John Minford, #SunTzu 10: 7 "On distant terrain, when strengths are matched, it is hard to provoke battle, and an engagement will not be advantageous."
So, what is distant terrain? I first thought it was where I am far from my base and my enemy is near to his. How wrong was I? No, and thank goodness for our commentators!, it only means where I am far away from my enemy. We're NOT near each other. Distant.
Yet Master Sun throws in an additional parameter. Strengths are matched. Now that's interesting. If my strength is greater than my enemy's, then I can march there slowly, arrive where he is, rest up, set up camp, and attack at will. That's not the point. Strengths are matched.
When strengths are matched, and we're far apart, distant, if I march to meet him, I'll be exhausted and weakened when I get there, giving him the advantage. My march weakens me. We were equal when far apart. Now that I've marched, he's got the advantage, I don't. Don't do it!
Wow. How often do we give the enemy his advantage? He gets to sit there and do nothing. We go to the effort of a forced march. We arrive, exhausted, and he has the automatic advantage. What idiots we are. What an idiot I am. That's bad leadership.
You're off at work, working hard. You come home, and your boy got in trouble at school. You don't know his teacher. You don't know what he did wrong. But you get angry, raging around as if you knew what happened. You don't. Your wife does. Just stop. You're too distant.
Your client calls and is upset. He says your employee failed. You instantly believe your client. Storming, you rush right in and attack your team. Softly, your team leader explains the case and low and behold, it was the client who messed up, not your team. You're too distant.
Out of reach. Too far to touch. Outside your understanding. Too distant. It happens all the time, every day of the world. People draw conclusions instantly, when comprehension would have taken minutes. Instant comprehension is vastly overrated.
Think of Viet Nam. It's not just the ocean in between. It is the proximity to China. The Vietcong - communists - were China's children. China was just a step North. Here we are, thinking we're dedicated to the South Vietnamese, but we're not. We drop them like they're hot.
We were too distant. I have a memory to share. I saw the war reported on TV when I was 5 or 6 years old. I remember asking my mother, when will the battle be here, at our house? I had no idea of the distance. I remember wondering when I'd hear the sounds of battle.
Are there any Brits who remember the sounds of the Luftwaffe's bombs falling on London? London was NOT far from Germany. "The V-2 was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile." That's from the Wiki article on topic.
Where do you live? Can you imagine the sounds of bombs dropping on your town? No, you can't. America is protected from such sounds by distance. We may not be forever, but we still are now. How fortunate are we? If you live in the Middle East, you're not so lucky.
I prefer swords. They give me 3 - 4 extra feet of reach. My arms? My punch? I basically don't have one. My arms suck. I'm weak. I can't punch. It's embarrassing. So, if my enemy is too far to reach with my sword, I'm out of luck. If he closes in to punching, I'm out of luck.
Master Sun's idea of distance, too distant to reach, comes right in the middle. This is a Goldilocks idea. Too far, too near, just right. Today's verse is about too far. Let me explain with swords again.
A strike has force. That's easy enough to understand, yes? You invest your force into a strike. Okay, and you try to step forward as you do so. Imagine that, like me, you're terrible at such things. You swing too hard. You don't know how to step with balance. You topple.
The number of times I have literally fallen on my face in sparring is too large to comfortably remember. I mean falling right down, mind you. Not glorious. Not even knocked over by the other guy. Oh no. I just swing too hard for my own stance. I'm that bad.
Why do I do that? I think I know. When you're far away from your enemy, you feel safe. You want to hit him, you do. So, you reach forward and try. You're still too far away, but you try. At least, well, that's me. As I said, I suck. Yeah, Master Sun is laughing at me again.
That's Master Sun's point for today. Do NOT rush to meet your distant enemy. You'll be exhausted and give him the advantage. Like me reaching too far with my sword, you'll fall down on your face soon as your enemy reaches out and comfortably touches you.
As I've explained, I used to be a pure Libertarian. My ideals defined my politics. I was, I eventually realized, too far from the pragmatics required for progress. Who taught me? Obviously, @realDonaldTrump. You can't be a pure idealist - as I was - and truly support Trump.
In swordsmanship we have three ranges. Out of reach. In reach. In battle. Out of reach is too distant, as Master Sun expresses today. If you would do honest battle, you must step in, into reach. This is a matter you should study, no matter what you do in life.
290 verses completed, 166 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.
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