Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 9: 21 "Birds rising up in flight are a sign of ambush."

Oh yeah, I need my beloved commentators to help me with this one!

Here's Zhang Yu: "If birds that are flying in a straight line suddenly soar upward into the sky, it means that soldiers are setting an ambush below."

Have I mentioned how much I adore geometry, and most of all Euclid? We begin with a single point. We move it just a tad. Now we have two points. And if we track the motion, we have a line. And if it's even with itself, it's a straight line. How much do I love Euclid?

What's a straight line, in the real world? No one cares that light posts are pretty straight. Rather, we care about behavior that's straight up. A guy who is straight with you, gives you his word and you can count on it. He said he'll do it, he will. He's straight.

So, here are innocent birds in the sky flying along a straight line, obliviously. Suddenly, they scoot upward, soaring, breaking their previous line. Why? Why would they do that? Do you remember the trees falling from yesterday, moving, hitting each other? Same reason.

In yesterday's lesson, the trees were falling, moving, due to the enemy army chopping them down to make its path toward you. Today, the birds are soaring up, due to the enemy creating an ambush. Hey, wait, that was the day before! Yesterday was grass screens. Sorry.

Behaviorally, tactically, a straight line is the easily predicted behavior that anyone demonstrates. An ambush requires that such patterns be assumed and uses them to set up a different outcome. Let's stay very tactical with that for a moment.

There you are, happily encamped high on the hill. Down below is a swamp lands, and behind it a forest. The enemy is in the forest, encamped dangerously, and knows it. But he thinks he can allure you to come down and fight him where he is. And, he thinks to set up ambushes.

Just on the edge of the forest, where the swamp lands begin, he digs a hole, and covers it with small branches and grass, thinking he can trap you. While he's working at digging the hole, the birds soar up as they fly over. Let's look at another technical example.

Your enemy is especially smart and dangerous. He creates a dry path for you through the swamp lands, but sets up bowmen in tree forts high above, waiting for you to accept the bait. As he builds the path and sets up the tree platforms for his shooters, the birds soar out of line.

They key is to note the change in behavior. Here's a real-world scenario. Your boss has been riding you for weeks and weeks. Suddenly he's nice, surprisingly so. Then, he calls you in for a meeting and asks you to sign a non-compete. Can you see you're about to get fired?

Or, a colleague who's always been a jerk to you is suddenly strangely considerate and kind. He now wants to do a project with you. It's a hugely difficult one, but if you get everything right it'll be a HUGE victory. Again, do you see it? A change in the line of behavior.

Travel back to the 1992 election. First, we have: "Read my lips, no new taxes." Second, we get new taxes. The straight line would have been to live up to his word. I assure you; Bill Clinton saw the birds soaring over that one.

Here's a painful example. Your child, innocent and sweet until now, begins a totally new, 100% negative attitude, resisting everything you say. You try to talk to your child respectfully, and you discover that your child has learned at school that you're the bad guy. Set up.

Now let's get to the real point. You try to set up a group of honest followers. You let them know the mission, and the hoped-for contribution. Head nods, yeses and yeses. Then, behavior show immediate breach of word. Life is busy, you are told. Birds soaring. Do you see them?

Master Sun does not need to spell it out. If you're team leader, you damn well better be able to take the shot. You can't? Then you're no leader. A leader can do what he asks others to do. He can stand and deliver. When he finds resistance in his team, he deals with it.

Come at this again. How many idiot leaders have you seen on film and TV shows, who couldn't adapt to their own families? Families do not want to know you killed a bad guy today. What they want is all good things, as they rightly should.

248 verses completed, 190 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.