Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 3:12, 13 & 14 "12 - The general is the prop of the nation. 13 - When the prop is solid the nation is strong. 14 - When the prop is flawed, the nation is weak."

Today's focus is on verse 12.

Have you purchased Minford's Sun Tzu yet? allow me to reiterate, I probably can't find all of them, but I own somewhere between 30 and 50 different translations. I assure you, it is NOT easy to decide which is the best, and there's no way to be certain. But for my money...

For my money, Minford is best. Bar none. What's more, the question of verses matters, I was tempted to say counts. Now Minford does not provide numbering, so my count is my own. He does, however, provide a beautiful layout from which I take my count.

Willful student that I am, with rebellious resistance in my soul, I'd have crunched all three of these verses up into one verse. Not so with our master translator, as far as I can count. Details, you know? Mine, however is NOT to ask why, but simply to listen and meditate.

The prop of the nation, Master Sun tells us. How can this be? Easy peasy. No king, no matter how great, can keep the nation safe by himself alone. He must have a great general to keep the nation safe. Try to reject kings as we may, we can never reject the generals.

How many of us know the film Highlander? It has what may well be the greatest score of any film, by Queen, no less. Who wants to live forever? Obviously, I do. And equally obviously - if you know the story - there can only be one. In the end, there can only be one.

THE general is THE prop of the nation. The word "the" can equate ONLY to the number one. In the end there can only be one. A nation has one king, call him president if you must, obviously temporary due to term limits yes, but still only one. President or king, NOT the prop.

The general is the prop of the nation. Who is our general today? I honestly don't know. I am confused by America's structure, militarily. Yes, we might look to the joint chiefs of staff. But they seem, sorry, so merely political to me. Do you know who is America's general, today?

If I were in the government - and I could never be, I'm far too much of an upstart - I'd put forward one general as our nation's general. America needs, I believe, a military man as the prop of our nation. Just one. In the end, there can only be one.

But why? Because the general is the prop of the nation. Who will fight our wars? Who stands tall in facing our enemies? Yes, in America, we have civilian control of the military and oh, oh, so rightly so! But still, we must fight wars. There is no NOT fighting wars.

Let's say the same thing another way. YOU. You are the general. Shock of shocks. I used to think the vote was a shill game. I didn't vote. I have since realized that I am, if not the general, then the captain of my own vote. Go figure. In the voting booth, I am the general.

Every single vote counts. Fool that I was, I failed to see the ultimate power of the vote. Are we a pure democracy? No! We are a republic. Our representatives represent us, Pure democracy is simply mob rule. Yet, in a true republic, as we are, each voter is THE GENERAL.

Please, please, contemplate that. You are the general. Your next door neighbor is too. As the general is strong, so is the nation. As the general is weak, so is the nation. It is those who have never voted before that matter most. How do you get a non-voter to vote?

It's simple. You ask him. Are you a voter? Are you registered? Do you understand that you are America's general? Do you understand that as you are strong, the nation is strong? Do you understand that as you are weak, the nation is weak?

Vote skeptic as I was, I had NO idea how powerful my vote was. I didn't realize that I was a general. I am. You are. Just one single vote matters.

Go figure.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21.

53 verses completed, 389 to go.

And also, be sure to purchase John Minford's translation, here:

amazon.com/Art-War-Pengui…