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Could you imagine, just for a time, how dreary we might feel, if our sences saw everything in black and white. Sizes and prices of canvas prints. It is imperative to pick the right color combination to reach its magical effect.

Think am going buy some Banksy prints for my flat what you think? Anyone know of any good websites that can get some cool funky art prints?

Various tests have been carried out in this regard and it has been proven that a person can lose awareness of time, experience a flood or decrease of energy, as well as forget about of the items around her.

The Jewish Museum, one of the first major New York museums to celebrate — and acknowledge — Andy Warhol's Pop Art and Larry Rivers' pre-Pop, or bridge to Pop, is the perfect setting for this stunning major retrospective of Man Ray (curated by Mason Klein), in all his multiple phases and innovations.

Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky to Russian Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia in 1890, who went from this to that, from New York Dada, to Parisian Surrealism, to compelling works of photography, was an artist, filmmaker, writer, sculptor, object maker and a fashion photographer. In order to grasp Man Ray's vision in its entirety, multimedia is an absolute must, and the special gift this show offers is its breadth: it is the first multimedia show of the artist in New York since 1974. Two of his short silent films — La retour à la raison and Emak-Bakia (Basque for Leave Me Alone) — as well as excerpts of films about Man Ray are included in the exhibit.

In 1917 Man Ray (his family had moved to Brooklyn) was in the right place in the right time. Greenwich Village was chock-a-block with New York Dada and Dada women — indeed, Marcel Duchamp noted that these American women were far wilder and “liberated” than their Parisian counterpart: revolution, anarchist ideas, “free love”, the automobile and modernism all seemed nicely wrapped in the same gift package. The Dada women — Baroness Elsa, Beatrice Wood, Katherine Dreier and Mina Loy — appear to have been more raucous, more erotic, more directly concerned with the body than the male artists. In a sketchy watercolor Beatrice Wood deliberately records the night (she was the lover of both Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roch, the author of the novel Jules and Jim and probably the model for the temptress Jeanne Moreau made famous in the film based on it), she, Charles Demuth, Mina Loy and Duchamp had a foursome in Duchamp's bed after a bohemian ball.

But unlike Duchamp, who is so often paired with Man Ray, from the beginning Man Ray was influenced by the eclectic: by photography, abstraction, landscapes and witty images of nudes. By 1908 Man Ray was frequenting Alfred Stieglitz's gallery “291″, and in 1912 he moved out of his cramped New York studio to Ridgefield, New Jersey. There, in this tiny bucolic town, on the banks of the majestic Hudson and a mere twenty minute trolley ride from New York, for $12 monthly rent Man Ray had space, extraordinary vistas, plus the company of Stieglitz, arguably the greatest early American 20th century photographer, and the whole Ridgefield gang of artists, including the poet and critic Alfred Kreymborg, Marius de Zayas and Marcel Duchamp. Just at this time the sensational 1913 New York Armory Show, with works by Picasso, Matisse, Picabia, Duchamp and Gertrude Stein, opened and boom! Everything changed. Avant garde art had officially arrived in America.

My main quibble with this beautifully mounted show is that there is too much emphasis in its thrust and catalogue on identity and gender issues, which is ridiculous when used to define Man Ray and the Dadaists. Though these issues are still hot with university trained critics, the suggestion that Man Ray's art was related to his masking of his Jewish identity, or his search for it, is nonsense. Let us be clear: gender and identity may matter to us now, but for the avant garde modernists, art was their identity. (The women bohemian artists saw freedom and sexual freedom as their chief rebellion.) This was a period when religious observance — Christian or Jewish — was considered to be “bourgeois”, or rear garde, when there was an explosion in the late 19th century, particularly in Europe, of Jewish entry into all the arts, publishing, theatre and newspapers; Hitler and the Holocaust had not yet been imagined, and though anti-Semitism certainly existed, the modernist artists believed it belonged to other groups — Russian Cossacks, fancy American wasps (the Protestant upper class), the Catholic Church, the bourgeoisie, the military etc,, not their bohemian shock-ridden art world. More to the point, rightly or wrongly, these avant gardists believed that their voyage into art would free them from the shackles of anti-Semitism.

Actually, Marcel Proust, though rarely understood through that lens, was the first major writer to pursue cultural identity (Coincidentally, Man Ray's photograph of Proust on his deathbed is in the show). His father Doctor Adrien Proust, son of a petit bourgeois grocery owner, whose initial ambition had been to become a priest, baptized his two sons, then abandoned Catholicism to become one of the great hommes de science of the French Republic. Proust's adored mother came from a powerful French Jewish family. Meanwhile, these two progressive parents left their sons unmoored in a Catholic education that did not represent either of their beliefs, and it wasn't until the Dreyfus case inflamed France that Proust found his true compass, (By my casual count there are eleven references to the biblical Queen Esther in La Recherche, and her marriage to King Ahasuerus has got to be one of the most successful mixed marriages of all time!)

Certainly Man Ray's early works — Promenade — in 1916, and some of his “readymades” — his mixed media auto portrait, constructed of bronze, glass, newspaper inserted into a wooden box show the Duchamp influence — the 1915 The Rope Dancer owes its use of repetition particularly to Duchamp's 1912 construction Bride Stripped Bare by the Bachelors, Even and his use of objects — a 1918 painted egg beater to depict L'Homme while a sort of splayed apple from the same period represents Woman.

The exhibit also displays Man Ray's rayographs. (My mother, the artist Frances Kurke Probst, was a close friend of the German photographer Lotte Jacobi, whose rayographs achieved world wide fame in MOMA and other museums. When I was a child Lotte would take me into her dark room and she showed me how she made these photographs without cameras by swirling film into baths of developing fluid. Her husband Erich Reiss had published The Dada Almanach in 1920 in his Berlin publishing house Erich Reiss Verlag, later destroyed by the Nazis.)

These people, like Man Ray, were natural sophisticates with an enormous range of interests, from art to music to theatre to politics. Duchamp is quite a different case, and there are questions to be asked. When Duchamp attempted to place a urinal in the 1917 exhibit of the Society of Independent Artists (it was turned down) his act had some shock value. When Man Ray photographed Duchamp in drag as “Rrose Sélavy” — Eros c'est la vie — or, Rose Levy — it was a witty reference to a cross-dressing Jew, it had some double entendre humor. But now the shock seems dated. Third rate Hollywood movies abound in bathroom scenes with an actor pretending to defecate, cross dressing has invaded Halloween, pretending to be a Jew is hardly daring. What remains when shock dies?

Duchamp, the chess playing showman, was a mass of contradictions. His outer veneer was of an Greenwich Village aesthete, existing on the bare bones of living conditions. Yet Duchamp first lived off his father's trust fund, then married two substantial heiresses. He made a fetish of not making new works, yet spent his last twenty years in a single effort — constructing in secrecy Etant Donnés, a female nude reclining, that is, trapped in a bed of leaves. The female is meant to be the Brazilian sculptor Maria Martins, who after their five year love affair rejected him.

Why the total secrecy? Could it be that Duchamp's deepest secret was his final surrender to the figurative, to the human form, to realism? The true erotic shock had been achieved in 1866 by the painterly Courbet — “L'Origine du Monde” — and Picasso had stood his ground, doing it all. In the end there was the beginning, and Man Ray escaped some of Duchamp's occasional rigidity through the influence of his first mentor, the extraordinary Alfred Stieglitz. The Francis Naumann Gallery at 24 West 57th Street also has an excellent collection of the Dada period and of Duchamp's works.

By Madhusree Chatterjee
Bundu, Nov 19 (IANS) Deep in the heart of Maoist country in Jharkhand, a young woman is reviving ancient artistic genres to “bring new meaning into the lives of tribal and backward caste women” whose husbands and kin have taken to arms.

Reshma Dutta, the daughter of the erstwhile ‘zamindar’ (landlord) of Bundu, an economically backward district 40 km from Ranchi, makes terracotta, dokra (metal ware) and ceramic sculptures, jewellery, cutlery and solid three-dimensional wall paintings using ethnic Sohrai motifs and techniques.

“I was inspired by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living. He advised me to utilise my training, skill and land for the service of the local people,” Dutta, 35, a fine arts graduate from Santiniketan, told IANS at her home.

“I heeded his words because Bundu was a trouble hot spot. Now, eight years on, the villages around my homestead and outlying our land are peaceful.”

Her arts and crafts cooperative society, Adhaar, employs 80 tribal and backward caste women from the potters’ community, most of whom are either victims of Maoist violence or have been abandoned by husbands and male kin who have joined the insurgents in the forests.

Besides the women, Adhaar also employs 15 talented young men from the backward community who claim to “have opted for arts over arms unlike their comrades”.

She works out of a small workshop-cum-studio spread over two acres at her sprawling homestead in the midst of paddy fields, low hills and dense forests – which are Maoist strongholds located off the Bundu Block Road.

But the Maoists – locally known as Naxals – do not bother Dutta and “neither have they ever touched her land”.

“The Maoists respect people – especially women – who work for the improvement of the local lot and preserve ethnic traditions. They usually target businessmen who mint a lot of money and do not plough it back for the development of the poor tribal and backward caste villagers,” she explained.

Initially, there was resistance from the villagers who did not want to send their women, “fearing for their lives and a backlash from the Naxals”.

“But the women I settled on were all in some way connected to the problem. They were either deserted by their men -who had gone to the hills – and had to fend for the families or were singed by it,” she said. Most of the women are from the potters’ community.

Dutta’s family originally belongs to Vishnupur in West Bengal. When she returned to Bundu in 2001, “her homestead was in ruins”.

“My siblings had migrated abroad and my parents were living in another house on our land a little farther. The homestead had no power, water and the roof had caved in. The courtyard where my father manufactured ‘lai’ – a natural fibrous glue – was crumbling.

“I stayed alone in the homestead without electricity and worked with 10 women, making terracotta sculptures with clay culled from our land. I trained them to craft figures and fire clay. In turn, I picked up the traditional Sohrai art from them. We sold our wares personally at village ‘haats’ (weekly markets) and at fairs across Jharkhand,” she said.

“Impressed by my work, the state government gave me a grant of Rs.500,000 five years ago. But that was paltry. I (and my team) make nearly 250,000 goods every month,” Dutta said.

She makes 62 different varieties of corporate gift items – fusing traditional terracotta, dokra metal and ceramics.

“I am looking to tap the corporate gift and export markets. Right now, I supply terracotta, ceramics and dokra to Jharcraft, a semi-autonomous government crafts council which has outlets countrywide.

“And I also support Adhaar with money earned from personal commissions (commissioned art jobs) and a modest investment by my partner Debashish Chakrabarty, who joined me last year,” Dutta said.

According to Chakrabarty, the owner of a successful advertising agency in the state, “The major problems that constrain the rich legacy of tribal arts and crafts of Jharkhand from getting an international market are the absence of a packaging industry and poor information network.”

“The crafts shop concept is missing in the state and regular strikes affect production. Naxalism adds to the problem, along with poor infrastructure like erratic power and bad roads,” Chakrabarty said.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)

We must listen with open ears. Don’t allow certain words and phrases to prejudice you from listening objectively. And don’t avoid listening to things that you may feel are too difficult to understand (v.15).

I think I always have a problem with this.

Since young, I often hear the emotions underneath the things that people say & feel hurt or insulted. I hear words & analyze the reasons behind why people say certain things. I believed that it’s not in the things you say; it’s how you say it.

I came across a concept of Sun Tzu’s Art of War & it hit me – a general should not be overly concerned with their reputation as it makes them susceptible to insults from enemies; such that the enemies can use that as a tactic to provoke him.

Something like that. 

As I observed the people I have high regard for, one trait I realized is this: they don’t let these things bother them. Great people have their eyes focussed on more important things. 

It’s good food for thought. I would like to think along these lines. However, I also still want to care for people’s feelings yet being impartial.

What is important are the points brought up in today’s devotional:

“• Words can crush the spirit. And a crushed spirit is more unbearable than a sick body (v.14).

• Words can separate friends. And an offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city (v.19).

Fortunately, the opposite is also true. Listen to these thoughts from Proverbs:

• We must listen to facts. Learn with a discerning ear and ferret out the facts (v.13).

• We must listen with open ears. Don’t allow certain words and phrases to prejudice you from listening objectively. And don’t avoid listening to things that you may feel are too difficult to understand (v.15).

• We must listen to both sides of a dispute. It’s foolish to jump to conclusions and rush to judgment; the wise take time to discern (v.17).”

Later.

The great Chinese general Sun Tzu stated: “Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.”  The Art of War hasn’t change centuries later.

In the days before Obama, we had the “War on Terrorism”, “Axis of Evil” and “Islamofascism”.  These have since morphed into “Overseas Contingency Operation”, “other countries” and “terrorists”, none of which adequately describe our enemy.  If we cannot properly label the enemy, how can we expect to know them?

Islamofascism was coined to indicate the similarities between the Muslim Extremists, some of which are terrorists, and the Fascist regimes of Europe in the 1930’s and 1940’s.  This term has fallen out of favor during recent years, the victim of the PC (political correctness) police.  That obfuscation does not change the striking similarities between the Muslim extremists and their Fascists counterparts of the past.

According to Merriam-Webster Online, Fascism is defined as:

A political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

This definition fits those in the radical Islamic movement including the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, as well as the theocracy of Iran.  To a lesser extent, it would not be a stretch to include other Arab dictatorships and monarchies under this definition.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran has taken a further step to cement its ties to Fascism by placing its intelligence ministry under the direct control of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  This change was made out of Khamenei’s concern for loyalty after the massive Iranian protests held earlier this year.  Let’s put some additional pieces together:

• Iran has a “Supreme Leader” who is all powerful.  Germany had its “Führer”, which coincidently in English translates to “leader”.
• Iran has its “Revolutionary Guard” that reports to the Supreme Leader.  Germany had its “Schutzstaffel” (SS) that reported to the Führer.
• Iran, like Germany, is a one party state that does not tolerate decent.
• Iran justifies its means and existence in the name of religion, Islam, and Germany similarly on the religion of the Nazis, National Socialism.
• Hitler tried to exterminate the Jews.  Iran threatens the same.

Starting to sound like history repeating itself?  It sure does to all except those apologists on the Left who grab on to appeasement with the same furor that Neville Chamberlain did prior to the start of World War-II.

In one of President Obama’s first international speeches this past March, he released a video to the Iranians celebrating “Nowruz” (New Day), a spring holiday.  This special outreach was a naive attempt by the President to improve our relations with the Fascist Iranian regime.  The effort was a total failure.  First, it sent a message to the theocracy that we would tolerate their human rights abuses if they would cooperate on the nuclear proliferation issue.  This show of weakness by the President emboldened the Iranian despots and they have since crushed a democratic uprising in their country and march ever closer to acquiring nuclear weapons.  This week the Iranians arrested three American hikers and accused them of spying.

America must bring morality back to our foreign policy.  Yes, this means being less than diplomatic when required.

These are the elements of a winning plan:

1. The discovery of information
2. The objective – part of the leader’s best future
3. Forecasting and assumption(s)
4. Resolve – The leader’s willingness to accept the costs which are necessary in order to reach the objective.
5. Adaptability – The leader’s willingness to select the instruments which are necessary in light of information in order to reach the objective at least cost.  Note that space time paths are treated as instruments in this model since we say and write “good timing” and the selection of a correct path are instrumental in achieving a good result.
6. Proposals
7. Forecasts-”game out” each proposal
8. Scoring – equity v. efficiency
9. The plan – the highest scoring proposal
10. Discipline – the leader’s willingness to accept the opportunity costs in order to reach the objective at least total cost.
11. Superabundance or Redundancy of #4 and the instruments in #5.  See generally, triple modular redundancy.
12. Rehearsal
13. Force = instruments in #5, x4.  This is the “execution phase” of the plan.
14. Review and appraisal of each application of #13.
15. Argument for completeness.  Why exactly 14 elements?  I claim that 14 elements are both necessary and sufficient.  Necessity:  run plan with 14 elements above, value result.  Now, drop any element.  Then, run plan with your 13 elements.  If the value of the first result is greater than the value of your second result, the 14 elements are in fact “necessary.”  Sufficiency:  recall the value of the result using a plan with the 14 elements above.  Now add a 15th element, your choice.  Value the result-2, following the execution of a plan with 15 elements.  I claim that the value of result-2 will be less than or equal to the value of the first result, or that the 15th element was an instrument deployed pursuant to #5 Adaptability.  So, the 14 elements presented above are “sufficient” for a winning plan.

I submit that with the proper selection of instruments in #5 this “planning model” will meet and overcome any biological, technological, and/or cybernetic threat.  This “planning model” was created to generalize the earlier remarks on War by the author known as Sun Tzu.

In the 1973 Bruce Lee classic “Enter The Dragon,”  Bruce Lee was confronted on a junk boat by a rude European and outsmarted him using “the art of fighting without fighting.”  Basically, he turned the European’s aggression against by challenging him to leave the junk on a rowboat together to fight on a nearby island.  When the European got onto the rowboat to go to the island, Lee let the boat go into the sea.  He used his brain and defeated his opponent.

The key is to get your opponent out of their comfort zone and take control of the situation.

Chapter 6 of  Sun Tsu’s “The Art Of War” (if you haven’t read it yet, ya slippin’; one of the best books on strategy and philosophy ever written) talks about “Weak Points and Strong”, detailing how your opportunities come from the openings in the environment caused by the relative weakness of your enemy in a given area.  You have to know where you are and who your opponent is.  Lack of knowledge of either leads to defeat.

The same applies in your relationships.  Whether you want to admit or not,  an argument, disagreement, or debate is a conflict.  If you know your opponent, whether they be a co-worker, your wife, or your best friend, you can turn the tables to your favor.

When I worked in Philadelphia, one of my peers was a friendly yet somewhat unprofessional and loud woman we’ll call “Ann.”  “Ann” was very friendly and loved by many, but the key to her power was to act a fool in large groups and take over a situation.  Quite a few times, I allowed her to railroad me and take me out of my game.

The more I worked with her, the more I got to know her habits.  She’d wait for a management meeting or for a crowd to gather on the work floor and show her ass.  An audience to her was like spinach to Popeye; that was her source of strength.  Arguing with her and getting loud in public not only made us both look like fools, but it gave her the advantage.

People gather strength through stability and stability often comes from habits.  Dictionary. com defines a habit as “an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.”   The next time you’re with lady, friends, or co-workers, observe what they do.

For example, if you keep having arguments with your lady….and losing, try some of the following:

• Sleep on her side of the bed.  People are creatures of habit.  She won’t have the “perfect fit” in the little den she made.  She may have to turn the other way to avoid the window.  If she asks why, just tell her you’d like to see what it’s like.  Then, engage the enemy.

• If you’re the one that always drives, ask her to take the wheel.  Wait until your down the road a little and then bring up whatever problem you’re having.  She won’t be ready for it because she’s not used to focusing on the road and chewing you a new ass at the same time.

• Switch up your style and take a “southpaw” stance.  If she always initiates conversations, attack first and attack strong.  If you usually talk first, lay back and wait.  She knows you’ll want to bring it up and she’ll be wondering why you haven’t spoken. If she asks if you want to talk about it, tell her “maybe later.”

• If they have a favorite chair or spot on the couch, make sure you sit there first and then start the conversation.  You’ve effectively taken away their “power seat”.

These may seem small, but you’d be surprised at how effective they are.  Try this at work.  If you have a meeting and there’s always one person that tries to take over the meeting, get to the meeting early and take their seat.  I bet they won’t be as talkative.

Back to “Ann”.  Her playing to the crowd told me that she needed immediate support and acceptance to be effective.  Head nods, “uh huh”s, “I agree”s.  If  I could separate her from those, she’s finished.

My department began to having problems some people “Ann” managed, so I asked her to come to my office to talk about it.  No crowds, no supporters.  When she asked could it wait until the meeting, I said no and that it was urgent enough to be addressed right now.  “Ann”’s power was gone now; we were in private and there was no one to perform for.

During our management meetings, whenever she had an issue she wanted to start blasting off,  I replied, “Let’s take that offline.  We can discuss it in my office after the meeting.”  If she caught me in the hallway in front of a group and wanted to cut up, I’d say “I see your concern.  Why don’t you follow me to my office and we’ll talk about it there?”

Notice how it was always my office.  I didn’t want to meet in her office.  There she had control.  She could invite as many onlookers as she liked.  She could show her ass for the world to see in her office.  But in my office…my rules.  I invited no one else and the meetings were always closed-door.  I’d effectively turned the tables.   Her power was gone and I had control now.

Fighting without Fighting.

Feel free to comment.

More reading. This time in a black, combat-style jacket. Doubt it would last long in a military scenario somehow but that’s fashion for you. No idea what she was reading. Art of War, maybe?

Four months ago I started to read The Art of Profitability. You may think: “Four months for 272 pages? Does he read it in a old forgotten language?” The truth is: The Art of Profitability is more than just a book about profit patterns. But let’s start at the beginning.

You are reading about meetings between Steve Gardner and David Zhao. Steve works in a big company doing strategic planning and wants to learn more about profitability. The book is written like a novel. That’s unconventional but great. So, why do I need such a long time to read it? That’s easy. You are Steve Gardner and as a good student you read the books recommend by your teacher. There are 18 of them in this book raging from ABC of Reading to The Art of War.

In summary, if you are working persistently through this book and it’s literature you’ll learn many valuable things about profitability.

Much has been made in recent political history of Saul Alinsky and his Rules for Radicals.  Bill Clinton reportedly followed Alinsky’s advice.  Barack Obama taught a class on using Alinsky principles to keep the nation in chaos.  After all, it’s easier to get radical policies enacted during a crisis.  However, I assert that there is an older, much more battle-tested set of rules for warfare that are becoming more applicable to politics in the United States as the political arena begins to resemble the Roman Colosseum: The Art of War by Sun-Tzu.

by Michael Naragon

In 2009, Saul Alinsky has been discussed in such a matter-of-fact way that many casual observers have heard of him.  The following is a list of Alinsky’s 12 rules for upheaval:

RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.”
RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.”
RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”
RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”
RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.”
RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”
RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
RULE 12: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

Of these, Rules 4, 5, 8, and 12 have been used to greatest effect by the Left.  In their war against the Constitution and traditional America, they have assailed, in turn, most of the great foundations of our society.  They have removed God.  They have made abortion mainstream.  They have helped the tiny minority of gay and lesbian activists dictate policy to the majority.  They have made millions dependent on government through social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and now federal control of automakers, banks, energy, and health care.  Granted, some of these Leftist changes took place long before Alinsky, but his principles have been widely used by the 21st century brand of so-called progressives who look to take the next step.

Conservatives are left to ponder, “How do we reverse the trend?”  Since the 1960s, through their control of education and media, liberal philosophy has permeated society.  High school and college graduates have no knowledge of the Constitution or the men who created it, nor do they have a moral basis for the rule of law.  As a result, the American voting public has become apathetic and subservient to the emotional appeals of liberals such as Obama, who was able to win millions of votes simply by promising an ambiguous “change.”  The current administration has also followed Rule 12 on several occasions already, targeting George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh, and Joe Wilson among others, much as the Clinton administration vilified prosecutor Ken Starr.

In the world history classes I teach, my students are required to read the work of Sun Tzu, The Art of War.  This gives them some perspective of Chinese philosophy at the time, reinforcing the ideas of Confucianism and Daoism.  It also teaches them some lessons of life and, specifically, conflict.  I believe that these lessons can be applied to our current ideological warfare with the Marxist Left.

For those unfamiliar with Sun Tzu, I encourage you to read his work.  The book is very short–which appeals to high school students–and, depending on whose translation you use, very readable.  I believe there are two major themes in the book: deception and intelligence.  The commander who possesses skills in both areas will never be defeated.  Period.  That’s a promise from Sun Tzu.

In Book 1, Sun Tzu writes, “All warfare is based on deception.”  Before the Christians in my readership balk at this, just hear me out.  What Sun Tzu means by deception is not false witness or deceit, but tactics.

“If your opponent [has a hot temper], seek to irritate him.  If he is taking his ease, give him no rest.  If his forces are united, separate them.  Attack him where he is unprepared; appear where you are not expected.” (Book I, Verses 22-24)

James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Andrew Breitbart have used the principle of deception to bring down the largest of the liberal community organizations.  By appearing in an unexpected place, they managed to secure evidence that ACORN was, in fact, the corrupt organization everyone knew it to be.  As a result, they have also put the enemy into chaos and damage control mode as the videos are released one at a time over the course of several weeks.  The White House has distanced itself from its one-time ally, and Congress is publicly pulling support.  Their forces are being divided.

On the issue of health care, we are also dividing their forces.  The “Blue Dog” Democrats have made clear their concerns over the president’s plan to take over the health care industry.  Though the Democrats have the party votes to pass this bill by force, they have not yet done so because of dissent within their own ranks.  Conservatives must seize on this opportunity and influence these dissenters as strongly and as often as possible.  Continued bickering within the Democrat camp will keep this bill shelved.

In Book II of The Art of War, Sun Tzu addresses morale.  “Now in order to kill the enemy,” he explains in Verse 16, “our men must be roused to anger.”  Men can be moved to action using several means.  The Democrats have repeatedly attempted to spread the falsehood that the Tea Party movement and the movement against the government takeover of health care are funded by large corporations.  Greed, they say, is the motivator of our troops.  Thankfully, they have apparently misinterpreted the outrage.  How many of you have attended Tea Parties or town hall meetings?  How many of you have been paid?

What is, then, our motivation?  Patriotism?  Fear?  Anger?  Of these, I would assert that righteous anger serves us best.  The difficulties of liberal congressmen in the recent town hall meetings is well documented.  Nancy Pelosi and her ilk have labeled the protesters as Nazis, rabblerousers, and white supremacists.  Wrong, wrong, and wrong.  Our forces are angry, pure and simple.  We are angry at the way the liberals have blatantly begun dismantling our country brick by brick.  We are angry at the way our own “allies” in the government have stood by complicit, even helpful in the breakdown at times.  We are angry that our children, for whom we sacrifice every day, will not inherit the same America for which our fathers and grandfathers fought.  Instead, they will receive a hollow shell of that nation, crumbling in its foundations and weighted down by entitlements to those who deserve none.  Anger at this prospect and the gleeful way in which Obama and his cronies are attempting to carry it out can fuel our forces for years, if need be.

In Book III, Sun Tzu gives the advice that, I believe, is the key to the entire work.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.  If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.  If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” (18)

Surely, at this juncture, we know ourselves.  We know what it is that ties us together, what it means to be Americans.  Also as surely do we know our enemies now.

• The vast majority of high schools, colleges and universities and the professors that fill our children’s heads with valueless platitudes in the hopes that one day those children will be good Democrats.
• The union leadership that seeks to exploit member workers for their own gain with no concern for the effect their actions have on the nation or its economy.
• The environmentalist movement that attempts on a daily basis to destroy our way of life in the name of their god, the Earth.
• The liberal media that fills our airwaves and newsstands with blind support for the Marxist agenda in the United States.
• Any politician that does not maintain his or her oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and any politician, regardless of party, that stands idly by while the federal government grows and consumes more of our great nation.

Sadly, we must, at least temporarily, count ourselves as our own enemy for allowing the liberal establishment to become so entrenched.  However, I do not believe that it is too late to reverse this trend, so long as we refuse to allow it to continue.  We know their tactics, we know how the liberals in Washington do business.  We also know their weaknesses.

In Book V of The Art of War, Sun Tzu advises how to take advantage of the enemy’s weakness and indecision.

“The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.  Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.  Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of a trigger.” (13-15)

Our forces must be vigilant.  When the enemy provides an opening, we must be ready to strike.  The falcon hovers lazily above its prey, waiting for the opportune time to attack.  When that moment comes, the bird does not hesitate, folding back its wings to dive at speeds up to 200 m.p.h. at its victim, which it kills on impact.

Like the falcon, we must be watchful for the enemy to waver.  If the president or one of his representatives lies, we must be ready to expose the lies for what they are.  Joe Wilson of South Carolina gave us a blueprint for a proper response during the president’s recent speech to the joint session of Congress.  When the president or his lackeys lash out at conservatives, as was done with charges of racism from Jimmy Carter, we must be quick to counterattack with reason, making such charges appear to be what they are: the inane babblings of an irrelevant former president who was trotted out by the Obama administration to throw the race card on the table.

Finally, Sun Tzu advises us to set the tone of the battle.  In Book VI, he writes:

“Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him.  We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole, which means that we shall be many to the enemy’s few.” (2, 14)

Rather than wait for the Democrats to set policy on health care, or allow ourselves to buy in to their basic premise that our health care system is broken and needs complete overhaul, our forces need to present the idea that it is government that is broken, not our institutions.  Instead, Republicans in Congress have put forth a second health care bill that does not take into account the premise of the argument.

Government, as Ronald Reagan said, is the problem.  Rather than take it upon themselves to create a federal solution for the health care “problem,” our representatives should be taking away government regulations on the insurance industry that force out competition and drive up costs.  They should be protecting the rights of the states to put caps on frivolous law suits so that physicians can stop passing on their malpractice insurance costs to the consumers.  We need no law for this… we have it in place already.  The Ninth and Tenth Amendments allow the states to handle these difficulties without the interference of the federal government.

Our representatives, however, have been saturated in the Washington climate so long that the only reasonable course to them is a federal statute or regulation.  Let’s set the battle lines so that, instead of allowing the liberals to dictate that some government action will solve the problem, we focus on the unconstitutional nature of such an ideology and allow the states to come up with their own solutions.

The entire text of The Art of War can be found online here: http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html

Tough Guy?

Wu Bangguo, the top legislator for the People’s Republic of China, just completed what can only be viewed as a very successful trip to the United States.  Wu, who is chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, met with leaders of both US houses as well as the President and Secretary of State. While Wu was unable to avert President Obama’s use of trade restrictions to ensure labor support for his domestic agenda, the Representatives of the US were otherwise deferential.

In contrast with prior administration’s preoccupation with human rights and Taiwanese independence, the Obama administration is happy to focus on less troubling elements like stabilizing financial markets and addressing climate change.  For a while, it even seemed that Taiwan itself was going to drop the contentious subject of independence under Ma.

Nature, however, does not always follow the prevailing political winds.  When a typhoon struck southern Taiwan, President Ma’s lackluster response created an opportunity for the Taiwanese opposition to turn Ma’s domestic loss into an international one by inviting the Dalai Lama to visit the unfortunate victims of the typhoon.  Ma agreed, the Dalai Lama came and to no one’s surprise, the chief cross-strait negotiator roundly condemned the visit as openly political and intentionally destabilizing.

This month’s installment of A Little Friendly Advice is for Wu Bangguo and the other members of the NPCSC.  For decades now, the Dalai Lama has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese government despite their best efforts.  Internationally, the Dalai Lama is respected as a proponent of freedom, Buddhist ideals and an indeterminate good will.  It appears that the official policy can be boiled down to this: they must wait for him to die.

The question Wu and the NPCSC must ask themselves is what isn’t working and what do we need to do differently?  The answer to that question was coined by famed 20th century architect Mies van de Rohe: “Less is more.”

The PRC has been unable to dislodge the international support enjoyed by the Dalai Lama because they have misunderstood the nature of his support.  Western nations do not support the Dalai Lama because of large Buddhist populations or because of any great prior knowledge of Tibetan affairs.  Westerners support the Dalai Lama because they see him as a martyr.  The key to winning this public relations war is not to win at all.

Sun Tzu’s Art of War, says, “In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. … Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”

What Sun Tzu understood was that success in war depends as much on perception as on having a material advantage.  What the NPCSC needs to understand is that the best way to mitigate the publicity of the Dalai Lama is to bring an end to any actions that resemble persecution to the outside world.  Practically, this looks like rescinding the exile order for the Dalai Lama and his clique, but it may include using the one country, two systems model again for Tibet. While originally designed for Taiwan, this paradigm has proved useful with Hong Kong and Macau, and could prove useful with the Dalai Lama and Tibet.  Ending the Dalai Lama’s apparent martyrdom would bring him out of the political spotlight and lessen his appeal in the West.

Sun Tzu tells commanders, “by holding out advantages to [your enemy], he can cause the enemy to approach of his own accord.”  This is the strategy wherein the Dalai Lama appears to get what he wants, the PRC looks merciful and unthreatened, and the West begins to forget.

A little friendly advice for Wu Bangguo: if you forget about the Dalai Lama, others will too.

“Strategy is not about rules, it’s about adaptation.”

“The Art of War is…about how you deal with the cards that life has dealt you – it is a holistic approach to winning.”
- Chin-ning Chu

I’ve tried reading it several times, each time failing to get through 10 pages, let alone learning something that would help me be a more effective project manager.

So when I read the cover of The Art of War for Women, I objected to it: first, because it seemed like an admission of my inability to get through the original book, second, because I didn’t like the idea of a “women’s version” and finally, because I didn’t want to fail to appreciate the “watered down” version for the girls.

But after reading the book, I want to go back and try to make my way through the original. The Art of War for Women is worth a read because it:

• Leads us back to the original Art of War

  Thanks to Chin-ning Chu’s skillful explanation of the principles, you begin to understand the value of the insights found in the original. It really is about winning with the cards you’ve been dealt.  Since this is a quality of successful people, the original book is something to check out if you want to succeed.

  With The Art of War for Women, you also begin to understand how to read obscure sentences like “Armed with the sense of righteousness and the blessings from Heaven, your army becomes fearless.” Chu presents this principle and then begins an excellent discussion on how you can make righteousness decisions that help you and your team succeed. After reading this book, I now understand how to read the original principles and derive useful insight for my career.

• Provides Success Levers

  I read business books to find ideas that I can use as levers to improve my effectiveness and then, through this blog, share the best ideas and books with others. While this book has ideas and advice derived from the Art of War, it has plenty of advice from the 21st century to make it worth reading in its own right. Managing your blue moments to encourage creativity and creating a unique resume to sell your abilities are a few of the useful tips that are packed in with insights from the original Art of War.

• Reframes the idea of War

  The title of the original, The Art of War, makes me think of a battle with casualties and blood. When today’s buzz words are collaboration and motivation, warring with others or other teams seems out of date. Chu explains that to the Chinese, war did not revolve around fighting.
  
  Instead, war was “determining the most efficient way of gaining victory with the least amount of conflict.”Throughout the book, she provides insight on how to read the political landscape, improve your timing, and develop the indefinable quality of “Presence,” in an effort to help you win battles before you start.

Trust me, this is a book you want to purchase.Have a book to recommend? Leave a comment, send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey

Cleveland is a great American city, and its best-known ambassador is in Asia.  Cleveland Cavaliers superstar forward LeBron James is in China on a tour promoting Nike shoes.  He met with students of migrant workers who have a special school outside of Beijing which Nike apparently supplies.

LeBron with migrant student in Chaoyang district, Beijing

In 2006, boarding a plane in Cleveland-Hopkins Airport bound for Beijing, I met LeBron’s then-teammate Damon Jones, who was the first American basketball player to promote shoes in China (for the Chinese brand Li-Ning, no less). It is quite interesting that everything we discussed that day as being pie-in-the-sky (NBA games in China, tours by LeBron to China) has now come to pass.

LeBron also spent time in Shenyang, where he was presented with a locally-designed variant on his shoe, which the artist called “Loyalty.”

LeBron with Chinese shoe designer in Shenyang, Liaoning province

According to the press release:

At a presentation that took place during Nike’s grassroots activities in Shenyang, Ray Lei gave James a uniquely designed pair of Air Max LeBron VII shoes. Lei used Chinese warrior images on the shoe to symbolize loyalty and bravery. He also represented LeBron’s loyalty by using symbols personal to him: “Irish” and the green color represent loyalty to his high school team, St Vincent St. Mary; “23″ stands for his loyalty to his team; and “330″ (his hometown area code) signifies loyalty to Akron, Ohio, where he grew up. In order to connect the shoe back to Shenyang, cloud and water elements were used in the design, as they frequently were on the uniforms of the Qing dynasty. The rose is Shenyang’s city flower. Additionally fog patterns were infused into the design, a reference to Chinese fairy tales in which troops would appear from fog before battle – similar to LeBron’s signature chalk dust before each game. Ray Lei is a 22-year-old graduate of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, and is currently taking masters classes with Professor Wu Guanying, the father of animation in China. His talents encompass a range of mediums, including cartoon, graphic design, illustration, short comic, graffiti and Hip-Hop music.

And Shenyang, like Cleveland in the 1990s, is coming up.  More direct flights, more foreign investment, more destruction of Manchukuo-era architecture, more North Koreans with money, more South Koreans with even more money, etc.  LeBron’s presence there is further proof.  More in subsequent posts on China-Ohio connections.

Beijing Suburb (photo by Adam Cathcart)

Hoop Dreams by the North Korean border, Jilin province (photo by Adam Cathcart)

 Sun Tzu

Principles of Subversion

1. Cover with ridicule all of the valid traditions in your opponent’s country.

2. Implicate their leaders in criminal affairs and turn them over to the scorn of their populace at the right time.

3. Disrupt the work of their government by every means;

4. Do not shun the aid of the lowest and most despicable individuals of your enemy’s country.

5. Spread disunity and dispute among the citizens.

6. Turn the young against the old.

7. Be generous with promises and rewards to collaborators and accomplices.  

A conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB propagandist, by G. Edward Griffin 1of 8

A conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB propagandist, by G. Edward Griffin 2 of 8

A conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB propagandist, by G. Edward Griffin 3 of 8

A conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB propagandist, by G. Edward Griffin 4 of 8

A conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB propagandist, by G. Edward Griffin 5 of 8

A conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB propagandist, by G. Edward Griffin 6 of 8

A conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB propagandist, by G. Edward Griffin 7 of 8

A conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB propagandist, by G. Edward Griffin 8 of 8

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. I 1/2

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. I 2/2

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIa 1/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIa 2/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIa 3/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIa 4/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIa 5/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIa 6/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIa 7/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIb 1/2

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. IIb 2/2

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. III 1/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. III 2/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. III 3/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. III 4/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. III 5/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. III 6/7

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt. III 7/7

Background Articles and Videos

Yuri Bezmenov, aka Tomas Schuman

“…Yuri Alexandrovic Bezmenov, now known as Tomas David Schuman, was born in 1939 in the former Soviet Union and worked as a journalist for Pravda. In this capacity, he secretly answered to the KGB. His true job was to further the aims of communist Russia. After being assigned to a station in India, Bezmenov eventually grew to love the people and culture of India, while, at the same time, he began to resent the KGB-sanctioned oppression of intellectuals who dissented from Moscow’s policies. He decided to defect to the West. Bezmenov/Schuman is best remembered for his Pro-American Anti-communist lectures and books from the 1980s.

In 1984, he gave an interview to G. Edward Griffin who, at that time, was a member of the John Birch Society, an anti-communist group. Bezmenov explained in this interview the methods used by the Soviet KGB to secretly subvert the democratic system of the United States[1].

Tomas D. Schuman authored the book Love Letter to America, W.I.N., Almanac Panorama, Los Angeles 1984, ISBN 0-935090-13-4. In Love Letter to America he writes, “Like a true-life Winston Smith, from the George Orwell book 1984, Tomas Schuman worked for the communist equivalent of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth – The Novosti Press Agency (RIA Novosti). Novosti, which means “News” in Russian, exists to produce slanted and false stories to plant in the foreign media. The term for this KGB effort is “disinformation”.

Tomas D. Schuman was associated with World Information Network (WIN) located at 31220 La Baya Dr. #110, Westlake, CA 91362. WIN published WIN PANORAMA books and cassettes along with the WIN Panorama Report newsletter. WIN also published under the name WIN Almanac Panorama, or ALmanac. In 1985, Tomas D. Schuman wrote No Novosti is Good News, Almanac, ISBN 0935090177 and in 1986 he wrote World Thought Police, Almanac, ASIN B0007246RO. An order form at the rear of Love Letter To America offers a book called KAL 007 and a cassette called “Radio Moscow” by Schuman.

Tomas Schuman (Yuri Bezmenov) L.A. 1983 pt.IV 1/2 lectured that the Soviet Union may have shot down flight Korean Air Lines Flight 007 aka KAL 007 to kill Larry McDonald, a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the seventh congressional district of Georgia as a Democrat. In addition to being a congressman, Larry McDonald was chairman of the John Birch Society and considered communism an international conspiracy. McDonald was a founder of the Western Goals Foundation that combatted the threat of communism. McDonald introduced Resolution 773 calling for a comprehensive Congressional investigation into the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Trilateral Commission. A May 1983 broadcast of Crossfire, recorded months before Soviet interceptors shot down KAL 007, killing anti-communist Congressman McDonald along with 268 other souls, can be found on YouTube entitled Larry McDonald on the New World Order (NWO).

The whereabouts of Yuri Bezmenov, aka Tomas David Schuman, is unknown but unconfirmed internet sources report that he died in 1997 in Canada. The G. Edward Griffin interview along with many other lectures by Yuri Bezmenov aka Tomas Schuman can be viewed on YouTube. …”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Bezmenov

Sun Tzu

“…Sun Tzu (traditional Chinese: 孫子; simplified Chinese: 孙子; pinyin: Sūn Zi, pronounced [suən˥ tsz̩˨˩˦]. Sun is his family name, and Tzu is an honorific in classic Chinese[citation needed], roughly equivalent to Sir, or the Learned Gentleman. His given name is Wǔ (武). His style name is Chángqīng (長卿). Sun Tzu is traditionally believed to be the author of The Art of War, sometimes called the Sun Tzu, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy considered to be a prime example of Taoist strategy. Sun has had a significant impact on Chinese and Asian history and culture, both as an author of the Art of War and as a legendary figure. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Sun’s The Art of War grew in popularity and saw practical use in Western society, and his work has continued to influence both Asian and Western culture and politics.

Historians have questioned whether or not Sun was an authentic historical figure. Traditional accounts place him in the Spring and Autumn Period of China (722–481 BC) as a heroic general of the King of Wu who lived c. 544—496 BC. Scholars accepting his historicity place his supposed writing The Art of War in the Warring States Period (476–221 BC), based on the descriptions of warfare in the text. Traditional accounts state that his descendant, Sun Bin, also wrote a master treatise on military tactics. …”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu

Who is Sun Tzu

“…Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, there was a period in China known as the Age of Warring States. This was an age of great conflict and uncertainty as seven states fought for survival & control of China. For these states to win they sought out any means of gaining advantage over their opponents; those with knowledge on strategy & leadership was especially sought after. It was during this time that there arose a general from the state of Ch’i known as Sun Tzu. His ability to win victories for his warlord gained him fame and power.

To hand down the wisdom he had gained from his years of battles Sun Tzu wrote a book, The Art of War, that became the classic work on strategy in China. His book, which details a complete philosophy on how to decisively defeat one’s opponent, has given guidance to military theorists and generals throughout the ages. In The Art of War, military readers found a holistic approach to strategy that was powerful and deep–it is truly a masterpiece on strategy. As the former U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell said, “I’ve read the Chinese classic The Art of War written by Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu has been studied for hundreds of years. He continues to give inspiration to soldiers and politicians. So every American soldier in the army knows of his works. We require our soldiers to read it.” …”

http://www.suntzu1.com/content/who_is_sun_tzu/