This is my first in a series of diaries which studies Sun-Tzu’s “The Art of War” as it might apply to the Occupy Wall Street/99% movement.
In preface, let me explain myself. I am not a part of the Occupy movement, directly. I am 54 years old, I have a Chinese wife and 2 sons, 21 and 5 years old. Until early 2009, I was employed, with a very good salary, had a nice, modest house, a nice car, decent health insurance, a successful side business, and a modest retirement account. I was in negotiations to sell my business for a substantial amount, including an agreement to consult for 2 years at a 25% increase in salary, with the attending stock options and whatnot. The weekend of the crash in early September of 2008 found me sitting across the table from an investor who was ready to cut a large check which would have made me a member of the 1%, at least temporarily. Of course, the crash changed everything. The investor abandoned us in favor of saving his investments from several partners, and the deal fell through. My day job lasted until January 2009, when I was let go as a ‘cost saving measure’. Thus began 2 years of fruitless job-searching, unemployment, food stamps, foreclosure, decline of my side business, depletion of my retirement account, humiliation, depression, and all the other things that millions of other people in this country have suffered.
I used the last of my retirement to move to Vermont, to take a job at 60% of my former salary. My wife is working two jobs, and today, as I write this, she is upstairs, sleeping in for the first day off in three months. Money is tight, but things are good - at least we are getting by, luckier than some 25 million others who haven’t been as lucky. I am rebuilding my business, though capital is hard to come by. I have no idea how to prepare for sending my older son to college next year, rebuild my retirement, or advance my family. I am, in a word, surviving. I am so proud that I have been able to support Ministry of Truth and the Occupy movement with my first very modest contributions in a couple of years.
I say all this not to elicit sympathy, or to illustrate my uniqueness, but simply to portray how utterly typical my situation is. And I’m one of the luckiest men alive because my wife and family are still with me, I was able to find some employment, my son is in a good school, I get to spend a lot of time with him... so many people have lost more than I have, with less resources, and no path to redemption.
Which is why I’m so excited about the Occupy movement. Since it began, I have felt like it was inside me. I think about it when I go to bed, it’s the first thing I think of when I wake up, I follow it fervently - because it represents my only hope. I have been a liberal all my life. I have been politically active, I am an amateur historian and cultural anthropologist, I care about my country and my fellow man, and have despaired for decades about the direction of our country and society. Then, some tents appeared in the shadow of Wall Street, and things changed.
I humbly offer this diary, and the others to follow, because “The Art Of War” is the oldest and one of the most respected treatises on waging war - and this IS a war. I need the Occupy movement to succeed. We all need the movement to succeed. I hope this will help.
This is the first chapter in Sun-Tzu’s book, from the Sonshi.com website. It is an excellent translation, and I encourage everyone to visit it. The book appears on the website in its entirety. Chapter one is re-printed with permission.
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