Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 7: 25 "When eyes do not see, use banners and flags."

This is the second of three "loud signals" verses in our current chapter. Why does Master Sun have to tell us this? There is a very simple answer. Leadership weakness. Leadership stupidity. Leadership failure.

So has it ever been. Leaders assume their followers will do their jobs, well, and on target, and do not have the strength to show up and truly lead. Their minds are often clouded by self-interest, laziness, bad thinking. Stupid leaders fail, and they always have.

How does this come about? One leader - a gifted one - fights his way forward to power, and leads his people to victory. Huzzah! Having power, has a wife, or wives, and children. He loves his children. Gives them every advantage. None of which they had to fight for as he did.

Forrest Gump taught us that stupid is as stupid does. The children of great leaders, not given the chance to fight for themselves, tend to develop selfish, ego-driven passions, not corrected by the real world of struggle. Self-satisfied before the fight, they don't fight so hard.

They don't fight so smart, either. This is why Master Sun has to explain that when eyes do not see, you must give those eyes banners and flags. Let's go practical, right now.

🙂☹️

Those two emojis are far more than just simple icons. We know that when babies first take in the sights of their new world, outside the womb, they're looking for something like those emojis. They want a smile. The do not want a frown. It's the deepest programming of the soul.

As a leader, what are your values? What actions demonstrate those values to you, such that you know a follower shares your values? If you can answer these questions, then you know when to smile. So also with those who break your values in action. Then you know when to frown.

I truly believe that Master Sun completely understood all this. He understood how foolish leaders could be, or he wouldn't have had to explain to use banners and flags when eyes couldn't see. He certainly understood command, and its weaknesses, its stupidities.

I adore our founding fathers, their work in the creation of America. Yet, if they suffered a single blindness, I fear it was to the stupidity of our leaders. That is, for all the separation of powers, etc., in our Constitution, we are still so vulnerable to leadership stupidity.

The leadership formula is extremely simple:

1) Values
2) Actions
3) Responses

That's where the emojis come in, visual signals like flags and banners. Happy over this. Not happy over that. Yet if you look at America's leadership today, its values are essentially anti-American.

If you're in any way confused over how @realDonaldTrump became President, look no further than to stupidity in American leadership, the failure to notice that eyes weren't seeing. The failure to use flags and banners to indicate simple messages of American truth.

Allow me to give you a single, simple example, a mundane one. Punctuality. You walk into a work meeting 5 minutes late. Does anyone do or say anything? If I'm the leader of that meeting, I say, "Hey everyone, welcome Jack to our meeting!" I smile dangerously. Jack understands.

That was me being nice. If it happens a second day, I say, "I'm sorry Jack, but you're arriving too late, I need you to leave now, and check in with me later." That's a frown. Jack understands.

If it happens a third time, I say, "Jack, if you go check with our controller, you can collect your final check. Thank you." I propose this. If you want punctuality - respect for others' time - to be a value, you must employ banners and flags, clear visual signals to convey it.

Well, one more real time example. I'm running a meeting. You show up with your cell phone and are texting. I don't start talking. I wait. You look up. You say something like, "Go ahead and get started, I'm almost done." I smile. I wait. I won't start till you're off your phone.

My silence, my happy smile, these are flags and banners. We're NOT starting this meeting till everyone's cell phones are put away. For me, there is no other way. I repeat, the two values my actions express are punctuality and respect. My responses align.

It wasn't until @KateScopelliti and I commenced our book project that I came to understand the values by which @realDonaldTrump was leading us. His banners and flags communicate so that eyes can see. Our work was to isolate his message into 10 tenets.

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

Every banner and flag @realDonaldTrump employs leads us forward on the basis of those values. All his actions are in alignment with them. The left cannot conceive the power of this, or its goodness. They're so used to lying with banners and flags, they can't imagine true ones.

As a leader, you can do better than the left can. You have truth on your side. Your values root to the founding of America. Make America Great Again is about the return to those values, in action. You can apply that mandate to your world, wherever you may be.

178 verses completed, 244 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.