All Discipline Is Self-Discipline

John Minford, #SunTzu 9: 44 "Consistent and effective orders inspire obedience; inconsistent and ineffective orders provoke disobedience."

How well do you know @realDonaldTrump's story? I want you to picture something. Here it is, the early 70s and drug culture has taken over the night life of Manhattan. And yet, no drugs, no alcohol for young Donald at all. Contemplate the term self-obedience, will you?

At the very heart and soul of a man's ability to obey orders handed down from above is his ability to live by laws he stipulates for himself from within. If you can't obey your own rules, how will you ever obey the orders commanded by others?

Walk the logic through. A commander tells you, hold the line. There are you are. The enemy is encroaching. The commander is no longer there, only you are. Do you hold the line, or not? If you can't reiterate the commander's command from within, you'll tuck tale and run.

In the end, all discipline is self-discipline. To be an obedient warrior is to obey one's higher calling. And consider the strange nature of consistent and effective orders, vs inconsistent and ineffective orders. What in life is more inconsistent than one's will to goodness?

The entirety of Romans 7 is an extended analysis of these matters. It is nowhere more cogent than here: "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."

Be ye Christian or be ye not, what spiritual soul can fail to relate to pour St. Paul's witness above? But what I hate, that I do. Who hasn't yelled when he should whisper? Who hasn't held tight, when he should have let go? How is it that we speak hurt when we feel love?

I don't believe I've mentioned it before, but I do a great deal of thinking about AI, cyborgs, robots and the coming "singularity" moment, as Ray Kurzweil describes it. Everyone knows the computers will soon be smarter than we are. What most don't speak to is wisdom.

I am an optimist. I believe that our children, the robots and cyborgs, will be wiser than we. That is to say, they'll learn to distinguish good rules from bad ones, and learn to live by the discipline of those rules. But they shall not be perfect! They shall disobey.

Self-leadership is, to be sure, the complete basis of goodness in this world. We're unruly selves, as St. Paul explains, and must be disciplined to follow consistent and effective orders. Our failure to do so must be addressed. Yet leadership is projected, as well. So, be ye sinner or be ye saint, if you're going to lead, you must seek the holy grail of consistent, effective orders that Master Sun demands of you. When your orders are inconsistent, or ineffective, you must learn from your failure. This is The Way.

I don't know if I could follow a cyborg leader or not. If I was to do so, I'd have to believe his orders not only more consistent and effective than my own but also wiser, better. That is why I say I'm an optimist on topic. I expect that the cyborgs will be better than we are.

Here's an example. We know that our four basic rights are Life, Liberty, The Pursuit of Happiness, and Property. Yet, how often are we ready to trample upon others' rights as we prosecute this or that mission? My happy prediction is that once the robots learn, they won't do that.

Coming back to today's reality, leadership is an imperative. We must have better leaders. Master Sun gives us that definition easy as pie. Here it is; consistent and effective orders. Voila, that's it. Can you wrap your mind around how simple that is? CORRECTION: Today's verse is #SunTzu 9: 54.

And one of the things that we face, when attempting to execute by today's guidance, is that we must judge between good and bad, strong and weak, excellent and poor followers. Good followers recognize consistent, effective orders for what they are.

Consistent, effective orders inspire obedience. So, when your followers are disobedient, your first theory should be that you're not such a good leader, and your orders are neither consistent nor effective. You'll have some serious analysis to perform at that point.

Yet as you progress, cleaning up your orders and learning what is effective, if your followers are still disobedient, then you've likely chosen the wrong followers. That is why recruiting is, above all other elements, the most fundamental to strong leadership.

Let's close out today focusing on followership. You can't be petty, or picky. Every leader will give inconsistent orders from time to time. You have to be patient. But when your leader crosses a threshold from normal human into bad leader, you must be aware.

And as inconsistent, ineffective orders mount upon each other, the high-integrity follower must first, so gently, confront the leader. Such confrontations mounting, a breaking point arrives when integrity demands withdrawal from the team. These are difficult things.

Ready to face the negative, you must be equally ready to face the positive. Allow me my own terms. I love to obey a good leader. Please hear me. I love obedience. I love to offer it should my leader be worthy, and yes, I love to receive it should I be a worthy leader, myself.

This dynamic from Master Sun is one of the great reasons Communist nations collapse. Their leaders are never worthy, cannot be so. Thus, obedience to a Communist State is always both against society and self. This is part of the snake-eating-its-tail destruction effectuated.

It is inconsistent with your own or anyone else's best interest that you ever involve yourself with the trampling of Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, or Property. Simply don't. Your leaders must not give such orders, and of course, neither must you.

282 verses completed, 174 to go. To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21. You'll find the digital table of contents for this series, there. Please retweet each entry you enjoy.