The Art Of War

The Art of War, by Sun-Tzu is believed to have been written before 500 BC. This was before Alexander, before Plato, before Caesar. It is still being studied and was still referenced as late as World War II and later.

In the chapter, Planning Offensives, I read some interesting things.

The general is the supporting pillar of state. If his talents are all-encompassing, the state will invariably be strong, if not the state will grow weak.

There are three ways an army is put into difficulty by a ruler:

If the ruler does not know that the Three Armies should not advance but instructs them to advance or does not know that the Three Armies should not withdraw and orders a retreat.

If the ruler does not understand the Three Armies' military affairs but directs them in the same way as his civil administration. Then the officers will become confused.

If the ruler does not understand the Three Armies' tactical balance of power but undertakes responisbility for command. Then the officers will be doubtful.

One whose general is capable and not interfered with by the ruler will be victorious.

Thus it is said that one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements.

During the last days of the Civil War, with the war all but lost, Sherman was marching to the sea. Confederate General Joseph Johnston kept retreating, much like Sam Houston did with Texan forces opposed to Santa Anna in 1836. This caused panic and doubt, but these undermanned armies had no choice. Both generals were utilizing their sparse, overwhelmed forces, waiting for their moment. Houston's came at San Jacinto where he oversaw what many believe is the most lopsided battle in military history. Johnston was relieved of command by President Jefferson Davis, who considered Johnston a lackey and coward, like most of Texas did Sam Houston until San Jacinto.

Just before Sherman reached Atlanta Johnston was relieved of his command, just as Sherman made a grave error that Johnston had to watch and not be able to take advantage of. Command was given to one of Johnston's bravest and fiercest generals, Gen. Hood, commanding the Texans. General Hood attacked attacked attacked. When Johnston wanted a fierce attack there was none better than Hood. Hood had lost an arm and also a leg and had to be strapped to his horse, but fought and fought fanatically.

But without Johnston's prudence, Hood had the Confederate Army he commanded annihilated. Much like the North Vietnamese were all but annihilated in the Tet offensive. The Tet offensive was a political victory for the north, since it disheartened the war weary and confused in America, but militarily it was a total disaster after their first successes. So much so that Giap was almost relieved of command. The North Vietnamese had to change their strategy, one of attrition. Outlast us, outwait us, wear us down.

Johnston's and the South's one hope was for that. Hood's Army, the Southern Army of the Confederacy, was all but wiped out after Hood was in charge and Sherman had almost a free ride the rest of the way.

LBJ was a politician. He remembered how Gen. MacArthur in the Korean War almost dragged Russia into the war, and did get China involved. That's why Truman had him removed, not even so much as MacArthur's arrogance, but as his renegade style. But whoever was General, Truman let them do the generaling. He was Commander-in-Chief, the CEO, the one who gave the overall objectives, but let his Generals do their jobs. His was to hire and fire or discipline, but only when needed.

LBJ tried to get involved in every step of the war. He trusted no one. And he did it from half a world away.

Both Iraqi wars it has been left to the generals with outstanding results militarily speaking. It is important not to have a military state, our Commander-in-chief is an elected civilian. But even Eisenhower and George Washington let the generals run the army, the details, the implementation. They delegated responsibility. You must do that to win in sports too and in the corporate world. If LBJ had just read this age old book from China. (Maybe he should have gone to Old Army Texas A&M, ha! His library is well put at t.u.).

Harmony

I'm reading a book on American Indian spirituality right now and it talked about how most groups saw life in terms of harmony. I've read such about Oriental societies too, at least in history. I do believe there is a definite place for black and white type right and wrong and I know that Indian societies did a lot wrong, even appalling, as did ancient Oriental societies, so I'm not for getting rid of ours for theirs.

But there is something too about looking at life in terms of harmony. It fine tunes right and wrong, or potentially does. Does it work or not, does it fit or doesn't it?

Even fundamentalist Christian forms of right and wrong find ways to fine tune things, adjust outlooks, but looking through the eyes of harmony seems more flexible about it. So while not trading mine for theirs, I do get a certain perspective seeing life to include harmony instead of just memorizing or reinforcing preconceived, though time tested, structures of right and wrong.

Again, it comes down to management and perspective. How do you handle anything? Mostly it's seek and ye shall find, if you do seek, really seek.

Napoleon

I just read, by the modern day author in commentary of Sun Tzu's The Art Of War, perhaps the oldest military text that is still used today, that in the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's Army was composed of 72,000 while Wellington's was 68,000.

Napoleon was perhaps one of the five top military genius' of all time. I had pictured him outgunned and outmanned at Waterloo, suddenly I find that he even had superior forces. You still have to win and genius' still make mistakes or have occasional insurrmountable bad luck. Against the Prussians he had called for a cavalry charge that did not take place due to the neglect of one of Napoleon's officers, and was critical to the outcome. Some think he would have won that battle if not for that. Maybe that was the bad luck.

But I remember reading also about him. His escapades into Russia nearly undid him on the spot. Even though he escaped with his life and a shattered army, it left France in such disarray that led to his first defeat before escaping and reforming. Plus, he had become emperor and in many ways left the military behind, or at least a lower priority than when he was simply General. Ruling an empire was a distraction militarily. And in so doing the rest of Europe caught up with him. He had been so brilliant and innovative that it caught Europe off guard. But as he ruled and devoted so much to the political arena, he had to neglect much militarily, even though he was still accessing his army and conquering.

As the other European powers studied his methods through the years and mastered them, he became rusty militarily speaking and less innovative. But still his command and charisma alone offered so much, and he was still a genius. He almost got them anyway, just figuring it out as he went along.

I've even heard some, to this day, consider Napolean the anti-Christ, as if he were Hitler. The fact is, Europe was very sendentary until he came along and steeped in antiquated social and governmental styles. The French Revolution threatened this and the genius of Napoleon carried it even further and brought it to their backyards. For the most part, he left places better off than they had been and that was the real threat to the European establishment.

I visited Napoleon's tomb everytime I went to Paris. Another Italian that worked his wonders for a foreign power. I saw a picture of him that almost hypnotized me, I absolutely got swept up in it, as I had with Rasputin's at one time. I don't know if it was their charisma or what, but it was only a picture, and this shocked me. I wondered somehow if I knew them in a previous life or something it was so strong.

P.S.

Just can't get O Brother, Where Art Thou out of my head. Carried it inside everywhere yesterday, no matter where I was. I worked with the headphones playing old Gospel tunes, I told my youngest how we are going to watch this movie about rural Mississippi in the depression Friday night. I ordered the DVD on Amazon.com and also the soundtrack. Then I played samples they give over and over and over. Also, looked up a Gospel one by Alison Kraus. Almost ordered it too, probably will soon.

I read a review of the album and saw that it won the Grammy for best soundtrack for 2002 and it floored everyone. It was getting no radio play, no advertisement, no rumors even. Only word of mouth.

Speaking of the concept of illusion. I went to my mentor's house Sunday night. She brought up the Sermon on the Mount. She is a published scholar, so what she said was directed partly her way and the world she came from. So, it brought the point home more.

Her story went like this. How Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount and how it moved the thousands that heard. But two Pharisaic scholars toward the back of the crowd looked at one another and snickered, 'but this guy's never been published.'

When the shadows of this world are gone
I'll fly away
Like a bird whose prison walls has flown
I'll fly away.

It's like listening to Plato.

O Brother

I visited the guy this past weekend that I grew up with. While we were eating supper and relating people we had run across over the years, we got on to a movie he saw that reminded of some characters in our past. He lent me the video and I've now seen it three times in five days and will view it with my boys tomorrow night.

I don't do such like I used to, but still listen to one song for over an hour straight, or see a movie back to back to back. This was one of them, and even then I backwarded it in a few spots to revisit them two or three times.

I loved the setting for one thing. Depression era rural Mississippi. My mother spent a lot of her early childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi. They farmed there. Until her mother divorced and moved them to West Texas to be with kin. But a lot of those days were just typical rural South, much like what I grew up in, even if not as extreme as time and place of the movie.

But it was more than that. It was the music. I'm buying the DVD of this movie, but also Emmy Lou Harris put out an album based on the soundtrack for this. I looked it up on Amazon.com. I love her anyway and she's even older than me and from rural Alabama, so it's easy to assume the movie, especially the music, affected her as it did me.

Like rereading a book, you notice little details you missed the first time. This is a comedy starring George Clooney, John Turturo, Tim Blake Nelson (by far the best actor here, even as great, almost perfect as the others were), John Goodman, Holly Hunter, among others, but still I wondered, where did they get the idea for this. Somehow it was trying to relate something, and it used more than setting, it had touches of surrealism in it. It used a bit of poetic license too in that W. Lee 'Pappy' O'Daniel was the governor when actually he was a Texas governor from that general time period, and he was theming 'You Are My Sunshine', which was the Louisiana governor of ten years later who wrote it, theme song. But that's what the facts are there for, to borrow, in the literary world. Even had a blues singer sell his soul to the devil, like the legend is Robert Johnson did. I have Johnson's entire collection on CD. I knew he was from Mississippi, but now indirectly in a movie somehow. I'm sure it was also inspired by the legend of Elvis Presley of Tupelo in the way they had the Soggy Mountain Boys cut a record and then be out of contact with it's success, which snuck up on them and caught them totally by surprise. Elvis could not be contacted for awhile how impressed they were with his amateur cut of a recording. Then when he recorded for real, the success was so rampant and breathtaking that Elvis nor anybody else could grasp what was taking place. His girlfriend went on a two week trip to Florida and by the time she got back Elvis was sweeping Memphis blind and she had no idea. That was in the movie too in its own sweet way.

The second time I saw it I noticed a credit, based on 'The Oddessey' by Homer. I read the Oddessey and Iliad in Junior High growing up, even Omar Khayyan stuff, of which I have volumes of him now. Anyway, I wondered if that was more surrealistic slapstick, even though I noticed even the first time a scene about some 'Mississippi' Sirens, they even used that word.

So, there probably was some kind of message in there too, but it may have been just for fun, for art, for adventure. I love that to death. Just take an idea, a subject, name it, and write a story, but do it well. Just love that to death. Maybe someone could do something, for instance, about Aztecs or Mayans even, you never know.

But back to the music. It was of the times, hillbillyish. Lots of Gospel. I just melted through the ever loving floor. Even tears. Some I've heard before, some never ever and it just grabbed you and took you over. Beautiful beautiful stuff. There was a baptism scene and even though comedy was going on around it, the baptismal itself, with music, made me want to cry.

Some of the music, actually, reminded me of some of my barnstorming days in Switzerland, where I had a Country Band, traditional, old time, much like in the movie. We sang hillbilly, bluegrass, Gospel, and Western Swing, in front of the Swiss god and everybody. Scenes in the movie hit a bit close even. There are so many musicians where any kind of song is instinctive, the musician can play it from scratch, barely knowing it, or sometimes not at all. I pulled some stunts just like they did, trying to get noticed, exposed. I wish I had thought of what the guy that sang 'In The Jailhouse Now' did, by saying, 'it's in the neighborhood of B'. I always knew my keys for any song I sang, just in case you got that split second chance somewhere, anywhere, including with other people's bands. If they never heard of the song, which was often, you would hum just a bit of it, give them the key, and take off. And they could by God keep up. I could even signal to them for an instrumental of a song they never played before, and on cue, they could play it. When they do this stuff in the movie, believe it. God is in music and those who release it. It was so glorious. Best days of my entire forever life. That is my heaven. God, up there, that's my heaven. I'll do what you want. Just let it be that way for me.

There are so many angles to God and that got me focused on the subject. Our mortal minds try putting God in a bottle, almost turning him into a god sometimes. The real One out there, something comes along in some unique way that gets your attention, that moves you beyond description, that gets past the memorized verses, and dogmatisms. I don't know if this movie was supposed to do any of that, but it worked with me. Plus it was just so funny and entertaining also. Sort of like life. There's God, then there's the everyday, seen through everyday eyes, until God pierces through somewhere somehow. It's almost surreal.

A most beautiful part is where in the background Alison Kraus sings 'I'll Fly Away'. They also ended the movie with this in part too. A verse especially sticks out.

When the shadows of this life have gone
I'll fly away
Like a bird
From these prison walls I'll fly
I'll fly away.

That is so Christian. But in my dealings also with Eastern Religions and Gnostic philosophies, they touch on this aspect even more. So many aspects of our religion intertwine like that verse with others. Some think it is influence of one on another. But I think it is the truth singing through all.