Declare War on Your Enemies - The Polarity Strategy
To start combat you must know and identify your opponents.
It is critical to see who, what you are fighting and the reasons behind your battle.
You need clarity and cannot allow yourself to be blinded by the fog of war.
Here Greene differentiates between the Inner Enemy and the Outer Enemy:
The Inner Enemy.
In 401 BC, Xenophon was hired by Cyrus whose mission was to overthrow his brother and Persian
king Ataxerxes.
Xenophon had to shift a mercenary band of Greeks into a concentrated force fighting
for self-preservation.
They had to identify their opponent, conclude the reasons for their bloodshed and resolve
their own disputes.
There is an old african-american proverb that perfectly describes this "If there is no enemy
within, the enemy outside can do us no harm."
In this historical example, the real threat came from the greek's own ranks, not from
the outside.
Oftentimes we find ourselves in a predicament that was not of our own choosing.
It was not our fault (on a sidenote - it is advantageous to always assume you're at fault,
take full ownership, put the burden of responsibility on your shoulders and grow with it - continuing)
It was not out fault and we have a right to be angry, but what happens then is essential.
Are we going to sit around, complain, argue and moan in defiance or are we going to accept
the situation we found ourselves in and look for a way out.
Xenophon was more of a philosopher and historian, than a mercenary, so he understood the problem
at hand was not that the Greeks were few in numbers, surrounded by a vast army of Persians
far away from home.
That was secondary.
The enemy within was that the mercenaries were lost, unable to help themselves in a
never-ending cycle of bargaining and debate in the belly of the beast that was Ataxerxes
lands, the outer enemy.
Xenophon knew, they had to be consumed with one idea, and one idea only: survival.
As they focused on getting home alive as a concentrated force, they became inventive
and inspired.
This is what I call forced creativity.
When you have no other option, magically, you start seeing solutions that weren't there
before.
Necessity rules the world.
The greeks had to come up with a plan, because their very lives depended on their doing so,
but the most important thing was this: they had to understand what was at stake.
The mission & the possible consequences had to be crystal perfectly clear.
What are they fighting and why are they fighting it (This is the Polarity Strategy, dispelling
of the blinding fog of war.
You need clarity).
Once they realized that they declared total war, no middleground, no half measures, no
prisoners, only the mission at hand and the will to survive.
That is in fact deathground strategy.
We will be looking at that in chapter 4.
I'm so pumped for that episode, you can not miss it.
And again, "If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm."
It took them several years, but the vast majority of the greek mercenaries, along with Xenophon,
had made it back to Greece safely.
I don't know about you, but to me, this is a very inspiring story.
The Outer Enemy.
Margaret Thatcher did not hold back with clarity on who her outer opponents were.
She took a strong stance and fought relentlessly for what she felt was the right thing, not
ever giving up on herself, while facing her opposition, thus fulfilling her tasks.
This might just as well be about Donald Trump.
Look out for the similarities.
Margaret was a middle-class woman and resembled a housewife more than a politician, but it
was her instinct to stand out, to unapolagetically be herself.
Instead of becoming a replacable insider, she stayed an outsider to politics taking
unconventional approaches, caring more about her conviction than being liked.
Popularity is ephemeral and superficial.
Margaret Thatcher defined her enemies: the socialists, the sowjets & the Argentineans.
She understood having a strong stance would make some of the public hate her, you can't
please everyone, but she also knew it would signify her courage, determination, self-sacrifice
and power.
And that, ladies and gentlemen is one of the reasons why Trump is such an interesting character.
If only his opponents had subscribed to my channel or perhaps read Greene's books.
Now, I want to make this clear, I'm neither for or against Trump.
I live in Switzerland, I could care less and I'm not taking a political stance, but the
fact that even I, an ignorant 22 year old far away from US soil, know who he is and
what he stands for.
The fact that the media is constantly being outraged by him, not taking their cameras
off him for one second.
Some of you might remember Law #6: Court Attention At All Cost.
You shouldn't underestimate Trump and his unique hairstyle.
I just decided this instance to review his book 'The Art of the Deal' sometime in the
future.
I'm willing to bet it's full of wisdom that we're all on about on this channel.
Like him or hate him, you can learn from him.
While researching I stumbled upon one of Margaret's quotes "In politics, if you want anything
said, ask a man: if you want anything done, ask a woman."
So I'm not entirely sure how much credit we can give her now.
I'm joking, of course.
It looks a lot like Hillary might be the next president, but judging from their campaigns
so far maybe Trump is the one to get things done.
Then again, what do I know?
I'm always glad to be proven wrong in the comment section.
Who is winning the election?
Keys to Warfare / what are the most important lessons we should take away from this chapter?
Define your opponent.
/ Know who & what you are fighting, understand why you are fighting your adversary.
If you don't know what the problem is, you can't solve it.
If you don't know who's causing the problems, they'll keep causing them.
Define.
Your.
Opponent.
It is that important, there's a good reason why Greene starts the book with the polarity
strategy.
The most powerful strike doesn't mean anything if you don't know what to hit with it.
This is step one in every war.
Know your enemy.
Wheather we're talking about actual warfare, business endeavours, relationships, whatever.
These principles are universal.
In uncertainty, test to ensure you've defined the right opponent.
/ Never trust appearances.
Just like the godfather, Don Vito Corleone, you might initially think, the Tattaglia family
is the real enemy only to discover the attached strings that are in the hands of Barzini.
In other words make sure you're right about your target and you haven't been misled to
direct your attack at a pawn or a decoy.
Distract attention away from you by using your opponents.
/ When your opposition attacks, they will go for your weaknesses, the things that make
you stand out as an individual character.
Instead of justifying yourself, own your image.
Margaret was a middle-class housewife-turned-politician, indeed, she was unconventional & aggressive,
yes, but she stood up for herself & regarded those points as her qualities.
Then she pointed out the faults and the evil of her rivals.
As their image was built around pleasing everyone, that was an easy attack.
You roast Donald Trump, because of his hair, he laughs it off.
You try to battlerap B-Rabbit / Eminem in 8 Mile, he proudly owns up to all his short-comings
and shreds his opponents to pieces lyrically.
Reversal Do all of this, but in victory, act conciliatory.
Be humble once you've defeated your opponent.
You do not want to rub salt in the wound of your enemy after you've won.
The victory is yours, you've got what you wanted, now be modest.
If you take on the traits of a dreadful winner instead, like a Calvin Candy type in Quentin
Tarantino's Django.
Chances are, you might be dealing with a Mr. Schultz... who, offended in his honor, won't
take kindly to your actions.
Like the UFC fighter Conor McGregor do anything to win, declare mental warfare, get into the
head of your opponent, make them so emotionally invested that you start to consume them, like
we've seen with Jose Aldo.
Again being liked by all, being popular is ephemeral and superficial.
Let some of the public hate you, it's better to stand out, it's better to have a strong
set of values, it's better to win.
And then, when the time for the physical fight finally arrives, it might be over within 13
seconds.
The psychological war was already won before the cagefight had even begun, but once Conor
was declared the winner, all his nasty behaviour, all the disrespect towards Aldo was gone and
he embraced his victory with modesty.
Aldo clearly was the outer enemy, but let me quote Conor on the inner enemy.
I see this a lot with people and they're so insecure about some bullshit ideas that the
successful are born talented and they're just cut from a different cloth.
These guys come up with every excuse in the book for why they're not enough and McGregor
just nailed it.
"There's no talent here, this is hard work.
This is an obsession.
Talent does not exist, we are all equals as human beings.
You could be anyone if you put in the time.
You will reach the top, and that's that.
I am not talented, I am obsessed."
And I couldn't agree more, to me 'talent' is just a word you use to compliment someone
else.
When I hear 'You're talented.', I thank them and go about my day knowing fully well I'm
not a special snowflake and regardless of what they believe, in my mind, they were just
being nice to me and that's it - I continue improving myself as the work in progress we
all are.
For lots of people what's holding them back is themselves.
You're fighting the world just as much as you're fighting your self, your own negative
thoughts, emotions and gravitation to comfort.
That's it for this chapter, however I deliberately left one part of the first historical example
untouched, because it was nonessential to the Polarity Strategy, but just really quickly
let me read you this excerpt from Anabasis, The March Up Country, written by Xenophon
himself.
"Then Xenophon got up, and first called together the underofficers of Proxenos.
When they were collected he said: "Gentlemen, I cannot sleep and I don't think you can;
and I can't lie here when I see what a plight we are in.
It is clear that the enemy did not show us open war until they thought they had everything
well prepared; and noone among us takes the pains to make the best possible resistance."
"...until they thought they had everything well prepared; and noone among us takes the
pains to make the best possible resistance."
Does that sound familiar, does it ring any bells?
"War can never be avoided, only delayed to the advantage of your enemies."
That's Machiavelli 101.
Yet we have people in charge who do exactly what the greek mercenaries were doing initially.
I refuse to think some of our world leaders don't know any better.
And guess what would've happened to these greek men, were it not for Xenophon to lead
them.
They would've been unapologetically slaughtered.
Anyways, I think I will refrain from doing any more political rant / commentary like
this, unless you'd want me to.
I just couldn't resist, because the times we live in right now are, to put it frankly,
utterly insane, but I want to keep the videos as strictly about the book and the vast wealth
of knowledge it conveys, as I can.
Good.
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This is my 4th out of 6 languages.
My accent is one of the things that make me unique und das ist gut so (and that's good
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