When I first got interested in politics I was continually confused by what was going on and why? I needed help in understanding, so I turned to the wisdom of people that I knew who were familiar with the scene. In particularly, I sought counsel from two close acquaintances for whom I had high regard because of their intelligence and integrity. The first one suggested that I study game theory, for it was his conclusion that politics are a high stakes game and are played that way. The other recommended that I make a study of warfare and of the successful generals of history, because he believed that politics are the epitome of human conflict. There is much to learn from game theory. One of the great proponents was quoted as saying, “he who would endeavor for more than a minimum maximum or less than a maximum minimum, courts debacle!” In other words, on the long side, don’t try to top the market (take everything) and on the down side don’t try to grind your opponent into the dust. Game theory can be reduced in a large measure to mathematics and is very technical … but worth your consideration. I have since learned that you can learn a lot about politics, that is if you have a mathematical bent, from “control theory.” But from my point of view, if you want to understand how to win in politics, study the “art of war” and its masters, the great successful generals of history.
The art of winning at war consists of formulating a grand strategy to delineate your ultimate goal, a combat strategy to win the battle in front of you and the tactics to be used to bring the combat strategy to a positive conclusion.
Our quest in politics, our grand strategy, should be to totally defeat socialistic tyranny and its minions … the freedom hating opponents of individual free will. Our stated aim should be for “unconditional surrender,” following the strategic goals set forth by the Allies over the Axis during World War II. However, this “Grand Strategy” amounts to “grinding into dust”and thus should be approached with caution and in the end, possibly mitigated … It is now known that World War II could have been won decisively much sooner and with far less loss of life and it is also a fact that, ultimately, the satisfactory surrender of Japan was not “unconditional.”
How do we enforce our grand strategy?
Our combat strategy should be to defeat our totalitarian opponents one battle at a time, in battles of our choosing, at times of our choosing, in places of our choosing and in the manner of our choosing. At the present time our enemy is running rampant, attacking our values on a myriad of fronts. We should attack him on a limited front where he is most vulnerable and where he has the poorest logistics. We should avoid frontal attacks, for they require our full power. We should concentrate our actions peripherally, around the edges, from the flanks and from the rear wherever possible. This is a strategy guaranteed to provide the maximum dislocation of the enemy at the minimum risk and damage to ourselves. And then, once his attack is dislocated and he is in retreat, press him with the full force of our massed assets and hound the leaders until all their sycophants have abandoned them and they stand alone, helpless. When the battle is won, then once again pick a new battle where the enemy is again vulnerable as before.
Our tactics should be to steadfastly carry out the aims of the combat strategy in the most efficient way possible. We should continuously probe the enemy to give him discomfort and to determine his weak points. We should feign frontal attack, withdrawing before we are hurt, but continually make him believe that our plan is to overwhelm him by direct assault. We should shell him constantly to hold him in place, but our main attacks should come from a direction that he believes to be impossible. We should make his allies believe that his cause is unjust, unworthy and hopeless by using whatever means possible. Use Raids, Propaganda and Attrition. And finally, we should be prepared to exploit our victories by enlightened treatment of his casualties. The vanquished should be treated better than they were by their former masters.
How to apply this will have wait for another blog … “Fighting the War!”