Five Considerations
As I was thinking through the “War on Terra” narrative for my previous dispatch, I re-read Sun Tzu’s Art of War with the hope that I might draw inspiration from the text. As I was reading the text, I noted some curious resonances between the five factors that Sun Tzu suggests considering while planning a martial undertaking and the five factors that I’ve been considering while planning fugitive undertakings.
Evoking passages from Sun Tzu, the dispatch below sets out the five factors that I’ve been considering with respect to the fugitive plans that I have been laying.
[一]
There are five factors to consider when planning a fugitive undertaking. Take care to consider these five factors and you will be well-prepared for the undertaking. Fail to consider these five factors and you will be caught unprepared.
These five factors are:
The Way; or, the Narratives You Have About the Undertaking
The Weather; or, the Feelings You Have About the Undertaking
The Terrain; or, the Facts You Have About the Undertaking
The Guides; or, the Theories You Have About the Undertaking
The Maneuvers; or, the Handles You Have on the Undertaking
[二]
It is wise to delay a fugitive undertaking until all five of the following conditions have been met.
You know the Way; or, in other words, you have compelling Narratives about the Undertaking that inspire you to commit to it and that inspire others to join you in it.
You have favorable Weather; or, in other words, there are no Feelings that you need to deny or dismiss because they stand in your Way and undermine your Narratives.
You have favorable Terrain; or, in other words, there are no Facts that you need to deny or dismiss because they stand in your Way and undermine your Narratives.
You have discerning Guides; or, in other words, the Theories informing your Undertaking are consistent with all the Facts, Feelings, and Narratives that you have.
You are skilled in your Maneuvers; or, in other words, you have the competencies and the means to Handle all of the difficulties that your Theories and Narratives suggest that you will encounter.
[三]
One needn’t wait and hope for the proper conditions for a fugitive undertaking to arise. With practice, one can make the proper conditions for a fugitive undertaking.
The practices that make the proper conditions are as follows.
Story-Telling — the fabulation of a world — is the practice that makes the Way for the Undertaking.
Art — the making of sensations in a world — is the practice that makes the Weather for the Undertaking.
Science — the making of predictions about a world — is the practice that makes the Terrain for the Undertaking.
Philosophy — the making of conceptions of a world — is the practice that makes the Guides for the Undertaking.
World-Making — the (de-/re-)construction of a world — is the practice that makes the Maneuvers for the Undertaking.
* For more on the conditioning practices enumerated above, excepting the practice of story-telling, please see the dispatch titled “World-Making”.
** For more on the practice of science in particular, please see the dispatch titled “Six Theses on Science”.
[四]
With respect to the “War on Terra”, the fugitive undertakings that I have in mind are as follows: (i) deserting the forces of ethnocide and ecocide, (ii) defecting to the forces of nature, and (iii) aiding and abetting fellow deserters and defectors.
Deserting the forces of ethnocide and ecocide, as I now conceive of it, means fleeing the four principal impositions of postmodern living — in other words, it means (i) fleeing from schooling, (ii) fleeing from financing, (iii) fleeing from calendaring and clocking, and (iv) fleeing from profiling.
Defecting to the forces of nature, as I now conceive of it, means making artful reparations so as to enable our planet and her peoples may heal from the scourge of imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
Given the above, I am asking myself the following questions:
How can I practice Story-Telling so that I can open the Way to flee from degrading impositions and to make artful reparations?
How can I practice Art so that I can make favorable Weather for fleeing from degrading impositions and for making artful reparations?
How can I practice Science so that I can make favorable Terrain for fleeing from degrading impositions and for making artful reparations?
How can I practice Philosophy so that I can make reliable Guides for fleeing from degrading impositions and for making artful reparations?
How can I practice World-Making so that I can make effective Manuevers for fleeing from degrading impositions and for making artful reparations?
[五]
When planning and practicing for a fugitive undertaking, even if you feel that you are making progress towards your goal, if the planning and practice drag on too long it will sap your energy and blunt your edge.
There are successful fugitive undertakings that are clumsy but swift, but there are no successful undertakings that are skillful but sluggish.
The most important thing when engaging in a fugitive undertaking is the success of the undertaking and not our persistence in planning and practicing to ensure the “perfect” undertaking.
That being said, however, it is also imperative that we recognize that our fugitive undertakings will not come to fruition thanks to our own planning and practice alone. Rather, we can only ensure that a lack of planning and practice does not sink our fugitive undertakings. We must plan and practice, yes, but we must also wait patiently for the forces opposed to our fugitive undertakings to miscalculate and underestimate our planning and practice.
Know the opposing forces and know your own forces and you will never fail in attempting a fugitive undertaking. Know your own forces but not the opposing forces and you will fail half the time and succeed half the time. Know neither the opposing forces nor your own forces and you will always fail. For this reason, it is imperative that you endeavor to gain as much knowledge as you can about both the opposing forces and your own forces as part of planning and practicing for a fugitive undertaking.
To succeed in a fugitive undertaking in a spectacular show of struggle is to have failed to properly plan and practice. People celebrate the courage of those who struggle to succeed in fugitive undertakings, but what they are celebrating is the masochistic spectacle of “the Redeemer’s Struggle” rather than the deep truth of planning and practice.
Those who have done their planning and practice will prevail when it is easy to prevail. They will position themselves where they know that they will have the best chance of succeeding in a fugitive undertaking. They will overcome opposing forces without a spectacular show of struggle because they will overcome opposing forces because opposing forces are self-defeating and have already sabotaged themselves.
