Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 6: 8 "The Skillful Warrior attacks so that the enemy cannot defend; he defends so that the enemy cannot attack."

For the decades I've been reading this verse, I've always been amazed at the inner voice of skeptical cynicism I hear as a subtext to Master Sun's guidance. It's not a particularly intelligent voice. "Yeah right." "Sure." "Easier said than done." Etcetera.

Everyone defends when attacked, I'd think with a slight bit more intellectual heft. All enemies attack. How do you prevent an enemy from attacking? This is idealistic malarkey, my inner voice of negativity resists. Who actually believes this stuff?

Personally, the optimist in me is the more intelligent among us. My inner pessimist doesn't really have the chops to win arguments. Still, for some reason, at this verse, my faith and credibility in Master Sun's advice hits some sort of inner loss of belief, a loss of confidence.

How about you? Can you picture yourself attacking with such genius and overwhelming force that the enemy cannot defend? Go tactical, practical. Where do you engage in actual conflict? Do you have arguments with your spouse or lover? Do your children resist your discipline?

Be it work, home or the public circle, wherever you suffer from conflict, and fighting takes place, can you imagine tactical execution so well planned, so perfectly prosecuted, that your enemy cannot defend, and simply doesn't?

Where my mind resists such a vision, my body does not, and here's why. I have been trained that the following sequence occurs in swordsmanship and have to some degree learned how to do it.

1) Observe the enemy until you find an opening in reach.
2) Step in and attack.

3) Your enemy either allows your strike to hit or reacts in what is called "the after."
4) You have gained what is called "the before."
5) As your enemy responds, attempting to block, he creates a new, wider opening.
6) The new, wider opening is easier to attack.

7) Each new attack, in forcing its response, leads your enemy to wider and wider openings until...
8) An opening is so wide it is impossible to respond to.
9) My own term for this moment is "the death stroke."

I do assure you; this can be done.

It is NOT my favorite mode of combat. Why not? I love to win from "the after." I love allowing my enemy to attack an opening I have purposefully offered him. I love deflecting his attack so that, in his confidence, he creates an opening while thinking he has control.

Without realizing it, his attacks flail farther and farther from the mark til his opening is so wide that I'm able to win with a single strike. Mind, I'm NOT saying I'm actually good at this. I am saying that I have done it. He thinks he's attacking. He isn't, actually. Pure joy.

As I've pondered my own disbelief, my skeptical doubt, I've come to the following realization. The Progressive Left, in its educational mandate, has a single ultimate objective. A flag over the castle of our souls it must obtain. "You think you can, but you can't." You can't win.

The Progressive Left teaches us that the only victories that exist are granted to us by a loving parent, the state. Society determines winners. Winners do not determine themselves. Against the state you will lose. If you wish to win, you will accept the state's loving embrace.

It is the ultimate message of the Progressive Left that:

You, alone, all by yourself, can't. Together, we, the collective, we can. You can't. We can. Together.

And I confess, my own mind is poisoned by temptation to believe them. I don't, but I am tempted. I hate that.

Let's switch target. The world is hard, filled with obstacles. You try this, you try that, and thwarted, you find life is hard. Ah! but there are openings in the world. Opportunities. The world's resistance to your desires is anything but perfect. Its opposition is not perfect.

What do you want to win? Either you strike from the before, and never stop striking until you win. Or, you wait for an attack, resistance, and never allow it the control it thinks it has. In the end, in either case, you take what you want. To the victor go the spoils.

The #MAGA movement needs people who can do precisely that. We need 100,000 such people. We need 100,000 #SunTzuQualifiedLeaders. Leaders of what? Small, High-Performance MAGA Teams. 9 members maximum. A single leader who recruits the others.

What is the mission? Obviously, winning the #WarForAmerica2020 must occur. We must retake the House and Reelect @POTUS. We need more #MAGASenators as well. Divide America into 100,000 parts, and we need teams and team leaders in each.

But, oh leader, what is your passion? What part of lost American greatness shows up in your territory, on your turf, locally? What enrages you? What inspires you? A leader determines his or her own mission. Forget elections. What of the real world of your home, your neighborhood?

The Progressive Left has implanted a virus in our minds, hearts and souls telling us we can't win. It is this virus from which we must be cured. That is Master Sun's point in this verse. You can win. You can attack so that your enemy can't defend.

You can defend so very well that your enemy cannot attack. Master Sun never peddles soft, easy, palliatives to the mind. He challenges us to the core of our souls. Here is the standard, he states. Live up to it or lose. He offers no grace, only challenge. Can you, he asks?

But with that so irritating transcendental smile of his, he states, but of course you can. The real question is only...

Will you?

118 verses completed, 304 to go.