ArtfulPrudence

Enriching Man's Honour by Wisdom and Nobility

Artful Prudence

The Games Women Play

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“Seducing a girl is no art, but it needs a stroke of good fortune to find one worth seducing.”

Søren Kierkegaard

Women’s Game

There is a common variance with regards to women’s game and the typical notion that they will only sleep with one man at a time. I want to elaborate on this notion and expand on how women, comparatively, are naturally skilled with dating multiple men simultaneously. Nevertheless, though women are inclined and pressured to pursue sexual relationships, their words seldomly correspond to their actions. Sexual activity is a woman’s foremost means, the unsophisticated recognize this, even though they protest about it. Therefore, to make this possible, women employ a deliberate form of false virtue which is gender-fortified by the totality of women and a good deal of beta men who are generally spineless and weakly, attempting to capitalize on this opportunity to ‘seduce’ her, or those men whose dishonourable programming compels them to disregard it. 

Women’s entitlement is such that she can change her mind anytime. When a woman doesn’t desire sex, it must be the case that she was coerced to be sexual, the alpha asshole could have compelled her or she had second thoughts and subsequently evaluated her choice. Whether it was before or after this reality is not so pertinent. Unsurprisingly so, for the majority of women, juggling multiple men is not a deliberate endeavour but a natural one. In reality, it is acknowledged that women revert to this condition independently. Since women’s conduct will largely be justified and forgiven, they have the freedom to date around without any adverse reaction by society. Moreover, when a woman is not sexually interested in a man, his appeal is still of some merit to her long term potential for security, which is a ceaseless pattern in her hindbrain – the basic way of thinking supporting the notion of ‘hypergamy’. 

If you comprehend this and amalgamate it with women’s medium of communication; concealed messages, a man will naturally presume that women will sleep with one man at a time. Men inherently reason through rationality, women through emotionality. Thus, man’s presumption is one that is reasoned based on practical logic yet since women’s innate medium for communication is hidden unlike men’s undisguised medium, man’s supposition is not calibrated with the actual underpinnings of feminine nature. Men tend to overlook women’s actions and believe their words. If a man were to discern a woman’s schemes for their actuality, he would understand how it is in women’s best interest to make men think that monogamy is a requisite for sexual relations, even when her behaviour denies her every word. Women like to engage in intra-gender warfare; a woman calls out another woman for being a “slag”, a plain betrayal which intimates that women necessitate monogamy for sexual relations but a slag is not deserving of a man’s devotion since she is not playing the game according to what the halfwits were led to believe. These very same women undergo what is called ‘competition anxiety’; they will reproach men for establishing their judgement on women’s surface beauty.  Nonetheless, it is likely a woman who is the least intimidating to her unease. Remember: women are all carnal, you simply need to be in the proper context with the ideal character for it. 

How Women Love

Despite that, oddly enough, it shall be granted that a woman’s love has been close to mysterious in men’s thinking, owing to its frequently unconventional and conflicting character. The woman’s sense of uncertainty when she secretly and light-heartedly attempts to hide her loving weakness with a trivial cough has been wittingly acknowledged in renowned love with that worn proverb; “Love and a cough cannot be hid“. On the whole, women do not completely love a man. They pick a man to be loved rather than to love him since it is delightful for them to receive it. There is a well-liked french saying on the force of a woman’s love; “Love subdues all but the ruffian’s heart” In other words, a woman’s love conquers all men except the rogue’s feelings and affection. The old days are overflown with exemplifications of this aphorism, another notable adaptation; “Love rules his kingdom without a sword.” You see, love is a honeyed despotism seeing that the lover voluntarily tolerates his suffering. By the same token, the French have another adage; “He who has love in his heart has spurs in his sides.” The grounds for this being the apprehension of the equitable gender to demonstrate control over a man’s heart. A woman is keen on putting her lover’s confidence to the test by igniting his envy and covetousness. A traditional adage states; “There is no love without jealousy.” Conversely, there is a widespread precept which states that love banishes envy with its potence. Such are the disconcerting thoughts that left men dumbfounded about the inherent nature of the feminine and its seemingly unclear spirit. 

A woman’s love has often been scolded as being capricious and inconsistent, especially when it comes swiftly. Hasty love is often short-lived and fleeting, many a time a consequence of man’s rash commitment to pursue her. The man should shun away from ensnaring himself through immediate emotion-driven commitment that is unreasonable. Frequently, diving into commitment is a result of clouded judgement, not wise resolve. Thus, if you have the capacity to stop yourself from acting on your emotions and instead give yourself time to be reasonable, you will in all likelihood make a better judgement based more on rationality and less on feeling. Women are not fond of emotional men, they may say otherwise but this does not justify the actual fact. Emotional men lack the strength of character to preserve their integrity and pragmatism, they have a deficiency of masculinity that women detest. If you want to know the truth, watch her actions not her words with regards to this. Her words are too often contradictory to be trusted, yet men tend to lay their conviction in them since our inherent nature is unmistakably frank and theirs is in a sense in opposition with itself; conflicting words and actions. 

The man who is demoralized by her provocative behaviour and fearful of losing her through immoderate temptation will be berated and chastised. A wise man will never lay his trust in a woman’s unfortunately insufficient faithfulness nor be hindered by flirtatious behaviour that is geared towards making him infatuated or envious. Furthermore, a prudent man does not give her the golden opportunity to change her mind – he simply understands her inner workings and adjusts his behaviour accordingly. Although I must add, that a man of integrity and honour need not adjust his temperament to comply with feminine ideals, for his inherent and unrefined nature, assuming he has not diverted from his masculinity, is already desirable and superior. However, understanding the function and nature of the feminine will only add to an already resilient character and make women easier to deal with, make out and influence. 

Anxiety, Envy and Doubt

Women like a man who is disposed to cheat yet do not actually want him to cheat. Of course, you do not make it seem like you are searching for romantic advances, for this is apparent and obvious. Rather, it is your ability to go with it and playfully and indirectly stir up the coquetry that gives the impression that other women find you attractive. What is important, however, is how you conduct yourself after the teasing. You should make her feel that although other women find you desirable, you still pick her over them. Women are continually assessing men’s desirability, for the man’s value is to a substantial degree a reflection of her value. Thus, this constant evaluation is a way for her to gauge her worthiness and feel justified. The surest way to rapidly stimulate an exhausted relationship is through envy and a sense of uncertainty. Both of which stir up her imagination [one of the most advantageous devices] and get her hamster reeling once more. Furthermore, marriage does not mean that aspects of Game are no longer applicable, they are actually just as successful and it is your role to keep the hamster reeling forward for the furtherance of your relationship. 

If you could look beyond your liking for the histrionic and revert back to the indifferent and offhand teasing and playful mocking, you would notice that this is a flattering remark to a woman, for it gratifies her hypergamous uncertainty about whether or not you are still attractive to other women. When you are constantly apprehensive about your safety and protection and you make this your main importance, it is puzzling to discern the utility of intimating a degree of danger and lack of protection to your relationship. This sense of safeguarding your relationship at all cost is the enemy for its prospering, for if you have a certain dependency on its sustenance, you do not have a relationship, you have an unhealthy attachment towards a person of the opposite sex who will begrudge you for your desperation and frailty. In spite of that, if you are obviously searching for chances to flex your coquetry with your woman, this only tells us that your underlying sentiment is one of insecurity, not self-assurance. Men too often undervalue the responsiveness from the woman’s part to subtle distinction and indirect communication. It does not take a great deal to kindle her imagination with some subtlety and mystery and yet men go out of their way in the most apparent manner, trying to make her understand through reason. This behaviour merely rejects the motive, you should be the one who gets the message and stop yourself from being so predictable and pronounced. Do not speak rationality to someone who speaks emotionality. Instead, understand her language and act accordingly; indirect, concealed communication is women’s language, you will never hear the basic truth come out of her mouth but it will manifest in her behaviour for all those who can observe it. 

Further Reading

Machiavellianism: Prestigious Honour

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“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.”

Niccolò Machiavelli

Honouring your Word

It is admirable by everyone to frankly honour your word in the absence of devious scheming. However, immediate experience demonstrates that rulers who reached great heights continually conveyed their promise delicately and deceived men with their proficiency in deceit and who defeated those men who complied with upright morals. According to Niccolò Machiavelli, it is pivotal to realize that men have two methods of battling; by ‘law’ or ‘force’. The former is inherent in men, the latter in monsters. Frequently, the former manifests as insufficient and thus a man requires resort to the latter. A ruler, then, must employ both monster and man to triumph and since it is expected of him to consolidate both, he studies both the fox and lion. On the one hand, the lion is vulnerable to snares and on the other, the fox is vulnerable to wolves. Consequently, the ruler must be a fox to identify tricks and a lion to terrify wolves. A ruler who plainly behaves like a lion is ignorant and endangered by his foolishness. Conversely, a wise ruler will not honour his word if it weakens his position and the grounds for his promise have dissolved. 

“You must understand, therefore, that there are two ways of fighting: by law or by force. The first way is natural to men, and the second to beasts. But as the first way often proves inadequate one must needs have recourse to the second. So a prince must understand how to make a nice use of the beast and the man.” – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

If men were righteous, this principle would prove unreasonable but since men are miserable and faithless, your word is not of value to them and thus need not be kept. As a matter of fact, a ruler never lacks valid pretexts to influence and falsify his conviction. Those men in history who perfectly emulated the fox reaped the most benefits. To be a shrewd liar and exploiter, you must understand how to falsify and tint your deeds. The exploiter, in truth, will never run out of sufferers willing to be deceived since men are simply situational beings whose vulnerability wavers. Consequently, a ruler is not demanded to possess all the alluded attributes but he must seem to possess them. Additionally, if he possessed said traits and constantly conducted himself duly, they will prove damaging but if he merely seems to possess them, they will be of good use. The ruler is pitying, honourable, generous, open and pious; he should seem to be and in fact be. Nonetheless, his adaptable temperament should allow him to be the inverse if it is required of him. 

A ruler, particularly a novel one, is unable to notice the things that entrust men with a good name for uprightness since upholding his province frequently coerces him to behave in opposition with lawful trust, goodwill, benevolence and divinity. For that reason, a ruler must possess a pliable character that differs conditional on chance and situation – the leader should not stray from all that is virtuous within the realms of possibility but should know how to impose vice when obligatory. So, a leader should be heedful to avoid remarks that don’t appear to be incited by the formerly alluded characteristics – compassion, moral trust, integrity, generosity and divinity; most importantly, the endmost quality of devout faith. Generally, people form an opinion through observation since every person is free and unencumbered to scrutinize. But, not many are able to draw close to who you actually are. As Machiavelli remarked, “Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.” Looks and outcomes are what influence the mediocre, for there is short scope for the minority when the majority are securely preserved. 

Winning Honour

An impressive display of mastery and grand operations are what earn the ruler the most status. If one reads the biography of Ferdinand of Aragon, a former king of Spain, you will discover that all his accomplishments were splendid and masterly, some even unprecedented. He began his monarchy by assailing Granada – this operation was his footing for power. In the first place, he undertook the operation alertly and boldly; employing the noblemen of Castile’s vigour, who were attentive to conflict and had no intention in generating misfortune to their homeland. Due to his obliviousness of what was transpiring, Ferdinand of Aragon’s influence and status overpowered them. Furthermore, he preserved and carried his armies through the people and house of prayer’s capital. He laid a firm basis for his reputable army through the resources of an extended battle and secured himself eminence and fame in the unfolding. Besides, to tackle more prominent operations through wielding religion, he changed direction to sanctimonious employment of brutality; hunting down the Moriscos and disposing of their dominion – conceivably the most noticeably distressing and dreadful business. Employing the same religious veil, he assailed Africa; beginning his operation in Italy. In this way, Ferdinand of Aragon finalized and organized brilliant ventures which left citizens in both tension and marvel. 

“Nothing brings a prince more prestige than great campaigns and striking demonstrations of his personal abilities” – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

Impressive feats of capability can be profitable for a leader, in a competition where something outstanding is fulfilled, whether for virtue or vice, recompense or penalty should be imposed on the person to get everyone conversing. Chiefly, a leader should aspire and strive in all his efforts to acquire a great man’s stature for his masterful capacity. In addition, a ruler acquires status for proving a genuine friend or foe – for divulging himself without the slightest arrangement in favouritism of one side in opposition to another. Such an approach is superior to impartiality, for if your adjoining authorities clash and one side triumphs, you’re jeopardized. No matter what, it will continually be useful to assert yourself and pursue the spirited battle. First of all, you will incessantly be in the power of the subjugator if you do not announce yourself, and also to the gratification of the defeated. Moreover, no rationale or method will serve as a barrier to your shelter and preservation. The subjugator is not looking for irresolute traitors who will betray him in times of misfortune and the defeated will renounce you as a consequence of your reluctance to unite with him in battle. On every occasion, your impartiality will be appealed by your opposer and your armed support will be appealed by your friend. As a matter of fact, indecisive leaders generally conform to impartiality as a means to flee menace and commonly meet with failure. 

Despite that, when you brazenly announce your backing for one side and it triumphs, though the conqueror is strong and at your mercy, you have put him under an obligated duty, assigning himself to an amicable connection with you – in this situation, men are not immoral to the point of treating you with thankless despotism. In contrast, a beaten associate will protect you and assist you however possible, and your linkage in the future can improve for the betterment of both of you. 

Unless mandatory, a ruler should shun enlisting into belligerent associations with people who are stronger than he. For the reason that you will come out a convict if you are the conquerors. Thus, rulers should, to the best of their ability, avoid being defenceless and in the power of others. Escaping a threat often leads you to another. Wisdom, then, is your ability to evaluate the essence of a threat and then acceding to the inferior vice. A superior ruler expresses his admiration for aptitude, conferring encouragement to men who are capable and acclaiming those who outshine in their career. Moreover, he supports and comforts his citizens so they can continue to lead their lives harmoniously, whatever their line of work may be. Finally, the ruler should readily recompense those men who aspire to carry out initiatives that will grow the city’s affluence and success.

Further Reading

Machiavellianism: Cruelty and Compassion

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“A prince must be slow to believe allegations and to take action, and must watch that he does not come to be afraid of his own shadow.”

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

In “The Prince”, Niccolò Machiavelli opens his chapter [17] on cruelty and compassion with this statement; “a prince must want to have a reputation for compassion rather than for cruelty: none the less, he must be careful that he does not make bad use of compassion.” In this fragment, Machiavelli emphasises the significance of mindful humility, simultaneously suggesting the exclusion of its misuse which leads to excessive mercy. As I shall elaborate in this piece, immoderation of mercy will prove obstructive. Mindful humility tempered by shrewd wisdom is characteristic of the ideal ruler which Machiavelli intimates.

Under that delineation, a sovereign need not be concerned should he suffer any rebuke as a consequence of his brutality, under the conditions that he retains the union and allegiance in his citizens. Through the sovereign’s prudent employment of exemplification, he will demonstrate to be understandably caring, more so than those whose immoderate pity assents to the chaos that drives an ordeal. A sovereign’s manner of conduct, then, ought to be modified by a dash of humaneness and caution, circumventing the potentiality for conceited conduct that is likely to make him impetuous; or intemperate distrust that is likely to make him intolerable. Thus, a sovereign should be unhurried both to be convinced and to take the initiative, shunning away from growing fearful of his own darkness.

One would argue that it is preferable to be simultaneously feared and loved, nonetheless, since it is arduous to merge them, it is more appropriate to be feared than loved, if joining both is not feasible. Machiavelli made this generalisation about men; ‌“they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit” In spite of that, so long as you know how to deal with them, you have a considerable degree of ownership over them and they will be willing to endanger themselves and their possessions on your behalf. But, only as long as menace is out of sight, once you find yourself in jeopardy, they betray. That is to say, that they are only as faithful as threat allows them to be. The moral is; a friendship that is purchased with money and not acquired through eminence and honour is short-lived and fruitless.

Men shatter when it is advantageous, such is their miserable nature. Yet, their fear to impose harm is fortified by the apprehension of penalty. Fear, too, is consistent with a lack of abhorrence; [an element the ruler can evade by refraining from his citizen’s belongings and their partners.] Here, the goods of others are consequential since a reputation for impoundment of people’s property will make the ruler detestable by the citizens. A ruler who lives to engage in the harsh impoundment of people’s belongs will always invent a credible pretence to satisfy his desire.

Nevertheless, a ruler who is battling with fighters and is in charge of a sizeable army should not be anxious about a character for brutality. For, if the ruler does not have a capacity for cruelty in battle, unification and discipline will not be sustained in the army. By way of illustration, Hannibal is a prominent precedent of a leader whose army embodied a sustained degree of concurrence and euphony and even though it was vast and undertook innumerable different rivalries, there was never variance within; whether hell or high water, there was no dissent, neither with the soldiers nor in opposition to the chief.

It is this very trait that made Hannibal both acclaimed and feared by his soldiers, not that his other noticeable traits served no pertinence, but his cruelty was fully in charge of the unity and control within the army. Had it not been for Hannibal’s savagery, his other traits would not be sufficient. The consequence of a deficiency in cruelty can be demonstrated by Scipio; a characteristic man in his own right throughout former times. However, his immoderate mercy granted his soldiers more authority than was dutiful for a disciplined militia; this was well demonstrated when his army revolted against him in Spain.

Lastly, with regards to the matter of being loved or feared, we could deduce that as men occasionally love as they choose yet dread when the ruler chooses, the shrewd ruler should have no dependence on what is ungovernable and lay his reliance on what is tractable. The ruler, though, must work hard to avoid being detested by the people, at all costs.

Further Reading

Strategy: The Creative Game Plan

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Introduction

Let us put straight one common error; defensive action is not fragility. It can give the seeming impression of weakness, which could prove advantageous to catch your adversary off-guard, but such an impression is merely a ruse that misleads the enemy into rash aggression. Defensive warfare is calculated intelligence, a high-powered mode of execution. It consists in being ingenious and mindfully inexpensive, engaging only in the vital battles. Consequently, careful withdrawal is essential, you must know how to compel the enemy into misguided hostility, draining his force for a catastrophic counter-blow. As a substitute to undisguised antagonism, which is often disapproved of, defensive action allows you to let the enemy initiate battle, leveraging his errors by playing the waiting game. Through feigning weakness, you compel an unwise attack. Through feigning more powerful, you dissuade your enemy from striking. Defensive action, then, is transforming weakness (or seeming weakness) into control and conquest.

Reward and Sacrifice

When war is inescapable, fight on your conditions. Identify their shortcomings and leverage them wisely. Furthermore, battle on your conditions means that it will be more costly for them and more reasonable for you. You must know, then, how to entice them into your territory by appealing to their concerns. An attractive objective clouds judgement, diluting likely trouble and accentuating potential profit. Thus, if you could coerce your enemy into an alluring pitfall, you can exhaust him to the point of miscalculation. The lack of energy that comes with fatigue will generate error and unexpected drawbacks which are beneficial. It is important to discern, moreover, that the more desired the prize, the more recompense in investigating its sacrifice. Both the indefinable and clear costs must be examined beforehand. In this manner, you are essentially exercising foresight to consider all conceivable variables unclouded by the appeal of the prize. Often, the very allure of a reward will muddle your judgement of its complexity and misleads you into overlooking its cost. If you look back through history, you will find that it is pervaded with the remains of people who paid no attention to the expenses of potential winnings.

Assail their Weakness with Power

There is a general truth in warfare; attack their weak points with your strong points. A group is neither fully strong nor weak. All forces have vulnerable flaws, no matter how indestructible their external morale may seem. In the grand scheme of things, weakness will always have a fragment of concealed strength that could be expanded and compounded, even in the feeble forces. Conversely, a recognized strength, such as a large army, could prove a shortcoming in its conclusion. There is always an element of unpredictability that could potentially transfigure advantage and limitation. In the first place, you must know where you’re aiming at before you strike, evaluate where your enemy’s weaknesses lie; governmental issues, lack of confidence, conceit, egotism etc. During your appraisal, concealment of your shortcomings is important in the conservation of your long-term strength. Once you have identified the enemy’s vulnerable points, you must calculatedly and repeatedly attack them. If you want to dispirit your enemy’s force, exploit their vulnerability and devour it. Your aggression will lead to their depletion, which will uncover new vulnerabilities. The wise calibration of strong and weak points is indispensable to knowingly break down your enemy. To sum up, locate their vulnerabilities and leverage your power to capitalize on their weak points.

Creativity and Ingenuity

A warrior is ingenious, he employs his strengths innovatively and shifts his emphasis on what is in his power. He preserves equilibrium through deliberate restraint, regeneration and endurance. Warriors, possessing exceptional foresight, vigilantly orient themselves for the long term, planning ahead of time to ensure they avoid unpredicted exploitation and place themselves in the most favourable situation. Resources and riches are beneficial when put into good service but groups who apparently have a surplus of resources are disposed to grow indolent and foreseeable as a consequence. The abundance of materials and assets compels them to have a dependency on their benefits, setting aside understanding and the grand design. They deal with difficulty by accumulating more resources, neglecting the benefits they already have and never finding a use for it through their lack of ingenuity. Thus, a profusion of assets deprives you of necessity and dulls your creative faculty, the same faculty that stimulates resourcefulness.

Let us presume that your enemy is your equivalent, under such circumstance, resourcefulness is more important than acquiring more stock. Conversely, if your enemy is not your equivalent and you have more resources, operating inexpensively is not a choice but a prerequisite. There will be times where disregarding your virtues and maximising resourcefulness will prove most advantageous. People such as Picasso advocated the notion of acting deprived irrespective of how wealthy you are. You see, the impoverished can teach us that creativity stems from destitution and there is substantial value to be gained from having less.

Ends Justify the Means

A plan is only worthwhile so long as you have a means to justify it. If your plan is to make a million dollars in a decade but your means to obtain it does not align with your end-goal, this is simply wishful thinking. Flip the script and evaluate your resources before initiating a master plan to fulfil it. What resources do you have in your possession? Do they justify your end-goal? Hannibal’s operation continually started out with assessing his forces’ structure and means and that of the enemy’s, all the assorted elements and particular parts of the enemy’s force and environment. The appraisal would lay out the basis for his plan of action and more importantly, the desired ends for this course of action. As a synopsis, Hannibal repeatedly attuned his ends to the means through calculated judgement of both his force and his adversary’s.

Give yourself space to profoundly deliberate on what resources you have at your disposal, grounding yourself in reality rather than wishful thinking. Figure out where your benefits lie and how they can contribute effectively to your ends, understand thoroughly what your capabilities are as well as those of the group. If you’re leading a group of people, you must know their fundamental temperament and morale and consider how to ingeniously put them to good use. Once you have gathered the relevant intelligence, you simply attune your ends accordingly. The formula, then, is the accumulation of useful information related to your resources and the diligent planning and adjustment of the ends to the means.

Strategy: Dividing and Structuring Forces

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Rigidity in War

War is not only about circumventing failure but also about defeating your adversary in a heroic fashion. In strategy, the element of structural organization is very consequential. There is nothing more immobilizing to a group than the appearance of disorganization. The sense of untidiness that comes with disarray is almost dispiriting to the members and the general morale of the group is inadvertently affected by the lack of structuring. The flowing, swift and versatile groups are the visionaries who are actually destined for triumph. If you have a propensity, as a leader, to overly restrain your group and attempt to interrelate every aspect of its development, you will simply bind yourself to what has been buried in history. That is to say, that forging a rigid structure that lacks adequate flexibility to adapt congruously to the conditions will only hold back the group. Rigidity in war is rather fleeting, its unbending nature will eventually collapse once it finds itself unable to bend any further. Furthermore, this characteristic generally lacks the balance and stability to preserve its composure amidst the conflict of war. Thus, the element of adaptability envelops more strength and command in the group.

Divide to Live, Combine to Fight

The principle: If you want to live; divide. If you want to fight; combine. The reality is that most people would, by preference, want to mimic a method than act unaccompanied. For it takes more nerve and self-government to take action without a safety net, discarding your fixation with recipes and mechanical reasoning. If you want to surpass the common people, understand that the quintessence of strategy is not a step-by-step system, it is deliberately being in a position where you have more choices to decide on than your adversary. Strategy is more about positioning and less about tying yourself to one favourable solution. Ideal positioning is having multiple alternatives at your disposal contingent upon how conditions unfold. Positioning connects well with having excellent foresight. If you lack the necessary prudence to think ahead of time in order to swiftly place yourself in the optimal position, you will either be late or you will fail to consider it. Foresight allows you to orient yourself carefully in advance, anticipating potential plots before they happen and being at the right time and place to hold the upper hand. In Sun Tzu’s Art of War, this position is termed ‘shih’.

It is of great importance for the superior leader and the developing warrior to acknowledge that recoursing to an inefficient stratagem is still more reasonable than negligence and passivity. Moreover, if the leaders await directives, an advantageous position will not be utilized under any circumstance. A real warrior knows when to set aside his assigned commands, this is the mark of sovereignty. For, the surest way to ravage self-control is by pampering your warriors and behaving under the assumption that they are indistinguishable. In doing so, you are too inviting and encouraging infighting. Triumph is the byproduct of control, instruction and superior quality. Shallow affability is simply inferior to success, forming vigorous relationships grounded in fortitude. The signification is simple: Rigidity makes you immovable, fluidity grants you diverse recourse and possibility.

Adaptability and Swiftness

To arrange your group for adaptability and swiftness, your structure must be pliable. Thus, you should partition your corps into distinct groups that are able to function and adjudicate independently. The morale of the crusade must be instilled in your group, making them impossible to stop or prevent. Identify and entrust the expedition and let the heroism of the group reveal itself. Napoleon had a strategy whereby he coerces his enemy to diverge his forces inadvertently. In doing so, he shatters their organization and forces them to split off. The difference lies in the structure, if your enemy’s body lacks versatility, segregation will be detrimental. You don’t want to find yourself in a condition where forced segregation is imposed on you by your adversary, you should structure your squad accordingly and avoid involuntary division.

Remember: Tell them what to carry out but not how to act. If you give people leeway, their creativity will confound you. It takes a certain audacity to moderately disengage and permit a degree of unpredictability. Nonetheless, through subdivision, reduced control will grant you movability, the apex accumulator. Your strategic aims, then, must be coherent to impart operations to multiple units within your group, letting them define the means to succeed. Make it entirely obvious to your group that counter-action to command is not insubordination. To sum up, inventiveness is of great importance, it must be inculcated and fostered in your men to make them more resilient towards the turn of events. Strength of character is resilience and independence, heroic properties of battle.

Strategy: On Command and Leadership

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“Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.”

Carl von Clausewitz

Exceptional leaders influence people without making them feel controlled by an external authority, thus they are both shrewd and understated in favourable doses. If you hold an authoritative position, your orders should be stimulating and understandable, attentively focused on the group, not your vanity. Your method and course of command determine your triumph or downfall. Ill-defined direction is indiscernible and until it gets to the battleground, it will be long-overdue. Meagre leadership results in misguided action that’s based on people’s egotism. Vague direction causes people to act in accordance with their bigotry, stirring further disarray. Your mode of governance should be attuned to the deficiencies of the comrades in your group. Do not fail to spot your group’s flaws and count on instinct, it is not practical. Grand leaders are conscientious and aware, understanding the nuts and bolts of differing characters and arranging accordingly. Hence, if you fail to attune, your trail of command will almost surely collapse. Moreover, A leader with a flexible nature is of great benefit. Changeability is open to change in relation to the conditions and a commander with said trait has adept leverage that shapes the versatility of his group into a powerhouse. Remember: Insanity is an anomaly in human beings but a notable law in groups.

Leaders are permitting self-constraint by present-day politics, alluring them into a mode of conduct that clashes with one of the most momentous laws of war; directive union. In other words, the unification and harmony of ordered instruction. A productive means for catastrophe is segregated leadership. It has been the product of the most prominent conquests in former times. A sure way to destroy creativity is to engage in bargaining among an expansive range of individual characters. The group embodies an independent psyche; vigilant, unhurried, uninspired and in certain circumstances, purely groundless. Preservation of this union is absolutely critical, you have to remain in control of the threads, avoiding their abandonment. Simultaneously, you ought to know how to conceal your marks wisely, working behind closed doors and making your alliance feel concerned in your resolutions, to enforce this sense of fusion. Their guidance is profitable, so long as you know how to navigate through it efficiently, employing their productive proposals and courteously diverting from the unproductive ones. When you do this correctly, it will make them feel valuable and thoroughly connected with the advancement of the group.

Leadership is both understatedness and astuteness, the more arduously you try and coerce people, the more resistance you fire up and in turn, the less influence you have over them. The moral, therefore, is that a more substantial authority could result from detachment, although the frame of reference is consequential in this regard. An essential measure in a successful chain of command is a proficient alliance whose moral code aligns with yours. Thus, it is of utmost importance to pick well-suited people for the position. The appropriate character of a subordinate is a capacity to operate harmoniously under your command and with other members in your alliance and be endowed with a competency to take on the necessary duty as well as an adequate degree of mental self-government. The moment may not be on your side but never pick a man based solely on a written biography. Examine a man’s psychology apart from his expertise to form a more accurate judgement of his nature. Furthermore, reasonable reliance on your group is not destructive but avoid being held hostage or imposing excessive control. To be able to gather and endow useful details is a crucial duty for a successful course of order to allow you to attune swifter to conditions. The more concise and efficient your course of order, the more fluent your circulation of intelligence. People in your group would occupy distinct positions within the circle, endowing you with immediate intelligence from the battle lines, this will serve as an effective and regulated carrier for the amassing of data.

When people’s beliefs wholly resemble yours, they are likely attempting to cajole you with the appeal of alikeness. It is wise in said conditions to sustain a sceptical nature around them until you get to make out their temperament. Superficial charm is a ruse and an effective one at that, people employ it on their targets to lessen their sense of opposition but also to win their good favour and alleviate the potential threat. Do not make the assumption that a charming person is necessarily good-intentioned and benign, it is foolish to base your judgement on mere fabrication and appearance. There are people who are supremely competent in disguising their incentives, mainly the Machiavellian types and they make sure their genuine motives are by no means insinuated in their tongue. Undercover spies are doyens at this mode of conduct, ensuring no traces are exposed or left behind.

It is crucial, also, that your desires are understandable prior to giving out directives to your group, you must neither be unduly definite nor constricting, you should know how to entrust an adequate amount of emancipation in the people within your group to strategise independently when the condition necessitates it, rather than advocating mechanized deportment which makes them feel uninspired. Lastly, don’t be threatened by forces with divided leadership, you already have the edge which is sufficient. Forces with segregated leadership make for the opportune adversaries, you will not come to grief.