In this second installment of the series, we will examine Chapter Two of Sun-Tzu’s “The Art of War” as it might apply to the Occupy Wall Street / 99% movement. The first installment, covering Chapter 1, is here. The translation is from Sonshi.com, and reprinted with permission. The entire book, along with an excellent resource library, forums, and commentary, is available there.
Chapter Two: Doing Battle
Sun Tzu said:
Generally, the requirements of warfare are this way:
One thousand quick four-horse chariots,
one thousand leather rideable chariots,
one hundred thousand belted armor,
transporting provisions one thousand li,
the distribution of internal and on the field spending,
the efforts of having guests, materials such as glue and lacquer,
tributes in chariots and armor,
will amount to expenses of a thousand gold pieces a day.
Only then can one hundred thousand troops be raised.
When doing battle, seek a quick victory.
A protracted battle will blunt weapons and dampen ardor.
If troops lay siege to a walled city, their strength will be exhausted.
If the army is exposed to a prolonged campaign, the nation's resources will not suffice.
When weapons are blunted, and ardor dampened, strength exhausted, and resources depleted, the neighboring rulers will take advantage of these complications.
Then even the wisest of counsels would not be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.
Therefore, I have heard of military campaigns that were clumsy but swift, but I have never seen military campaigns that were skilled but protracted.
No nation has ever benefited from protracted warfare.
Therefore, if one is not fully cognizant of the dangers inherent in doing battle, one cannot fully know the benefits of doing battle.
Those skilled in doing battle do not raise troops twice, or transport provisions three times.
Take equipment from home but take provisions from the enemy.
Then the army will be sufficient in both equipment and provisions.
A nation can be impoverished by the army when it has to supply the army at great distances.
When provisions are transported at great distances, the citizens will be impoverished.
Those in proximity to the army will sell goods at high prices.
When goods are expensive, the citizens' wealth will be exhausted.
When their wealth is exhausted, the peasantry will be afflicted with increased taxes.
When all strength has been exhausted and resources depleted, all houses in the central plains utterly impoverished, seven-tenths of the citizens' wealth dissipated,
the government's expenses from damaged chariots, worn-out horses, armor, helmets, arrows and crossbows, halberds and shields, draft oxen, and heavy supply wagons,
will be six-tenths of its reserves.
Therefore, a wise general will strive to feed off the enemy.
One bushel of the enemy's provisions is worth twenty of our own, one picul of fodder is worth twenty of our own.
Killing the enemy is a matter of arousing anger in men;
taking the enemy's wealth is a matter of reward.
Therefore, in chariot battles, reward the first to capture at least ten chariots.
Replace the enemy's flags and standards with our own.
Mix the captured chariots with our own, treat the captured soldiers well.
This is called defeating the enemy and increasing our strength.
Therefore, the important thing in doing battle is victory, not protracted warfare.
Therefore, a general who understands warfare is the guardian of people's lives, and the ruler of the nation's security.
So, what should OWS do? Easy. Get a bunch of chariots, gold, provisions, 100,000 men, and storm the gates! I can’t wait to see Ministry of Truth in his Civil War kepi driving a four horse chariot down Wall Street into the lobby of Goldman-Sachs.
Okay, maybe not. I think what Sun-Tzu is saying here is to anticipate and prepare for your needs. War is expensive, demanding, and saps your strength and will. The army that is better prepared for a long campaign will win. And get your ducks in a row, knowing what you will need, before you actually start raising personnel.
In terms of OWS strategy, it is not too late for this. The initial occupations were obviously under-equipped, but the “citizens” responded with donations, which have provided for your army. The warning is, that they may get tired of this.
When doing battle, seek a quick victory.
A protracted battle will blunt weapons and dampen ardor.
OWS is in it for the long haul. It is not equipped for “quick victories”. Yet, it has achieved a quick victory - in two months, it changed the conversation from debt, austerity, spending cuts, and other draconian measures to the needs of the people. Non-specific, but still, definitely a huge victory. They also had a huge impact in prompting a review of the Keystone pipeline. More specific. Now, how to capitalize on that?
Sun-Tzu speaks of conventional battle, but many scholars think that the text applies to business or life as well as warfare. OWS is not fighting a conventional battle - how could it? It is non-violent, and we know that the minions of the entrenched powers it is fighting against are violent. OWS has used this well, so far - the viral videos of teargas, pepper spray, and baton wielding, rubber bullet shooting police in full riot gear have garnered attention in the media, and sympathy in the populace. That is why Fox News is attacking that meme, and a whole lot of the mainstream media finds it easier to say “the protests turned violent today” rather than explaining that the police waded into a crowd of unarmed kids and started hitting them with clubs.
This battle will be fought in the media, and it will NOT be fair. It will be won or lost there. It would be good to have a plan.
If troops lay siege to a walled city, their strength will be exhausted.
Walled city, huh? Sounds like he was talking about Wall Street, in a Nostradamus-y kind of quatrain way. But really, he’s right. You will not win that battle on the ground. Should Zuccotti Park be abandoned? I don’t think so, but it should be a symbolic occupation. A small presence which can skirmish, react, bring attention to specific outrages, and serve as a focal point for the occasional flash mob could be valuable - at least until the spring.
When all strength has been exhausted and resources depleted, all houses in the central plains utterly impoverished, seven-tenths of the citizens' wealth dissipated,
the government's expenses from damaged chariots, worn-out horses, armor, helmets, arrows and crossbows, halberds and shields, draft oxen, and heavy supply wagons,
will be six-tenths of its reserves.
What Sun-Tzu is saying here is that it’s easier to defend an entrenched position than to lay siege, and the numerical and economic advantages lie with the defender.
Killing the enemy is a matter of arousing anger in men;
Therefore, in chariot battles, reward the first to capture at least ten chariots.
Interesting. Kill the banksters? Probably not. But Sun-Tzu does point out that a battle is broken into smaller battles, and the victors on your side should be rewarded or recognized.
taking the enemy's wealth is a matter of reward.
This is a clue to ultimate victory. What do they have? Money. All of it. And they will spend it to defeat you. The more money you can remove from their war chest, the better your chances of success. The Move Your Money campaign is essential in this endeavor. It has already seen a great deal of success, and could see a lot more. Every dollar removed from a big bank costs Wall Street $20, and maybe a lot more - and that’s money that can’t be used against you. You have the argument in place, and morality, sentiment, and common sense are on your side. It costs Wall Street, sure, but it also helps small businesses, local infrastructure, community organizations, and regional economies. You already have many allies in this battle - even President Obama and Vice President Biden have weighed in on your side. A lot of the media is on your side. It’s an easy battle to fight and win, and it scares the living bejeebus out of them.
Replace the enemy's flags and standards with our own.
Mix the captured chariots with our own, treat the captured soldiers well.
This is called defeating the enemy and increasing our strength.
Therefore, the important thing in doing battle is victory, not protracted warfare.
Attention should be paid to this one - any person you could turn to our side is not just a victory of +1 for you, -1 for them - it’s instant publicity. Look at what the presence of the police captain, the 84 year old pepper spray victim, the teachers, off duty cops, and “respectable” middle aged protesters have done for the movement. Those are people that the other side has counted on for years to be “good citizens”. They are “wealth creators”. The right would like to make this a 60’s style battle, with the dirty hippies on one side, and the rest of Amurika on the other. But, just for grins, what if you were able to ally with even a small tea party group on one issue - say, a constitutional amendment regarding Citizens United. If you tried 100 local tea party groups, you might fail 99 times - but if you succeed once, it’s like you won them all. It offers you the chance to use the attendant publicity (which would be huge), educate our informationally challenged brethren, and maybe “defeat the enemy and increase our strength.”
Before the howls of “co-option” ring out, let me point out that Sun-Tzu is about winning - not ideology. He advocates using spies, subterfuge, deception - whatever resource could give an advantage must be used. I know that OWS largely considers itself an ideological movement, doesn’t want to be co-opted, and the general consensus is that the Democrats are as bad as Republicans, most everyone in politics or business are corrupt, and that they will destroy the movement. That may be true. It must be guarded against. But if this movement is about getting something done - and judging from Michael Moore’s diary, it is- then winning is the important thing.
I see OWS not as an army, but as a nuclear fusion generator. It sucks individual atoms into a virtual black hole to create immense amounts of energy. Of course, energy can be either destructive or constructive, potential or kinetic, directed or scattered - but most importantly, energy can be turned into power. Let me get technical for a minute. In electronics, power=current * voltage. This is Joule’s Law. There are many variations, but in this formula voltage is potential energy, current is how many electrons actually flow and do work. It is also a function of resistance - the lower the resistance, the more current will flow and the more work will get done.
OWS is a huge, inchoate ball of kinetic energy. The good things that it’s done so far have not come so much from the work that has been done, but from its very existence. Oh, there’s been work done - good work, hard work, pure and selfless work - but a huge amount of energy can be counteracted by a huge amount of resistance. In electronics, electrons must necessarily follow the path of least resistance. In life, I think you will have to choose to direct your energy there - and that is what Sun-Tzu would advocate.
That doesn’t mean that OWS has to actually fight the battle. The wise commander would allow local interests to fight while offering covert or overt support. There are many entities who are ready and equipped to fight the battles of the 99% - because they ARE the 99%. Even the tea baggers - they just don’t know it, yet. There are Unions - 14.7 million members, and many more that would like to be or were before. There are political groups for every cause. There is the Democratic Party, 70 million strong, with a published platform from 2008 which reads like Michael Moore’s diary. Would it be easier to get Democrats to be Democrats, or build a new party?
Coalitions on specific issues may be distasteful to some. But it's the quickest way to accomplish legislative goals - if separation can be maintained and corruption or co-option can be avoided.
One thing OWS could do - if they wanted to- is to be both a carrot and a stick to the Democratic Party. They could pressure them to keep their promises, shame them into it, while at the same time reward them with the votes they seek. It could use the energy that is OWS to give courage to cowering politicians who are afraid to turn their back on the gravy train that is big donors.
I know that a lot of people have given up on Democrats, on Obama, on conventional politics in general. But under the current circumstances, it would be impossible to mount a political campaign before the November elections. It might be a good time to point out to these people that they have until 2014 to prove that they are going to do what they said they would. If they won’t, starting in 2014, we will primary them, defeat them, and do it ourselves.
Therefore, a general who understands warfare is the guardian of people's lives, and the ruler of the nation's security.
While you are attempting to change the culture of the country, you hold the nation in your hands. What you do can damage and divide it, or improve and heal it.
What I’ve outlined above are the things that I’ve thought of. I certainly hope that you all can think of more. How can we accomplish the most with the least amount of expenditure? How can we turn disadvantage to advantage, exploit the weaknesses in the enemy defenses? How can we confuse them, misdirect them, cause them to waste their resources in futile attempts to stop us?
I hope everyone here on Dkos has a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving. I will be thankful for the Occupy movement, for my family and friends, and mostly for being privileged to hang out with the smart people here.