The Art of Victory: Maxims & Chapters

 
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What�s in The Art of Victory ...

The Chapters      The Maxims

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The book has 30 main chapters:

Prologue: The Emerging Global Revolution
1Defining Victory
2 Embarking on the Path to Victory
3 Defining a Grand Strategy for Victory
4 The R�le of War in Victory
5 Mastering Self, Mastering Fate
6 God and Victory
7 The Pre-Requisites of Victory
8 Abstraction, Complexity, and Victory
9 Positioning Perceptions for Victory
10 Identity as the Core of Victory
11 The Failure, and Promise, of Terrorism
12 The Care and Feeding of Enemies
13 When Destruction is the Aim, Victory is Not
14 Making Victory Endure Through �Legitimacy�
15 The True Leader
16 The Passion of Leadership
17 Perceptions of Leadership
18 The Great Symbiosis of Leader and Led
19 Loyalty and Survival
20 The Never-Ending Challenge
21 Welcome to an Interregnum of Cratocide and Cratogenesis
22 Victory�s Unique DNA
23 The Gift Which Cannot be Given
24 The Gift to Oneself
25 Strength and Courage: the Hallmarks of Victory
26 My Country, Right or Wrong ...
27 The Sum of All Strengths
28 The Teamwork of Leader and Society
Epilogue: The Art of Victory in the Age of Opportunity

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The Maxims of The Art of Victory The maxims demand extensive interpretation, but, once expounded, are intended to provoke thought as to how they can be applied to individual situations or future scenarios. The book draws on extensive historical references to make its case, based on the more extensive original manuscript, which is fully annotated.

1. Victory is the principal goal of a society and the first responsibility of the state, because only in victory is the survival possible of a people, its civilization and values, its language and freedoms.

2. Victory begins with a single act, and may begin to be unraveled by a single event, but it is only built and defended through generations of separate, patient and conscious actions.

3. Victory can only be sustained and built by the conscious articulation of grand strategy objectives which must accord with, and become part of, the society�s psyche.

The development of an operating grand strategy and the conscious re-articulation and evolution of the grand strategy objectives substantially increases the likelihood of victory.

4. War is the most common and successful catalyst through which victory is commenced, but once victory is secured, warfare should be the preferred option only when considered against lesser forces.

When warfare must be fought against equal or greater powers, then victory is jeopardized. What must be weighed is whether victory is more greatly jeopardized by war, or by the avoidance of war.

5. Victory gives its holders the power to define and prevail in terms of language, belief structures, and lifestyle, but all these become jeopardized the moment arrogance allows the Victorious people to take these benefits for granted. Arrogance opens the path to defeat and to another�s victory. Constant challenge and redefinition from within and without is the lifeblood of Victory�s sustenance.

6. No victory was ever begun, or sustained, without a belief system which was greater than the individual. The more divine and unassailable the inspiration � however its divinity is defined � the more potent its force. However, reliance on belief alone, without the balance of other strengths, is the path to defeat.

7. Belief in a greater power than one�s self is essential to victory, but self-belief is of equal importance in obtaining and sustaining victory.

8. Organically evolved complexity defines and sustains victory.

Victory is conceived in the absolute simplicity of its immediate objectives and driven by the simple necessity of a society to achieve dominion over its own destiny. But victory is sustained and defended against collapse by the construction of increasingly complex and interlocking modalities which buffer a society against weaknesses in any individual areas. Watersheds create or destroy victory; organically-evolved complexity defines and sustains victory.

9. Only the mind can conceive victory, comprehend threats and possibilities, and accept defeat. All victory is more easily achieved and maintained by placing twice the emphasis on psychological strategy as on physical force.

Victory must therefore first be achieved in and by the mind before it can be achieved physically. Defeat, equally, is engendered principally in the mind. It therefore follows that psychological strategies are the masters of physical strategies and are their superiors. It also follows that victory can be achieved or defeated through psychological measures. The acme of victory is its achievement and sustenance solely without physical war. Next is the achievement of victory through disruption of an enemy�s plans, which means disruption of his collective mind, will, image, and ability to influence and communicate. Third is the achievement of victory by the efficient use of force under the guidance of a comprehensive psychological strategy.

10. Victory is achieved and sustained in direct proportion to the level of �identity security� � historical self-knowledge, self-perception and inherent pride � of a society and its leaders, demanding an appreciation of history, the evolution and importance of tradition, and identification with societal icons.

11. Terrorism is a tool for an imperiled society to use in order to avoid vanquishment and disintegration. It is not a war-winning weapon, nor is it a tool to gain or sustain victory.

In the fight for victory, terrorism can only be a weapon to stave off defeat, unless its target voluntarily surrenders.

12. Victory can never be given, it can only be achieved, and peace is secure only in victory. While victory can be shared, appeasement is the commencement of the erosion of victory. Indeed, enemies are vital to victory as the stimulus for its defense. Therefore embrace, nurture, understand, and respect enemies.

13. Destruction can never be the quest of victory. Destruction may merely be a step in the path to construction, for construction is the hallmark of victory.

14. Victory must be recognized by the victorious as well as by the outside world if it is to be truly durable. It must be acknowledged, accepted and venerated, and this process of legitimization must be consciously and assiduously attended. No neglect in this process can be tolerated; nor can challenges to legitimacy be allowed to go unmet. Victory is as it is perceived and honored to be.

15. The true leader is as one with his or her epoch and comprehends the place and r�le of past leaders while building a foundation for future leaders. Only through leadership can a society be greater than the sum of its parts.

16. Collective leadership does not exist. Collective responsibility is the abdication of responsibility. Leadership and responsibility must be conducted in isolation; the greater the level of leadership and responsibility, the greater the isolation from human interaction which must be accepted. This is because leadership is as iconic as it is physical.

17. Leadership, like victory itself, is as it is perceived and revered to be.

18. All victory is the responsibility of the leader, and the leader is the fruit of the society. Each makes the other, but the leader ultimately must transcend collectivity, which is defined by its median, its mediocrity. But if successive leaders fail to raise the median of the society, then the society may ultimately reject even the best leader. Therefore, even a single poor leader damages victory, just as a single great leader may advance its cause.

19. Mutual loyalty exists only between equals. In all other instances, loyalty flows only in any durable form from the weaker to the more powerful. There is ultimately no loyalty from the strong to the weak, and nor will the loyalty of the weak to the strong long survive the collapse of the stronger party.

20. Victory can never be total, and this is its beauty. Victory is always relative and will ultimately fail if it attempts to be absolute.

21. The enemy of �identity� is �mass�: greater mass obliterates the identity and purpose of victory, which is the perpetuation and security of individual bloodlines, and the survival of the clan within a society of clans, each of which contributes the strength of its identity to society. Where identity is sacrificed to mass, victory suffers.

22. Victory is an art beyond science, but embracing science, and each society must pursue victory in accord with its needs and character. As all victory is the need and possession of the society which pursues it, so it must reflect that society and cannot be wholly copied from another, although the principles remain the same for all.

23. Victory can never be sustained by attempting to give a separate victory to another. Victory cannot be bought or sold; it can only be won. Victory given as a gift is always perceived as the weakness of the giver, who in granting it becomes the object of contempt or nurtured resentment.

24. The gift of victory is something which can only be given by a society to itself.
25. No victory was ever created or sustained by weakness, physical or intellectual.

26. An enemy can on no account be ignored, and while an enemy�s motive must be understood, it can never be given greater right than the defense of one�s own victory.

27. Victory which depends solely on a single element � whether strength of force, religion or belief, wealth, culture, or intellect � will fail.

28. Victory is beyond the power of any individual, and yet is absolutely dependent on the strength of the individual leader.

 



 
Copyright � 2006, Gregory R. Copley. All rights reserved.
     
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