Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 6: 6 "Be sure of victory by attacking the undefended."

To defend, we have learned, is to make oneself invulnerable. We have learned that this is in one's own power to determine. Vulnerability, on the other hand, is in the enemy's hands and we must wait before we attack, we must wait upon his vulnerability.

Where is the human soul most vulnerable? It is most vulnerable to a negative visualization. Bad news has near automatic credibility. Good news must be tested, proven. Pessimism is the natural vulnerability we suffer. Its opposite is, surprisingly, NOT optimism, good as that is.

Rather, steely resolve, absolute determination, realism in the face of opposition, yet realism that is imbued with the will to win, this is the opposite of pessimism. An optimism that is poisoned by hope, riddled with doubt, is no answer to pessimism. Iron will is the answer.

These may seem like merely general philosophical statements. I assure you they aren't. The illusion of "mere philosophy" falls away the instant you place any personal stakes on the line. Will you win the girl's heart? Will you make your car payments? Will you win the key account?

Will you defeat your enemy in combat, or die well and honorably in the fight? The moment you go concrete, hands on, tactical, the merely philosophical nature of iron will disappears. What makes iron will, iron? It is the capability to determine cause and effect.

In a bar fight, you may not be consciously thinking about the difference between a hay maker and a clean, knockout punch. Your body is doing the thinking, not your mind. But the difference is still there. Cause and effect. Iron will, in your body, wins the fight.

Stick tight. A hay maker announces itself along its long, slow path. It allows your enemy all the time in the world to evade and counter punch. A clean, knockout punch announces nothing, gives no time for reaction or defense. Wanna see it again? So sad, you're out cold and can't.

A clean, knockout punch attacks the undefended. While you're winding up, reaching way back behind you for maximum cocking of your arm, you left your chin wide open. If your enemy is Bruce Lee, all he needs is one inch of space. Knock you out cold. Your chin is undefended.

In Bruce Lee's writings, you'll discover that his iron will was always expressed in the relentless pursuit of principle. He worked his body to perfect discipline. He tapped into every ounce of his potential. But the battle turns on principles, and he sought them relentlessly.

Without mastery of the principles, the cause and effect relationships that determine the difference between victory and defeat, your emotions are always vulnerable to your natural state of pessimism. Any enemy can reach in, frighten you, and make you see defeat, will collapsing.

What has the Progressive Left left undefended? Yes, the answer is found in the domain of principles. We must, however, narrow our view. There is very special kind of principle where they are must vulnerable, most undefended. They do not know this. They think they own it. Ha!

In the social compact, there is a single type of principle that is more important than any other. That subset, subcategory of principles if you will, is rights. What has the Progressive Left done with rights? They have attempted to co-opt the term and make it their own.

I don't know if they know they're wrong, or if they're willfully lying. I truly do not know. I do know that they have distorted, contorted and destroyed the very idea of a right so that they have, in fact, made it into a wrong. And, I do know what their logical fallacy is.

The Progressive Left has removed the attendant, and absolutely necessary element of responsibility, of obligation from the idea of a right. Once a right no longer bears a responsibility, it devolves from the sacred status of principle into the lowly category of mere advantage.

If any of this sounds complicated, I apologize. It isn't. Imagine, as the Progressive Left would have you do, that you have a right to healthcare. Then this means that healthcare givers have the obligation to give it to you. In turn, this makes them slaves, quite literally.

Healthcare is neither right nor privilege. In the first case, it is an obligation of self to self. Eat less sugar. Easy as pie, ha! Exercise more. Move around a bit. Stand up once per hour, or so. Protect your sleep. These are the great methods of healthcare. They cost nothing.

In the second case, healthcare is a free exchange between professional and consumer. The professional must be paid for his work. The consumer is in no way constrained to purchase it. Each has rights. Let's leave the topic of insurance for another day.

There are only three rights in our Declaration, but due to the hellacious problem of slavery, we missed a fourth. Together, these four are all that are needed. Oh, oh! Another fallacy of the Left is that rights must be expanded. No, no, no, and did I say no? We only require four.

By the way, and in spite of the lingering problem of slavery in 1789, our Constitution provides for the fourth right in direct terms. Here are the four:

1) Life
2) Liberty
3) The Pursuit of Happiness
4) Property

These four, and no more, no others at all.

Whoa, wait a minute. But what about our Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments? The right to free speech, to bear arms, to protection against unlawful search and seizure, etc.? In each case, these are particular examples of the four rights at greatest risk.

In the messy process of principled combat between the opposers and supporters of the Constitution, the supporters wanted general principles to own the day. The opposers felt that general principles were not sufficient. The Bill of Rights was the resulting, messy solution.

We can map our history as a nation by this very conflict, down to this very day. Messy solutions often get in the way of fundamental answers, those that can withstand the ultimate test of time. Devolve rights down to mere advantages, and you end up as Venezuela or the USSR.

What has the Progressive Left left most undefended? The true principle of rights. I tried, but I realize I have failed. I tried to leave my great hero Frederic Bastiat out of our conversation. I can't. Check this out!

mises.org/sites/default/…

If you're like me, once your start reading Bastiat you won't be able to put him down. It's only 50 pages. And in spite of his own absolute pragmatism, his message ends up being idealistic. There is actually no conflict, but our modern minds don't do well with that.

The professional economists of the Progressive Left have destroyed Bastiat's academic reputation. And, in wiping out the principled basis of our education, they've inoculated our minds against such clear thinking. That is their asset, our mental limitations.

But it is their most vulnerable spot as well. They have, in removing obligation from rights, and converted them into mere advantages of one group against another, left themselves wide open for an attack of clear thinking. It is this attack that they've completely misunderstood.

Be assured, their vulnerability in this area, the power and clarity, the simplicity of rights once understood, Bastiat's extraordinary guidance and wisdom, these will not be absent in coming discussions, to be sure! Before we finish, today, we must look at @POTUS use of all this.

Consider:

1. Remember The Forgotten Americans
2. Rule Of Law
3. American Jobs
4. Quality Of Life For Every American
5. Heal Our Cities
6. Build The Wall
7. Make America Wealthy Again
8. Make America Strong Again
9. Make America Safe Again
10. Make America Great Again

Those 10 principles are instantly recognizable to any #MAGA supporter. What the Progressive Left has completely missed is that they are 100% in accord with the deep, philosophical foundation of our nation. They embody the four basic rights. If you listen, you can hear it.

There is a deep drumming sound, thrumming beneath the surface of our people's consciousness. @POTUS is reawakening us to our past, in pursuit of our future. It is here that the Progressive Left is 100% undefended, and their position 100% indefensible. Therein, lies victory.

116 verses completed, 306 to go.