Psychopaths closing ranks?
- Thread starter Azur
- Start date
Hey, it's not even close. :) Remember, a contract is a contract is a contract.. :D for psychopath there are no such rules of conduct. (I just like Quark...so, biased)sleepyvinny said:sounds like the Ferrengi rules of acquisition (to any non-trekkies, it's a star-trek thing. again)
Azur
The Living Force
Snipping here...Laura said:
Reading this triggered a thought of something I've come across before. "Walk-ins". Could it be the case here? Assuming that he was a psychopath, and by (correct or incorrect) implication, a member of the pre-adamic race, two questons come to mind: is the concept of "walk-ins" viable? I've come across it in more than one source, (Topper, Ibn Al-Arabi, Samson Orion, if I recall correctly). And if it is, it is strictly understood to be a phenonmenon only experienced by OPs (by definition) or Souled beings as well?Laura said:
All information, insights, sources welcome.
There is an interview with Robert Greene talking anout his books, 48 rules of Power and 33 Strategies
psycho Nash's "Game Theory' in war and power
http:(doubleslash)www(dot)sonshi(dot)com/greene.html
Interview with Robert Greene
By Sonshi.com
Power. Seduction. War. Three separate topics that invoke strong emotion in many people. However, to author extraordinaire Robert Greene, they are: 1) interrelated where the principles are fluid and really do apply to various facets of everyday life and 2) struggles that can be handled and mastered with intelligence, not emotion.
It is Mr. Greene's emphasis on rationale, flexibility, and honesty in his writing that sets him apart from countless humdrum, politically correct business/self-help writers. His books do not sugarcoat the harsh realities of life; they teach thinking adults how to live life to the fullest. For that, we thank Mr. Greene for making the great classics even greater -- by making their principles graspable and thus applicable in the real world where there exist reversals, twists, and turns.
Robert Greene, 45, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He has a degree in Classics and can read and speak six languages. Mr. Green lived in Europe for over five years, namely Paris, London, Barcelona, and Rome. He has worked as an editor at various magazines, a translator of French to English, and as a writer in Hollywood.
And of course he has written three significant, best-selling books: The 48 Laws of Power (Viking/Penguin 1998), The Art of Seduction (Viking/Penguin 2001), and The 33 Strategies of War (Viking/Penguin 2006). The 48 Laws of Power has sold close to 800,000 copies in the United States and over 1.5 million worldwide. It has been translated into 19 languages, so far. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
For more information, please visit www.powerseductionandwar.com or www.seducersworld.com.
Below is our interview with Mr. Greene.
Sonshi.com: In your most recent book, "The 33 Strategies of War," you referred to Sun Tzu’s Art of War numerous times and stated that Sun Tzu is "perhaps the greatest strategist of them all." What is it about Sun Tzu and his Art of War that you admire?
Greene: If I could simplify the whole game of power and strategy in one equation, it would all hinge on the capacity to see events around you exactly as they are. The closer your mind is to reality, the better your strategies, your responses in life. But we humans have a strange psychological block. Our minds are constantly stopping on one thing, one idea, one experience or emotion. When that happens, we are looking at events through the tunnel of our own biases or negative experiences. We lose contact with reality. Anything living is in a constant state of flux. Nothing stays the same. And so our thoughts must constantly adapt to what is happening around us and never get stuck on this idea, or that way of doing things.
This obsessed me in The 48 Laws. At the end of each chapter I included a Reversal, which basically said that you must look at the Law I have just written from the opposite perspective. I also included laws that seem to contradict each other, because events in life are often at cross currents. I also included a chapter at the end about formlessness, saying essentially that you must ignore everything here I have written, and learn to think for yourself, based on your circumstances.
Which brings me to Sun-tzu. All of the writers I admire most have this capacity to stretch their minds to the shape of what is going on around them. Among those who write of strategy (although I would maintain all writing is about strategy in some way), Sun-tzu stands above all the others. Some of this is cultural. The ideas I expressed in the above first paragraph have deep ties to ancient Chinese philosophy, ideas that are embedded in the language itself. The ancient Chinese way of thinking is completely relational. Nothing is static. Things only have meaning in relation to one another. An event here will never mean the same if it happens there. This is opposed to the Western way of thinking (I am overgeneralizing), which tends to create dualisms and absolutes.
Sun-tzu sees everything in fluid terms. Nothing is absolute, except one simple premise around which everything else revolves: the art of war is winning with minimum bloodshed, and minimum violence. This has a Confucian, ethical element to it, but it is also pure strategy and very Chinese. Winning with violence creates a countercurrent that causes you more problems in the long run. War is inherently more dangerous than life itself (the violence of life), because it is more unpredictable, creates more chaos in its wake. The brake on this is your ability to minimize the chaos, the variables by lowering resistance in your path. Violence and overt aggression only increases resistance.
Sun–tzu is a true strategist, as opposed to the usual type we find who simply regurgitates some preconceived maxims, or the kind of mindless military jargon we see nowadays. He makes you focus on the circumstances, and how you can approach them from angles. What is indirect creates less resistance. Indirection is subtle, like the flowing of the unorthodox out of the orthodox and vice versa. It is what is least expected.
I love Sun-tzu’s brutal language (I am sure it is not given anything close to justice in modern English), and this universe he has created in the remarkably dense 13 chapters. It is like a Zodiac, or the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. He has created the universal patterns for all conflict. Your mind must raise itself up to this higher stratosphere of strategic thought. From there, you will respond with intelligent action, with sound tactics. It is almost too banal to even express, but those running businesses or wars are rarely strategists, but rather tacticians who know how to disguise themselves. That abstract realm of thought that must preface all intelligent action is missing. If only everyone really read Sun–tzu, really pondered what he said, as opposed to digesting him because it seems cool or warlike.
He is the god of strategists, and all of the rest of us are mere demigods or mortals. (Musashi is one of the highest of the demigods, in my cosmology.) I reread The Art of War every few months, so that I keep his ideas constantly in my mind.
Sonshi.com: Of course Sun Tzu wasn’t the only person you referenced in "33 Strategies." Similar to your previous books, you used an impressive variety of sources to support your rules of warfare. They include Napoleon, Rommel, Musashi, Otto von Bismarck, Clausewitz, Mao Tse-Tung, Scipio Africanus, T.E. Lawrence, Genghis Khan, and Julius Caesar just to name a few. You sprinkle your books with countless quotations from a wide array of literary works. How were you exposed to so many significant works and what method do you use to synthesize their most important concepts into digestible nuggets of wisdom?
Greene: Well, I do a lot of research for each of my books. For WAR, I read over 400 original source materials. I do that because I want my ideas to be grounded in something solid, something timeless. And also, because research excites me. It is a kind of game. Through the library or the Internet, I jump from one book to the other, as one idea pushes me into different directions. I like to begin the research process with a completely open mind. I let the material suggest possibilities and timeless concepts. It is a weird kind of power: to scour 4000 years of military history and find the patterns. I pride myself on making it as open-ended as possible—from ancient Egypt to Desert Storm, from the German General Staff, to Shaka Zulu’s horns, chest and loins.
From this wide net I cast on world history, I make detailed notes, on 4 by 6 cards. (Curiously, I later discovered Napoleon himself was fond of writing on cards and organizing them.) These cards are color-coded and filed based on the subject, the pattern, the strategy it fits. Sometimes a card goes into several categories, and so I am constantly moving them around. Nothing stays in one place. From these cards, I see discern patterns of action, concepts, and pieces of wisdom. I distill the subjects down and down. I started with about 65 strategies, but ended with 33. Nothing good comes out of you unless you love what you are doing, and I love the research process.
Sonshi.com: You are best known for your first book, "The 48 Laws of Power." How is your third book different and what more does it offer? In other words, what motivated you to write "33 Strategies"?
Greene: The 33 Strategies is similar to Power, but also different. The 48 Laws is really about strategy, but to create it I looked at all facets of human endeavor—politics, courtiership, war, entertainment, business, etc. Machiavelli was really the main figure behind the book, although there are others, and Machiavelli’s ideas can be applied to society in general. For the 33 Strategies, I wanted to try something completely novel, something I believe has not been done. I wanted to base all of my ideas on warfare, on the classic military books on strategy. From that foundation, I wanted to establish the key strategies that are used throughout history. And from there, I wanted to see how those ideas have been used in non-military areas, and how they could be further used in that way.
What is radical here is that I am treating warfare not as a specialized realm, which I think is a real mistake, a mistake even Sun-tzu argued against, in his own way. Rather, war is an eminently human endeavor, and success in that realm turns upon elemental human psychology. The ideas expressed in thousands of years in the history of war have tremendous application to all kinds of conflicts and to any competitive realm. For instance, a concept such as the flanking maneuver has its roots in the concept that you should always attack from unexpected angles, at the unprotected sides. This wisdom can be applied to how you think about problems, how you deal with a troublesome colleague at work, how you maneuver against a business rival. I spell out these connections in that particular chapter. I dig under each military strategy to uncover what is at the heart of it.
There are other books out there that try to make connections between war and business. They are generally superficial. I tried to be as thorough and profound as possible. And I am not simply making the connection to business, but also to the social realm, to culture, to personal relationships, on and on. And so, I am finding the connections between a Rommel and a political strategist, or a film director.
I am very much against the compartmentalization of warfare nowadays. It is a highly specialized form of knowledge, full of ridiculous jargon. Both sides—military and civilian—like to cloister themselves off from the other. I think the founding fathers of America had a much different vision, as did Sun–tzu. It is dangerous when the military organizes itself into this bunkered enclave, where they simply talk amongst themselves. There is incredible knowledge in the history of warfare and its strategies, and a kind of wisdom that should be disseminated. I think many of the problems now plaguing the American military stems from its nature as a self–enclosed organization. How can we otherwise explain its weird propensity to disassociate war from politics in the current Iraq campaign?
Sonshi.com: As you mentioned, despite the warfare concepts discussed, any non-military reader can quite easily relate them to the conflicts and competition experienced in his or her daily life. Would it be accurate to say your book’s concepts in power, seduction, and war relate to your own personal experiences and lessons in life as well?
Greene: Very much so. And I think that is why the books are popular. I give you the basic patterns of action in power, seduction, or war, and I let readers make personal connections to events in their lives. A lot of this came from my experience in the work world, and in particular in Hollywood. I tended to see some of my bosses as Cesare Borgias or little Genghis Khans trying to make their way through or around their rivals. I put a lot of my own experiences in the books, but disguised behind stories of famous figures. The stories I tell in the books (each concept is illustrated with stories from history) are designed to teach you lessons. What point is there in living if you are not learning from experience, yours or others?
Sonshi.com: Flavius Vegetius Renatus said, "Let him who desires peace prepare for war." Do you think most people are too focused on trying to obtain peace without first learning to how deal with war?
Greene: Yes. That is a major concept in The 33 Strategies. There is too much conflict avoidance in our culture. Some of this comes from a lot of political correctness that has filtered its way through society. Some of it comes from the importance of always appearing to be on the side of peace, cooperation, fairness to one and all. But life involves constant competition and conflict and how you deal with this will determine your fate in life. Being steeped in the art of war does not make you aggressive, at least not under the banner of Sun–tzu. Rather it makes you smarter, more prudent, better able to handle life’s inevitable struggles with intelligence. I want my book to ground the reader in certain basic principles, so when conflict comes, he or she can take the proper stance, like a swordsman.
Besides, I hate the way war is seen as something inherently brutal and ugly. Yes, much of war nowadays brings out the worst part of our nature. But in war, all kinds of noble human traits have been developed, such as discipline, cohesion, pride. All of life involves a kind of warfare, and a lot of Hindu texts spiritualize warfare into a struggle from within, to gain control over your own beastly nature. People with bumperstickers that say "War is not the answer" are such idiots. Tell that to those countries that found themselves invaded by the Nazis. As Heraclitus wrote, "War is the father of everything. Some it makes slaves, others masters."
Sonshi.com: A criticism of your books is the ideas you propose are "without scruples." Amoral is perhaps a better description. What is your response to these critics?
Greene: Well, I use the word amoral to describe them, as opposed to immoral. I try to look at the various subjects (power, seduction and war) with as dispassionate an eye as possible. This is human nature, I say, and this is how it operates in conflict, or when it is threatened, etc. Sometimes we humans do things that are bad, in order to get power—we hurt others. Sometimes we get power in ways that are not at all harmful. Here is the full panoply of stratagems, manipulations, maneuvers. You can look at them and decide for yourself—"this is too evil for me, but I am glad I know about it." A lot of the book is deliberately defensive, in the sense that it arms you with knowledge, so that you can understand the manipulations of those around you.
For instance, in Hollywood, I was a frequent victim of Law #7: Get others to do the work for you but always take the credit. Half the reason I wrote this chapter was to make people more aware of how this could happen to them and to take defensive measures. I get a lot of feedback from people who have told me how much the book has helped them in this way. They would never use some of the harsher strategies I talk about, but they are very glad to know the games others are playing on them.
I treat readers as adults. Instead of preaching to them about what they should or should not do, I lay it out for them, and I let them decide what is useful and what is not. I cannot deny there are people out there who might use these ideas for bad purposes, but what are you going to do? I think it is better to reveal the power game in all of its amoral reality and let happen what happens.
I also make the point, in the WAR book (and also in POWER) that power has traditionally been something reserved for elites. Elites have always objected to knowledge being given to the masses. Military strategy is the most elite form of knowledge that there is. Soldiers were taught tactics. It was too dangerous to allow them to get their hands on books on strategy. They could use this valuable information to foment revolution. People still think the same way, but for different reasons. I want a level playing field and everyone to be armed with the art of war.
My books have been very popular in the African-American community. They appreciate knowing how people have used power in the past, often against them. They want to know how the game is played, in as realistic a fashion as possible. They want the truth. I find those who rail against my books often have a lot of personal issues, and are generally people who can be classified as quite manipulative, in the passive aggressive mode.
Sonshi.com: One of the most outstanding concepts you wrote about in "33 Strategies" was number 15, "Control the Dynamic," a strategy that does not have a reversal. Central to Sun Tzu’s Art of War is always being active and taking a proactive stance: from planning ahead in the temple to initiating the time and place of battle. In your opinion, of the 33 strategies, which one do you think applies most often in people’s lives?
Greene: It depends on your circumstances. It’s all relative. If you are dealing with stressful situations, chapter three on maintaining your presence of mind would be particularly helpful, as would chapter 4 if you find it hard to motivate yourself. Chapters 5 and 6 are particularly relevant to leaders of any group. I make the point that structure is strategy—how you organize your group will determine its mobility, efficiency, morale, etc. Chapter 8 is very important—it is about operating with economy, finding the perfect level between your means and your ends. The center of gravity chapter is critical for attacking any problem. But I suppose if I had to elevate one chapter above the others, it is the longest one in the book—chapter 12, on Grand Strategy. This to me is the apex of strategic thought—the ability to think in terms of a campaign, not battles. This has great relevance to daily life.
I make the point that most of us live in what I call tactical hell. We are constantly reacting to what others give us, managing the battles that confront us day in and day out. We rarely get control. Our minds become dominated by tactical thinking. We can only focus on details. We argue and nitpick about this battle or that battle. It is hell.
Strategy is a kind of mental ladder you climb to get above these battles, gain some perspective and plot your moves. It is a mental purgatory. Grand strategy is simply this idea taken further—gaining a perspective that encompasses months or years. It is incredibly liberating and powerful when you have clear idea of where you want to be in five years, or can focus on what you see as your destiny in life. It helps you manage your daily decisions. "It is not important I fight this battle because it does not serve my overall goals." On and on.
Grand strategy is heaven, one we rarely reach, but must always aim for. It is the ultimate form of rationality. The word is misused nowadays, and I try to correct this in the chapter. I wish everyone would read it. And it is my modest homage to the spirit of Sun-tzu.
[End of interview]
psycho Nash's "Game Theory' in war and power
http:(doubleslash)www(dot)sonshi(dot)com/greene.html
Interview with Robert Greene
By Sonshi.com
Power. Seduction. War. Three separate topics that invoke strong emotion in many people. However, to author extraordinaire Robert Greene, they are: 1) interrelated where the principles are fluid and really do apply to various facets of everyday life and 2) struggles that can be handled and mastered with intelligence, not emotion.
It is Mr. Greene's emphasis on rationale, flexibility, and honesty in his writing that sets him apart from countless humdrum, politically correct business/self-help writers. His books do not sugarcoat the harsh realities of life; they teach thinking adults how to live life to the fullest. For that, we thank Mr. Greene for making the great classics even greater -- by making their principles graspable and thus applicable in the real world where there exist reversals, twists, and turns.
Robert Greene, 45, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He has a degree in Classics and can read and speak six languages. Mr. Green lived in Europe for over five years, namely Paris, London, Barcelona, and Rome. He has worked as an editor at various magazines, a translator of French to English, and as a writer in Hollywood.
And of course he has written three significant, best-selling books: The 48 Laws of Power (Viking/Penguin 1998), The Art of Seduction (Viking/Penguin 2001), and The 33 Strategies of War (Viking/Penguin 2006). The 48 Laws of Power has sold close to 800,000 copies in the United States and over 1.5 million worldwide. It has been translated into 19 languages, so far. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
For more information, please visit www.powerseductionandwar.com or www.seducersworld.com.
Below is our interview with Mr. Greene.
Sonshi.com: In your most recent book, "The 33 Strategies of War," you referred to Sun Tzu’s Art of War numerous times and stated that Sun Tzu is "perhaps the greatest strategist of them all." What is it about Sun Tzu and his Art of War that you admire?
Greene: If I could simplify the whole game of power and strategy in one equation, it would all hinge on the capacity to see events around you exactly as they are. The closer your mind is to reality, the better your strategies, your responses in life. But we humans have a strange psychological block. Our minds are constantly stopping on one thing, one idea, one experience or emotion. When that happens, we are looking at events through the tunnel of our own biases or negative experiences. We lose contact with reality. Anything living is in a constant state of flux. Nothing stays the same. And so our thoughts must constantly adapt to what is happening around us and never get stuck on this idea, or that way of doing things.
This obsessed me in The 48 Laws. At the end of each chapter I included a Reversal, which basically said that you must look at the Law I have just written from the opposite perspective. I also included laws that seem to contradict each other, because events in life are often at cross currents. I also included a chapter at the end about formlessness, saying essentially that you must ignore everything here I have written, and learn to think for yourself, based on your circumstances.
Which brings me to Sun-tzu. All of the writers I admire most have this capacity to stretch their minds to the shape of what is going on around them. Among those who write of strategy (although I would maintain all writing is about strategy in some way), Sun-tzu stands above all the others. Some of this is cultural. The ideas I expressed in the above first paragraph have deep ties to ancient Chinese philosophy, ideas that are embedded in the language itself. The ancient Chinese way of thinking is completely relational. Nothing is static. Things only have meaning in relation to one another. An event here will never mean the same if it happens there. This is opposed to the Western way of thinking (I am overgeneralizing), which tends to create dualisms and absolutes.
Sun-tzu sees everything in fluid terms. Nothing is absolute, except one simple premise around which everything else revolves: the art of war is winning with minimum bloodshed, and minimum violence. This has a Confucian, ethical element to it, but it is also pure strategy and very Chinese. Winning with violence creates a countercurrent that causes you more problems in the long run. War is inherently more dangerous than life itself (the violence of life), because it is more unpredictable, creates more chaos in its wake. The brake on this is your ability to minimize the chaos, the variables by lowering resistance in your path. Violence and overt aggression only increases resistance.
Sun–tzu is a true strategist, as opposed to the usual type we find who simply regurgitates some preconceived maxims, or the kind of mindless military jargon we see nowadays. He makes you focus on the circumstances, and how you can approach them from angles. What is indirect creates less resistance. Indirection is subtle, like the flowing of the unorthodox out of the orthodox and vice versa. It is what is least expected.
I love Sun-tzu’s brutal language (I am sure it is not given anything close to justice in modern English), and this universe he has created in the remarkably dense 13 chapters. It is like a Zodiac, or the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. He has created the universal patterns for all conflict. Your mind must raise itself up to this higher stratosphere of strategic thought. From there, you will respond with intelligent action, with sound tactics. It is almost too banal to even express, but those running businesses or wars are rarely strategists, but rather tacticians who know how to disguise themselves. That abstract realm of thought that must preface all intelligent action is missing. If only everyone really read Sun–tzu, really pondered what he said, as opposed to digesting him because it seems cool or warlike.
He is the god of strategists, and all of the rest of us are mere demigods or mortals. (Musashi is one of the highest of the demigods, in my cosmology.) I reread The Art of War every few months, so that I keep his ideas constantly in my mind.
Sonshi.com: Of course Sun Tzu wasn’t the only person you referenced in "33 Strategies." Similar to your previous books, you used an impressive variety of sources to support your rules of warfare. They include Napoleon, Rommel, Musashi, Otto von Bismarck, Clausewitz, Mao Tse-Tung, Scipio Africanus, T.E. Lawrence, Genghis Khan, and Julius Caesar just to name a few. You sprinkle your books with countless quotations from a wide array of literary works. How were you exposed to so many significant works and what method do you use to synthesize their most important concepts into digestible nuggets of wisdom?
Greene: Well, I do a lot of research for each of my books. For WAR, I read over 400 original source materials. I do that because I want my ideas to be grounded in something solid, something timeless. And also, because research excites me. It is a kind of game. Through the library or the Internet, I jump from one book to the other, as one idea pushes me into different directions. I like to begin the research process with a completely open mind. I let the material suggest possibilities and timeless concepts. It is a weird kind of power: to scour 4000 years of military history and find the patterns. I pride myself on making it as open-ended as possible—from ancient Egypt to Desert Storm, from the German General Staff, to Shaka Zulu’s horns, chest and loins.
From this wide net I cast on world history, I make detailed notes, on 4 by 6 cards. (Curiously, I later discovered Napoleon himself was fond of writing on cards and organizing them.) These cards are color-coded and filed based on the subject, the pattern, the strategy it fits. Sometimes a card goes into several categories, and so I am constantly moving them around. Nothing stays in one place. From these cards, I see discern patterns of action, concepts, and pieces of wisdom. I distill the subjects down and down. I started with about 65 strategies, but ended with 33. Nothing good comes out of you unless you love what you are doing, and I love the research process.
Sonshi.com: You are best known for your first book, "The 48 Laws of Power." How is your third book different and what more does it offer? In other words, what motivated you to write "33 Strategies"?
Greene: The 33 Strategies is similar to Power, but also different. The 48 Laws is really about strategy, but to create it I looked at all facets of human endeavor—politics, courtiership, war, entertainment, business, etc. Machiavelli was really the main figure behind the book, although there are others, and Machiavelli’s ideas can be applied to society in general. For the 33 Strategies, I wanted to try something completely novel, something I believe has not been done. I wanted to base all of my ideas on warfare, on the classic military books on strategy. From that foundation, I wanted to establish the key strategies that are used throughout history. And from there, I wanted to see how those ideas have been used in non-military areas, and how they could be further used in that way.
What is radical here is that I am treating warfare not as a specialized realm, which I think is a real mistake, a mistake even Sun-tzu argued against, in his own way. Rather, war is an eminently human endeavor, and success in that realm turns upon elemental human psychology. The ideas expressed in thousands of years in the history of war have tremendous application to all kinds of conflicts and to any competitive realm. For instance, a concept such as the flanking maneuver has its roots in the concept that you should always attack from unexpected angles, at the unprotected sides. This wisdom can be applied to how you think about problems, how you deal with a troublesome colleague at work, how you maneuver against a business rival. I spell out these connections in that particular chapter. I dig under each military strategy to uncover what is at the heart of it.
There are other books out there that try to make connections between war and business. They are generally superficial. I tried to be as thorough and profound as possible. And I am not simply making the connection to business, but also to the social realm, to culture, to personal relationships, on and on. And so, I am finding the connections between a Rommel and a political strategist, or a film director.
I am very much against the compartmentalization of warfare nowadays. It is a highly specialized form of knowledge, full of ridiculous jargon. Both sides—military and civilian—like to cloister themselves off from the other. I think the founding fathers of America had a much different vision, as did Sun–tzu. It is dangerous when the military organizes itself into this bunkered enclave, where they simply talk amongst themselves. There is incredible knowledge in the history of warfare and its strategies, and a kind of wisdom that should be disseminated. I think many of the problems now plaguing the American military stems from its nature as a self–enclosed organization. How can we otherwise explain its weird propensity to disassociate war from politics in the current Iraq campaign?
Sonshi.com: As you mentioned, despite the warfare concepts discussed, any non-military reader can quite easily relate them to the conflicts and competition experienced in his or her daily life. Would it be accurate to say your book’s concepts in power, seduction, and war relate to your own personal experiences and lessons in life as well?
Greene: Very much so. And I think that is why the books are popular. I give you the basic patterns of action in power, seduction, or war, and I let readers make personal connections to events in their lives. A lot of this came from my experience in the work world, and in particular in Hollywood. I tended to see some of my bosses as Cesare Borgias or little Genghis Khans trying to make their way through or around their rivals. I put a lot of my own experiences in the books, but disguised behind stories of famous figures. The stories I tell in the books (each concept is illustrated with stories from history) are designed to teach you lessons. What point is there in living if you are not learning from experience, yours or others?
Sonshi.com: Flavius Vegetius Renatus said, "Let him who desires peace prepare for war." Do you think most people are too focused on trying to obtain peace without first learning to how deal with war?
Greene: Yes. That is a major concept in The 33 Strategies. There is too much conflict avoidance in our culture. Some of this comes from a lot of political correctness that has filtered its way through society. Some of it comes from the importance of always appearing to be on the side of peace, cooperation, fairness to one and all. But life involves constant competition and conflict and how you deal with this will determine your fate in life. Being steeped in the art of war does not make you aggressive, at least not under the banner of Sun–tzu. Rather it makes you smarter, more prudent, better able to handle life’s inevitable struggles with intelligence. I want my book to ground the reader in certain basic principles, so when conflict comes, he or she can take the proper stance, like a swordsman.
Besides, I hate the way war is seen as something inherently brutal and ugly. Yes, much of war nowadays brings out the worst part of our nature. But in war, all kinds of noble human traits have been developed, such as discipline, cohesion, pride. All of life involves a kind of warfare, and a lot of Hindu texts spiritualize warfare into a struggle from within, to gain control over your own beastly nature. People with bumperstickers that say "War is not the answer" are such idiots. Tell that to those countries that found themselves invaded by the Nazis. As Heraclitus wrote, "War is the father of everything. Some it makes slaves, others masters."
Sonshi.com: A criticism of your books is the ideas you propose are "without scruples." Amoral is perhaps a better description. What is your response to these critics?
Greene: Well, I use the word amoral to describe them, as opposed to immoral. I try to look at the various subjects (power, seduction and war) with as dispassionate an eye as possible. This is human nature, I say, and this is how it operates in conflict, or when it is threatened, etc. Sometimes we humans do things that are bad, in order to get power—we hurt others. Sometimes we get power in ways that are not at all harmful. Here is the full panoply of stratagems, manipulations, maneuvers. You can look at them and decide for yourself—"this is too evil for me, but I am glad I know about it." A lot of the book is deliberately defensive, in the sense that it arms you with knowledge, so that you can understand the manipulations of those around you.
For instance, in Hollywood, I was a frequent victim of Law #7: Get others to do the work for you but always take the credit. Half the reason I wrote this chapter was to make people more aware of how this could happen to them and to take defensive measures. I get a lot of feedback from people who have told me how much the book has helped them in this way. They would never use some of the harsher strategies I talk about, but they are very glad to know the games others are playing on them.
I treat readers as adults. Instead of preaching to them about what they should or should not do, I lay it out for them, and I let them decide what is useful and what is not. I cannot deny there are people out there who might use these ideas for bad purposes, but what are you going to do? I think it is better to reveal the power game in all of its amoral reality and let happen what happens.
I also make the point, in the WAR book (and also in POWER) that power has traditionally been something reserved for elites. Elites have always objected to knowledge being given to the masses. Military strategy is the most elite form of knowledge that there is. Soldiers were taught tactics. It was too dangerous to allow them to get their hands on books on strategy. They could use this valuable information to foment revolution. People still think the same way, but for different reasons. I want a level playing field and everyone to be armed with the art of war.
My books have been very popular in the African-American community. They appreciate knowing how people have used power in the past, often against them. They want to know how the game is played, in as realistic a fashion as possible. They want the truth. I find those who rail against my books often have a lot of personal issues, and are generally people who can be classified as quite manipulative, in the passive aggressive mode.
Sonshi.com: One of the most outstanding concepts you wrote about in "33 Strategies" was number 15, "Control the Dynamic," a strategy that does not have a reversal. Central to Sun Tzu’s Art of War is always being active and taking a proactive stance: from planning ahead in the temple to initiating the time and place of battle. In your opinion, of the 33 strategies, which one do you think applies most often in people’s lives?
Greene: It depends on your circumstances. It’s all relative. If you are dealing with stressful situations, chapter three on maintaining your presence of mind would be particularly helpful, as would chapter 4 if you find it hard to motivate yourself. Chapters 5 and 6 are particularly relevant to leaders of any group. I make the point that structure is strategy—how you organize your group will determine its mobility, efficiency, morale, etc. Chapter 8 is very important—it is about operating with economy, finding the perfect level between your means and your ends. The center of gravity chapter is critical for attacking any problem. But I suppose if I had to elevate one chapter above the others, it is the longest one in the book—chapter 12, on Grand Strategy. This to me is the apex of strategic thought—the ability to think in terms of a campaign, not battles. This has great relevance to daily life.
I make the point that most of us live in what I call tactical hell. We are constantly reacting to what others give us, managing the battles that confront us day in and day out. We rarely get control. Our minds become dominated by tactical thinking. We can only focus on details. We argue and nitpick about this battle or that battle. It is hell.
Strategy is a kind of mental ladder you climb to get above these battles, gain some perspective and plot your moves. It is a mental purgatory. Grand strategy is simply this idea taken further—gaining a perspective that encompasses months or years. It is incredibly liberating and powerful when you have clear idea of where you want to be in five years, or can focus on what you see as your destiny in life. It helps you manage your daily decisions. "It is not important I fight this battle because it does not serve my overall goals." On and on.
Grand strategy is heaven, one we rarely reach, but must always aim for. It is the ultimate form of rationality. The word is misused nowadays, and I try to correct this in the chapter. I wish everyone would read it. And it is my modest homage to the spirit of Sun-tzu.
[End of interview]
