Heaven and Earth and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: In accordance with Sun Tzu, there are five fundamentals of war: the way, heaven, earth, command, discipline. We already know heaven. Heaven is, inter alia, the right moment, i.e. Kairos. Heaven is stealing wood in wintertime. What is earth, one of the five essentials mentioned by Sun Tzu? Earth is: “Earth is height and depth, distance and proximity, ease and danger, open and confined ground, life and death.” (Sun Tzu, The Art of War, p. 2). Words in accordance with oed: To oscillate: “move or swing back and forth in a regular rhythm: ‘the grain pan near the front of the combine oscillates back and forth’.” Proximity: “nearness in space, time, or relationship: ‘do not operate microphones in close proximity to television sets.” Ease: “absence of difficulty or effort: ‘she gave up smoking with ease; ease of use’.” To confine, confined: “keep or restrict someone or something within certain limits of (space, scope, or time): ‘he does not confine his message to high politics; you’ve confined yourself to what you know’.” As we can see, there is not only the right moment, the moment appropriate for some action, there is also a way to manipulate this particular setting. In other words, it makes sense to hamper or support enemy’s actions – ease and danger, for example. It makes sense to strain and burden an organisation, the enemy organisation, with some problems (contract negotiations), with some difficulties, and with some stressful events, while offering support from time to time, support to confuse them and deceit them. With this Sun Tzu not only recommends the right moment or Kairos, but also to strain the opponent: “good days and bad day,” – but also to support him if necessary.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 10:46:56 +0000
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