San Francisco
A quick reread of The Art of War is always worthwhile. As I look forward to a performance of Verdi's Macbeth tonight at the War Memorial, I took time today to reread the Sun Tzu classic. I was reminded from Naval War College days that it is as much a book about peace as it is about war. The armchair politician-warriors who seem so ready to swagger our nation into war like making casual references to Sun Tzu. They somehow miss the point, however, that the author was actually speaking to the hollowness of greed and aggression. Ah, the paradox of Taoist psychology.
Sun Tzu's chapter on Strategic Assessments offers five tools for measuring success in war and peace, each of them with actual and metaphorical value: 1) the way, 2) the weather, 3) the terrain, 4) the leadership, and 5) discipline. Of course, it is the inspiring, aspiring vision found in the way that is too often missing from most organizational pursuits these days. With the appropriate "way" in place, Sun Tzu tells us that the people "will share life and share death without fear of danger." It would be nice.
A quick reread of The Art of War is always worthwhile. As I look forward to a performance of Verdi's Macbeth tonight at the War Memorial, I took time today to reread the Sun Tzu classic. I was reminded from Naval War College days that it is as much a book about peace as it is about war. The armchair politician-warriors who seem so ready to swagger our nation into war like making casual references to Sun Tzu. They somehow miss the point, however, that the author was actually speaking to the hollowness of greed and aggression. Ah, the paradox of Taoist psychology.
Sun Tzu's chapter on Strategic Assessments offers five tools for measuring success in war and peace, each of them with actual and metaphorical value: 1) the way, 2) the weather, 3) the terrain, 4) the leadership, and 5) discipline. Of course, it is the inspiring, aspiring vision found in the way that is too often missing from most organizational pursuits these days. With the appropriate "way" in place, Sun Tzu tells us that the people "will share life and share death without fear of danger." It would be nice.