Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 7: 5 "The fray can bring gain; it can bring danger."

Today's verse is the first of section II on the topic of Gain. We've completed the Difficulty section and now turn to how you can be fooled by illusory gains. Yes, gains can be had, ah!, but yes, they can be enemy's Trojan Horse to trick you.

We might rephrase Master Sun's counsel like so: when tempted, beware. There is no such thing as gain without cost. Whatever appears too good to be true usually IS too good to be true. All such temptations offer easy gain, first, painful cost, later. Later usually lasts longer.

It approaches a law of life. Whenever gain is proffered, cost MUST be considered. Easy advantages usually come at cost of difficult disadvantages. If, when accepting an advantage, you haven't considered its consequent disadvantage, you're probably messing up.

Why is it that the mind grabs hold of proffered gains and advantages, while it denies consequential disadvantages and potential losses? Yes, obviously, desire trumps caution. It's deeper.

Vice trumps virtue. Where virtue is difficult, vice is easy.

Throughout history, we've always known that leadership was the living embodiment of virtue over vice. Yet, to be a leader is to enjoy power, and enjoying power is to be tempted by vice. Not just vices hidden, either. Vices displayed. He's a bull, they say.

It was part of my own transition from liberal to conservative. I had a wonderful barber. He made me look good. We were discussing Bill Clinton and Monica. He said to me, "Our president is a bull." As if that were a good thing. He need not, virtuously, be faithful to his vows.

HRC need not be faithful to her vows, either. Consider her unsecure server in her home. Did Obama communicate with her there? Then he too violated his vows. Hid did so much worse, but that alone is worthy of impeachment. She enjoys pay for play. He supports it. Gain.

We certainly may hope that AG Barr will NOT allow this gain to be without consequent disadvantage. But the truth is that what happens at law is NOT what Master Sun is showing us. Rather, he is discussing what happens at reality. If America allows HRC her crime, we will suffer.

It was not law that prevented HRC from her ascension, it was politics. Now, if we allow our law to set her loose, crime unpunished, then it is on us, the creators of the law by way of our power of the vote. Yes, it's complicated. No, we have NO RIGHT to fail to understand.

We are the fools, we Americans. We allowed the globalist elite to sell us a bill of goods, as if we'd gain the advantage. The truth was that we wiped out our middle class, our towns, our factories on the siren call of globalism. America First is the virtuous answer.

We must face the painful truth. We have been suckers. We allowed our border to become a welcome mat. We allowed our government to obliterate our constitutional protections. Let's look at that, all the way back to 1913.

We were told that the rich could cover the poor; and that if we simply soaked the rich, we'd all be okay. So, we created the IRS. Soak the rich. Take the gain. Never mind the consequent disadvantage. We're suckers. We must admit this. There is no IRS in the constitution.

Gain. Proffered. Gain to the poor. Soak the rich. No need for principles. No need for the protection of property. A death tax. The state gets all gain. And down the road of socialism we roll. Gains indicate disadvantages. Master Sun smiles painfully upon us.

Allow me.

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

These four are our rights. From 1913 till now, we have abandoned them.

We've been sold on, addicted to gain. What we require is responsibility. How do we deserve these rights? How do we earn them? How do we protect them? The answer is that we pay the price of freedom by walking away from gains offered at cost of corruption.

Libertarian me says this: fie upon social security, fie upon medicare, fie upon all security nets. They're all gain at cost of virtue. No one need anyone agree, least of all our realistic President. I just say let's consider NOT counting on the government to coffer our risk.

With no qualifier at all, I propose this. Let us stop seeking gain by politics, by taxes. Let us seek the virtue of living our lives by our own production. We can do it. Gain, at the expense of others, is NOT the American Way.

159 verses completed, 263 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.