPT - those who WANT to vote with us, and just need a small bit of loving kindness and tender, patient help. THAT'S downhill. That's a must find and must fight battle!

Let's break group 3 into 3 subgroups:

A) Will Vote Democrat
B) Will Vote Republican
C) May ACTUALLY swing either way.

Some in B and ALL of C are downhill battles which must be found and fought! How fun, right?

The greatest of the uphill battles, only for insane fools like me, is group 5, asking them to step up and be leaders. Let's not talk about that. Just know, as I do, how utterly uphill the fight is! On the other hand, do NOT let me whine. I LOVE being crazy.

Likely, the most important downhill battle of all is group 6. If those of us who may vote, do so, we likely win everything with that one single downhill fight. That's most likely the most important fight for us to fight. It complies with all of Master Sun's guidance.

And that's enough for a hot Saturday day afternoon of contemplating Master Sun's wisdom. But as always, more again tomorrow!

230 verses completed, 208 to go.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21. You'll find the digital table of contents for this series, there. Please retweet each entry you enjoy.