Q: Would Sun Tzu have a definite opinion on whom the winner of the White House prize will be this year: Clinton or Trump?
A: You ask a very good question. The answer is clear and unequivocal from just a casual reading of text quoted in the book. If you control the time and place of the battle, you have won before the battle starts.
Q: Why should military strategy control a political contest?
A: If, as Clausewitz wrote: war is the continuation of politics by other means, and then it is equally so that politics is war by other means.
Q: Ok, I will buy that. Why is controlling the agenda of time and place so important?
A: You saw the working of this principal during the Republican primary. If you have the initiative you act and force your opponent to react. This gives you a 500% time advantage. In close quarter combat, it takes five tenths of a second to respond but only one tenth of a second to act. The ratio of this advantage to the initiator and disadvantage to the responder holds true in all time units. The structure of the universe is fractal. In order to keep this 500% advantage Trump has focused on one opponent and one issue at a time. Much of what he has been criticised for has been deliberate on his part and the results as Sun Tzu would have predicted. Trump has made very few errors. What his opponents viewed as missteps was deliberate traps that caged his opponents into a losing respond mode. I will not be surprised if Clinton drops out of the race.
Q: It sounds like you are a Trump fan.
A: No. Not in any political since. I have no skin in the game for the White House.
Q: Are there any other useful observations that Sun true might educate us with?
A: Sun Tzu was not a politician. The tradition is that he retired after the military victory and did not engage in public life. He was disappointed in how his king behaved in victory. Politics, like war, is a zero sum game. In the long run it makes little difference to the price of gold whether Clinton or Trump wins. I suggest you listen to some of Dr. Norman Vincent Peal’s videos. He was Trump’s minister and Trump is his most successful congregant. The power of positive thinking should not be underestimated. Business is not a zero sum game. In a free market, everyone can find a relative advantage and benefit by voluntary cooperation.
by Arthur Fixed
[box type=”info” style=”rounded” border=”full”]Commentary from Arthur Fixed the author of the Art of Speculation during Civil War – Sun Tzu Meets Jesse Livermore is a private manuscript copyrighted 2012 by Art Fixed.[/box]
Sun Tzu icon Photo credit: Abode of Chaos via Visual hunt / CC BY
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