Dr. Kevin Keough

Modern Day Slavery

MORE SLAVES NOW THAN ANY TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY

Turn and look away ? Not any more. Denying is a bit like lying. If we are gonna do it, let’s agree to admit it at the very least. Might as well know a bit about what one will deny or not. "Compassion fatigue"................................?

Check out www.freetheslaves.net, watch "Amistad", check out this excerpt:
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Excerpt: ’A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery’

by E. Benjamin Skinner

Chapter 1: The Riches of the Poor

For our purposes, let’s say that the center of the moral universe is in Room S-3800 of the UN Secretariat, Manhattan. From here, you are some five hours from being able to negotiate the sale, in broad daylight, of a healthy boy or girl. Your slave will come in any color you like, as Henry Ford said, as long as it’s black. Maximum age: fifteen. He or she can be used for anything. Sex or domestic labor are the most frequent uses, but it’s up to you.

Before you go, let’s be clear on what you are buying. A slave is a human being who is forced to work through fraud or threat of violence for no pay beyond subsistence. Agreed? Good. You may have thought you missed your chance to own a slave. Maybe you imagined that slavery died along with the 360,000 Union soldiers whose blood fertilized the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment. Perhaps you assumed that there was meaning behind the dozen international conventions banning the slave trade, or that the deaths of 30 million people in world wars had spread freedom across the globe.

But you’re in luck. By our mere definition, you are living at a time when there are more slaves than at any point in history. If -you’re going to buy one in five hours, however, you’ve really got to stop navel—gazing over things like law and the moral advance of humanity. Get a move on.

First, hail a taxi to JFK International Airport. If you choose the Queensboro Bridge to the Brooklyn—Queens Expressway, the drive should take under an hour. With no baggage, you’ll speed through security in time to make a direct flight to Port au Prince, Haiti. Flying time: three hours.

The final hour is the strangest. After disembarking, you will cross the tarmac to the terminal where drummers in vodou getup and a dancing midget greet you with song. Based on Transportation Security Administration warnings posted in the departure terminal at JFK, you might expect abject chaos at Toussaint L’Ouverture Airport. Instead, you find orderly lines leading to the visa stamp, no bribes asked, a short wait for your bag, then a breeze through customs. Outside the airport, the cabbies and porters will be aggressive, but not threatening. Assuming you speak no Creole, find an English—speaking porter and offer him $20 to translate for the day.

Ask your translator to hail the most common form of transport, a tap-tap, a flatbed pickup retrofitted with benches and a brightly colored canopy. You will have to take a couple of these, but they only cost 10 gourdes (25 cents) each. Usually handpainted with signs in broken English or Creole, tap-taps often include the words my god or jesus. my god -it’s my life reads one; another announces welcome to jesus. Many are ornate, featuring windshields covered in frill, doodads, and homages to such figures as Che Guevara, Ronaldinho, or reggae legend Gregory Isaacs. The -driver’s navigation is based on memory, instinct. There will be no air conditioning. Earplugs are useful, as the sound system, which cost more than the rig itself, will make your chest vibrate with the beats of Haitian pop and American hip-hop. Up to twenty people may accompany you: five square inches on a wooden bench will miraculously accommodate a woman with a posterior the size of a tractor tire. Prepare your spine.

You’ll want to head up Route de Delmas toward the suburb of Pétionville, where many of the -country’s wealthiest thirty families—who control the -nation’s economy—maintain a pied—à-terre. As you drive southeast away from the sea, the smells change from rotting fish to rotting vegetables. Exhaust fumes fill the air. You’ll pass a billboard featuring a smiling girl in pigtails and the words: Give me your hand. Give me tomorrow. Down with Child Servitude. Chances are, like the majority of Haitians, you -can’t read French or Creole. Like them, you ignore the sign.

Heading out of the airport, -you’ll pass two UN peacekeepers, one with a Brazilian patch, the other with an Argentine flag. As you pass the blue helmets, smile, wave, and receive dumbfounded stares in return. The United Nations also has Jordanians and Peruvians here, parked in APVs fifteen minutes northwest, along the edge of the hyperviolent Cité Soleil slum, the poorest and most densely populated six square miles in the poorest and most densely populated country in the hemisphere. The peacekeepers -don’t go in much, neither do the national police. If they do, the gangsters that run the place start shooting. Best to steer clear, although you’d get a cheap price on children there. You might even get offered a child gratis.

You’ll notice the streets of the Haitian capital are, like the tap—taps, overstuffed, banged up, yet colorful. The road surfaces range from bad to terrible, and grind even the toughest SUVs down to the chassis. Parts of Delmas are so steep that the truck may sputter and die under the exertion.

Port au Prince was built to accommodate about 150,000 people, and hasn’t seen too many centrally planned upgrades since 1804. Over the last fifty years, some 2 million people, a quarter of the nation’s population, have arrived from the countryside. They’ve brought their animals. Chickens scratch on side streets, and boys lead prizefighting cocks on string leashes. Monstrously fat black pigs root in sooty, putrid garbage piled eight feet high on street corners or even higher in enormous pits that drop off sidewalks and wind behind houses.

A crowd swells out of a Catholic church broadcasting a fervent mass. Most Haitians are Catholic. Despite the efforts of Catholic priests, most also practice vodou. In the countryside, vodou is often all they practice.

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FAVORITE BITS OF WISDOM

"Watch a man in times of adversity to discover what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off."
-Lucretius

"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."
-Seneca

"One shouldn't be too inquisitive in life
Either about God's secrets or one's wife."
-Chaucer

"There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls. There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain."
-Aeschylus

"Embrace simplicity."
-Lao tzu

"Anger is a short madness."
-Horace

"Victory shifts from man to man."
-Homer


"Lust for power is the most flagrant of all the passions."
-Tacitus

"It is absurd and disgraceful to live magnificently and luxuriously when so many are hungry."
-Clement of Alexandria

"Do not be puffed up because of your knowledge nor overconfident because you are a learned person. Take counsel with the ignorant as well as with the wise, for the limits of proficiency cannot be reached and no person is ever fully skilled."
-Ptah-Hotep

"To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short."
-Confucius

"Short is the joy that guilty pleasure brings."
-Euripides

"The face of tyranny
Is always mild at first."
-Racine

"Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star."
-Confucius

"Better to be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own."
-Aesop

"Greatness knows itself."
-Shakespeare

"Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?"
-Confucius

"Patience, and shuffle the cards."
-Cervantes

"The name of peace is sweet and the thing itself is good, but between peace and slavery there is the greatest difference."
-Cicero

"Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocence."
-Publius Syrus

"Give me chastity and continence, but not right now."
-Augustine

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NOTEWORTHY HAPPENINGS

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives"
--Sioux
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Seems nearly all Native American proverbs are 'spot on' as the Canadians say. Some of them nail the Achilles heel of modern civilization.....it's like watching a 'Greatest of the Greatest hits in football, or seeing a 'poetry in motion' block-strike that ends the matter before it really begins. Now, the little quote above is a 100-200 years old-they could see the future back in the beginning. It's nothing supernatural. It's keen observation of people and the laws of nature.

Red folks have developed a very dark biting sense of humor over the last 500 years or so. If you are a 'venture capitalist', it would be wise to back a group of Indian comedians. They will stand and deliver....as sure as spring follows winter, as sure as the sun will appear yet again, tomorrow.

AMERICAN INDIAN WALK HIGHLIGHTS SACRED PLACES

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
February 19, 2008
Matt Farley


In the 30 years since the first Longest Walk march flooded Capitol Hill with activists fighting for American Indian rights, thousands of places sacred to American Indians continue to be desecrated and developed, an official of the International Indian Treaty Council said Monday.

Jimbo Simmons and other supporters of American Indian sovereignty launched the Longest Walk 2, a re-creation of the 1978 walk, that stopped Monday at an informal powwow at the Carson Colony gymnasium.

"It's more successful (than the original) in terms of outreach to the public," Simmons said. "We're reaching out to as many people as possible.

"If we get 2 million people walking into Washington, D.C., on the same day, that will draw some attention. And at this point, I believe that's possible."

About 40 people have committed to walk the 3,600 miles from San Francisco to Capitol Hill to draw attention to the damage being done to sacred places and the Earth, Simmons said.

A larger party walking through the South is expected to join the group in Washington to stage a re-creation of the original event, organized to protest a slate of legislative bills that supporters believed would undercut American-Indian sovereignty.

That effort, which drew the support of celebrities such as Marlon Brando and Muhammad Ali, was eventually successful, Simmons said.

Since marchers left the Bay Area on Feb. 11, spending nights at public facilities and Indian reservations, their number has grown and diversified, he said.

Brandt Larsen, a California native who drove to Carson City to join the march, said he planned to remain with the group until it reaches Washington on July 11.

"My grandmother was Sioux, but I was never looked at as (American Indian)," he said. "I never asked to be looked at that way, but this is something I really feel like I should do. The whole country is sacred, but nobody treats it that way."

Simmons said he often has trouble articulating American Indians' concerns about the environment to people from other belief systems.

"We don't have to go to a building or a church to pray," he said. "We can pray anywhere. All land is sacred. Sometimes, that's hard to understand."

The group's worship service near Cave Rock at Lake Tahoe was interrupted by a group of boaters who insisted they move away from the water's edge, Simmons said.

"They were saying, 'We deserve to be here because we paid,'" he said. "But, you know, we were there first. We feel like the human family has one commonality, and that's Mother Earth. We were trying to protect that (during the first march), and we still continue to."

The walk took on a festive air when Oakland residents Calvin Magpie, 25, and Estela Sophia Cuevas, 24, announced they would be married Monday night in a ceremony ending with them being wrapped together in buckskins and a single blanket, Magpie said.

"We were planning to do it in July, but we're going to be walking during the whole time we (should be) planning," he said. "This way, it will be something we can always remember and tell our children."

Magpie laughed and shrugged.

"Plus, you know, it's kind of a spiritual thing. Like the two of us walking on this Earth together."

THE long walk

The Long Walk memorializes the campaign led by Col. Kit Carson in 1864 against the nomadic tribes of New Mexico Territory, primarily the Navajo, to force them to Fort Sumner on the Bosque Redondo Reservation in eastern New Mexico.

Carson's troops destroyed Navajo crops, orchards and livestock and marched 8,000-9,000 American Indians on a 300-mile journey that survivors remembered as a death march.

About 200 people died of cold and starvation during the "Long Walk" of the Navajo people.

Visit the Longest Walk 2 website

President’s Day: Lincoln’s Depression, Wit, and Wisdom

DIDN'T 'PRESIDENT'S DAY USED TO BE LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY.....FEBRUARY 12TH ?

Somewhere along the line it was decided that 'things would just be easier if we bumped Lincoln's birthday to make room for President's Day. I'm not sure why we thought it best to honor all the President's on the same day. I'm partial to Lincoln. It seems most posts and essays about Lincoln this year focus on the profound recurrent episodes of depression that haunted him. I figured a few thoughts from Lincoln would be nice.
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* The Almighty has his own purposes.

* It is not best to swap horses while crossing the river.

* Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.

* Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.

* Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.

* In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.

* Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

* Nobody has ever expected me to be president. In my poor, lean lank face nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting.

* I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

* Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?

* You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

* That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

* I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

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Blind spots of Robert Greene’s

HOW MIGHT WUSHU KUNG FU TRAINING AFFECT THE WRITING OF 33 STRATEGIES OF WAR

Mr. Robert Greene

Robert Greene has added to public discourse about use of strategies of War in the interpersonal sphere. It is a type of 'martial arts of everyday life' book. A number of notable and respected books written by martial arts and sciences teachers help people connect and use martial training in daily life with those in their lives. However, it seems Greene has grabbed public attention; added something respectable for study. There is no mention that Greene has ever trained in wushu kung fu.

One needn't be a martial artist to write a solid book on social and interpersonal self-dense. I imagine the blind spot(s) in Greene's system are far less likely to be enacted by martial artists and combat scientists. It seems to me that Greene has written a solid book. It just seems natural that adding the presence of wushu kung fu energy would expand on and enhance the knowledge offered by Greene. What does it add and how does it alter the teaching ? Seems worth knowing.

So, I am wondering who will volunteer to respond to Greene's book. Why not ? Okay, maybe 2 or 3 guys get together. Does it need to be written ? Have we passed on sufficient information and skills to our loved ones.....who live in a real world amidst the make believe.

Below are clips from one of his books, book reviews, and an decent interview.

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Self-Directed Warfare

The mind indeed is so powerful that it can propel anything to action. A mind that is too emotional and clouded by past resentments may not see the world clearly and generate inappropriate strategies.

1 - Declare War On Your Enemies: The Polarity Strategy

Struggle is indeed an inevitable part of life. Enemies come everywhere, sometimes explicitly but more often than not, subtly. It is important that you recognize these enemies and from there, start strategizing.

Yet again, everything starts from within. You should face the world with an open anticipation of this battle. It is your responsibility to program yourself to be in battle mode most of the time. Otherwise, you may easily be overpowered and end up a loser.

Discovering that you have too many enemies may entice you towards the safer side; which is to act in accordance to the enemies' ways and be one of them. You should prevent this from happening or else, you will lose your identity.

A magnet best demonstrates the polarity strategy. Opposite poles create movement. Consider your enemies as your opposites. Without enemies, you might lose your drive to go on with life.

2 - Do Not Fight The Last War: The Guerilla-War-Of-The-Mind Strategy

Some people linger so much on the successes of the past, thinking that any change will hamper luck's persistence. There is nothing wrong in celebrating past achievements. However, having a notion that previously effective strategies are perpetually the best is not at all beneficial.

A mind that is locked up in the past gets a blurred version of reality. The past may be a good teacher but it should not be the focus and sole basis of all your thoughts and actions. Move forward and get hooked by present endeavors and their conditions.

Holding on so much to past successes and resentments may indeed cause the mind to languish somewhere along the way. To restore the mind's natural course forward, here are some tactics that you can employ:

1. Reexamine all your cherished beliefs and principles. Get out of your paradigms and think out of the box based on the present.
2. Erase the memory of the last war. Whether it was a triumph or a failure, make each war a fresh new start.
3. Keep the mind moving. Be as sensitive as you can to what the current circumstance has to offer and work your way around it.
4. Absorb the spirit of the times. Adapt to the demands of the present. Strategize based on current state of affairs, not on theories of the past.
5. Reverse course. In certain transactions, actions and reactions may be very predictable. Get out of the trend and be more innovative.

3 - Amidst The Turmoil of Events, Do Not Lose Your Presence of Mind: The Counterbalance Strategy

At war, you are not expected to be cautious. Too much carefulness is a manifestation of fear. Do not be afraid to commit mistakes or to take risks. Fear will only hinder you from moving forward.

Remember that presence of mind is an essential armor. It counters your tendency to drift away from the conflict and go back to the comfort zone. It boosts your confidence and gives you assurance that you can successfully tackle all your encounters and recuperate from your mistakes. It positively overpowers doubt as it fills you with determination and drive.

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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
As in his bestselling The 48 Laws of Power, Greene puts a modern spin on wisdom that has stood the test of history, only this time his role model is Sun Tzu rather than Machiavelli. The argument is fairly standard: despite our most noble intentions, "aggressive impulses that are impossible to ignore or repress" make military combat a fitting metaphor for getting ahead in life. Greene's advice covers everything from steeling one's mind for battle to specific defensive and offensive tactics—notably, the final section on "dirty" warfare is one of the book's longest. Historical lessons are outlined and interpreted, with amplifying quotations crammed into the margins. Not all of the examples are drawn from the battlefield; in one section, Greene skips nimbly from Lyndon Johnson's tenacity to Julius Caesar's decisiveness, from Joan Crawford's refusal to compromise to Ted Williams's competitive drive. Alfred Hitchcock, he says, embodies "the detached-Buddha tactic" of appearing uninvolved while remaining in total control. The diversity of subject matter compensates for occasional lapses into stilted warriorese ("arm yourself with prudence, and never completely lay down your arms, not even for friends"). For those willing to embrace its martial conceit, Greene's compendium offers inspiration and entertainment in equal measure. (Jan. 23)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Greene and "producer" Joost Elffers are the Machiavellians who brought us The 48 Laws of Power (1998) and The Art of Seduction(2001), and their latest book similarly purports to distill the profundities of history for personal gain. Unapologetically premised on Hobbesian "all that is social is war" bromides, this account collects parables of strategic success and error from a diverse cast of military and nonmilitary historical figures. Its lessons are presented self-help-book style in chapters titled "Maneuver Them into Weakness" and "Seem to Work for the Interests of Others While Furthering Your Own" and flanked by a withering barrage of reiterative marginalia. Most books this cynical (and this repetitive) need a sense of humor to be readable, something this book apparently lacks. Its quasi-spiritual tone, though perhaps increasing its attractiveness to the impressionable, is also trying at times. But those readers who push through to the end (or flip ahead) will find a curiously contemporary section on modern terrorism cloaking a surprisingly specific commentary on al-Qaeda and antiterrorism strategy. Politics by other means? Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Robert Greene's groundbreaking guides, The 48 Laws of Power and The Art of Seduction, espouse profound, timeless lessons from the events of history to help readers vanquish an enemy or ensnare an unsuspecting victim. Now, with The 33 Strategies of War, Greene has crafted an important new addition to this ruthless and unique series.

Spanning world civilizations, synthesizing dozens of political, philosophical, and religious texts and thousands of years of violent conflict, The 33 Strategies of Waris a comprehensive guide to the subtle social game of everyday life informed by the most ingenious and effective military principles in war. Structured in Greene's trademark style, The 33 Strategies of War is the I-Ching of conflict, the contemporary companion to Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Abundantly illustrated with examples from history, including the folly and genius of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher, Shaka the Zulu to Lord Nelson, Hannibal to Ulysses S. Grant, as well as movie moguls, Samurai swordsmen, and diplomats, each of the thirty-three chapters outlines a strategy that will help you win life's wars. Learn the offensive strategies that require you to maintain the initiative and negotiate from a position of strength, or the defensive strategies designed to help you respond to dangerous situations and avoid unwinnable wars. The great warriors of battlefields and drawing rooms alike demonstrate prudence, agility, balance, and calm, and a keen understanding that the rational, resourceful, and intuitive always defeat the panicked, the uncreative, and the stupid. An indispensable book, The 33 Strategies of War provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand.

About the Author
Robert Greene has a degree in classical studies.
Joost Elffers is the producer of Viking Studio's bestselling The Secret Language of Birthdays and The Secret Language of Relationships, as well as Play with Your Food.
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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. Enjoy!

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]

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