Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 8: 10 "There are towns not to besiege."

The logic is not hard to follow on this one, tactically, from Master Sun's time. The first walled town you encounter is a good way away from others. Winning it, will give you little advantage against the coming towns. And will surely cost you men, time and supplies, etc.

Little or no gain for certain cost is a bet to not take. On the other hand, walk on by, and the people inside will be relieved and a little grateful. You go take all the rest of the towns, return, they'll surrender without a battle, or, if they fight, they'll be dispirited.

Or, if you lose against armies and towns and must retreat, you'll again go by with little risk and have at least not expended the effort there, before finding defeat elsewhere. So, how many reasons is that to not besiege in that moment? Plenty enough to be compelling.

Have we discussed social media trolls? There's no gain in defeating them. They're instantly traitorous friends if you make the attempt. Their beliefs are fortified behind a very think wall. You'll waste all sorts of time and energy and win nothing by it. Certain cost, no gain.

My method is to establish just a tiny bit of probing communication. If met with any interesting or even a good fake of respectful conversation, I'll probe a little more. But first sign of nastiness, or aggression, or bad language, or just block-headed repetition, boom, I'm gone.

I used to block them, but now I don't anymore, at all. I block no one. I don't even mute them. I just inform them we have no basis for a productive conversation and that I'll say no more to them. They almost always keep going with taunts and challenges. Ha, they say, you lose!

The most dedicated among them will even bring in support, and they'll feed off each other for a few more go rounds. But as long as I remain silent, they always end up spinning out their energy. I can't emphasize how important this is. When we fight them, we give them energy.

This effect dominates our talk shows, one player from the left pitted against one from our side against All it is is a blood sport. Who can shout louder, speak faster, etc. You can see their happy smiles when the music comes up, game over, well played, their smiles say.

The hosts almost always say, "Good debate, thanks. I look forward to your analysis next time." Suddenly good decorum arrives. Perhaps it works for ratings, and I have no quarrel with blood sports. But I guarantee you this does little to nothing in the mission to win elections.

Last swipe, what you see is neither debate, nor analysis. There's a bit more of that in the Primary debates, but you and I both know those are just pure blood sport, and we all know who's king of that world. No one's ever seen knockout punches like @realDonaldTrump throws.

@realDonaldTrump And at least there is some - not very much - but some debating actually taking place. At any rate, they're a lot of fun and they absolutely DO affect the vote. And on that note, let's get back to you. There are towns, Master Sun tells you, not to take.

@realDonaldTrump Just use your imagination with me to set up our context. My own vision is of self-selected, self-activated, self-led leaders setting sight on a local mission, and then, recruiting a single follower. I'll explain it again, and more later, but just run with me here.

@realDonaldTrump When you decide to step up and lead, you have to be able to recruit followers who will actually follow. They have to agree with your mission, your values and they have to like you or at least respect you. Like is good, though. But most important, they have to not resist you.

@realDonaldTrump In real time, missions throw off a continuous stream of decisions to be made. We know that bad decisions are far superior to no decision. We know that a follower following your decisions without resistance to you or your choices will get things done. What does this call for?

@realDonaldTrump Both humility and pride, in balanced proportion. A follower has to be humble enough to not be the leader, the leader's competitor, the leader's teacher or naysayer. Naysaying is VASTLY overrated. A spirit of accord, of unity between leader and follower must arise.

@realDonaldTrump On the other hand, it is an honor to follow a faithful leader, and a great joy as well. There is tremendous honor in the mission and in the unit that prosecutes the mission. I call this a Follower's Proud Ambition. A truly great follower may have more impact than the leader.

@realDonaldTrump Can you see the delicacy of the balance? The greatest follower takes greatest pride from the mission. Also, however, from empowering his leader, helping the good leader to become great, the great leader to become greater, and always serving the mission over all.

@realDonaldTrump What's all that have to do with walking past some towns? Everything. You can't walk away from a fight intelligently unless you know what the fight you're supposed to fight is. There are some of us who fight alone, Long Ranger types. But even he had faithful Tanto.

@realDonaldTrump To walk away from one fight and toward another is a decision of leadership. It takes vision and strategy. And it will call for teamwork where leader leads, and followers follow. And here's today's final city to walk past. Ego. Whenever ego is larger than mission, get out, fast.

@realDonaldTrump Here again we find a delicate balance. I supporter Trump for his combination of skill and ego, as well as his values and vision. Yet, I determined that this mission was big enough to be bigger than his ego. On the other hand, I judged his ego equal to the challenge. I smiled.

@realDonaldTrump It is the greatest error of today's politically correct values system that we embrace ego deceit. Oh, I have no ego, I just get a trophy for showing up. Oh, I support you completely while my hidden ego can do nothing but attack you. Lies, lies, and worst of all, self-lies.

@realDonaldTrump I say let's come clean again. Without ego, nothing gets done. Lying about that, nothing gets done. If I am on a team and I judge the leader's ego larger than called for by the mission, I resign instantly. When I lead a team, when I find ego-based resistance, I fire my follower.

@realDonaldTrump Again, we find yet another delicate balance. I can be the biggest idiot you ever met. Sometimes I need people - either my leader or my followers - to resist my stupidity. Once I get my head back on straight, I'm always grateful. Not so while my head is turned round wrong.

@realDonaldTrump I have resigned for the wrong reasons. I have cut followers loose for the wrong reasons. Obviously, I didn't think so square in the middle of my idiocy. So, it goes. We learn from our failures. I hope it's by now obvious that resistance itself is a delicate balance.

@realDonaldTrump And resistance is by all means NOT solely ego driven, or wisdom driven. Insecurities, discomforts, bad timing, loud lives rising up in disarray, health and strength depletion or deterioration, shame in admitting that the mission can no longer be top priority and so many others.

@realDonaldTrump So, here's a little resistance typology for you, simplified:

1) Good Resistance
2) Bad Resistance
3) Right Resistance
4) Wrong Resistance

And here's the Ego version:

Ego < Mission
Ego = Mission
Ego > Mission

@realDonaldTrump There he is, laughing at me again. Master Sun casually informs me, Ego = Mission is almost impossible, maybe even actually impossible. Neither less than nor greater than are good, but that's what we're always stuck with in everyone in every battle. Damn. Perfection is not here.

@realDonaldTrump Smiling warmly, he comforts me. It's a range, you silly boy, he says. If the ego is too far less than the mission requires, that's a leader who's orders you should not obey, or a follower you must isolate from heavy burdens. If the ego is too great for the mission, the same.

@realDonaldTrump We may only come as close as we may to proper equilibrium. Within that range, the main thing then is to move forward as much closer every time as learning will empower. In the end, the winning outfit learns how to make the mission first and put everything else aside.

@realDonaldTrump As leaders and followers, the fortified towns to walk away from are bad and wrong resistance, egos too far above or below the needs of the mission. And seriously, you find those, you do want to walk right on by. Maybe jog a little. Don't run, but don't fight.

@realDonaldTrump 208 verses completed, 214 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.

@realDonaldTrump @WarForAmerica21 CORRECTION: This verse is NOT 8: 10, it is, rather, #SunTzu 8: 9.