I have heard Dr Stephen Kotkin say on more than one occasion that Josef Stalin had the luxury of mobilizing his collectivized farmers as and when he felt the need for more cannon fodder, the term “cannon fodder” being an embellishment of my own. Leaders, both civilian and military, have used expressions similar to “I can afford to lose a Platoon every day” or “We can throw Poland under the bus, just don’t make it so obvious because I also need Polish votes at home this coming election.” These are darkly contrasted with how Genghis Khan was not willing to lose the life of even a single Mongol warrior, or how men like Themistocles, Sherman, Patton and Matthew Ridgway decided on courses of action designed to keep casualties, on both sides, to a minimum. Now, if you ask me what this has got to do with your running of your own company, organization or other business, bear in mind that people throughout history have always been enamoured of great war leaders and incessantly proclaim themselves to be applying the “lessons” learned from the pages of history. The current woke mob is nothing new. It proclaims to learn the “truer” lessons of history. That is, history which serves the propping up of its own self-moralistic worldviews. The woke mob is also active in your society, your companies and your communities. It is the story of Human Beings since the beginning.
Two pieces of news caught my eye this morning. One was Dr George Friedman’s “The strategies of the Israel-Hamas War.” The last sentence of that piece reads “There will be massive changes in thinking on both sides.” Thinking? What thinking? Changes to what, exactly? Well, if both sides have what each believes is their own raison d’etre then the thinking must be at the policy, strategic and operational levels, meaning “What do we need to continue to live out our own raison d’etre and how do we go about it?” Does it entail the mutual assured destruction of both civilizations, both cultures? If we proclaim that we as a nation are committed to being a force for good in the world in which we live, how do we demonstrate this belief? If other nations embrace this belief and reciprocate, well and good, let’s continue to do business. But if not, then what? That, by the way, is also extremely applicable to your company. How do you turn enemies into friends, all the while ensuring that erstwhile enemies will be struck down if they continue to menace you and your value-adding operations?
The second piece of news was concerning Taiwan’s extension of the period of military conscription from four months to one year. The idea behind this was of course that a longer period of military training is essential for greater military preparedness. That is of course true, but it is only one aspect of what needs to happen. The most important is whether the nation believes that it is a nation, meaning it is comprised of people who have covenanted to care for each other by being their best economically productive selves. By that I mean in terms of real value, producing goods or rendering global services, not merely moving electrons across a computer screen. But more than that. Sherman and Patton knew that they could not take young, relatively soft men who could not do without luxuries and addictions that had morphed into essental life support systems and throw them headlong into the jaws of hardened professional killers. So they out-thought and outmanoeuvred their callow tenderfoots around the rocks and struck voids, just as Sun Tzu had admonished so many years before. Did Sherman and Patton read Sun Tzu? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But they certainly applied at least some of the oracles. Is growing your people a manifest part of your everyday company culture? Such that you don’t even have to think about it or wage “campaigns” ad infinitum? Or keep looking for fresh blood? Remember, you do have First Blood…
So there you have it. Think collectively, and do not become collectivized. Recognize that your own people out there on the shadowy fringes might not be so bad after all. Come talk to me about these things. You’re welcome!
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