Sun Tzu declared that if you do not know yourself or your enemy, you are doomed to fail.
He wrote that in the Art of War, some 2600 years ago. What he wrote then was true as it is now.
The reason that this is dangerous is that you delude yourself. What you say is truth becomes “truth.”
It also promotes telling the leader what he wants to hear. The penalty for telling the truth will be hazardous to you personally. In ancient times, the king killed the messenger who brought bad news.
It is the same today.
When George W Bush became president, Dick Cheney went to the Pentagon and fired, transferred or forced into retirement long time experts in gathering intelligence. They were replaced with loyalists who reported what Bush and Cheney wanted to hear. That is why we went to war in Iraq.
Mr. Trump claimed that the 2020 election was stolen so many times that he came to believe it. He cast his gang of thugs who attacked the capitol as peace loving tourists.
Recently, Mr. Trump declared that he stopped condoms worth $50 million from going into Gaza. There never was a donation. He removed aid to South Africa because he told himself that South Africa was confiscating farm land from whites. This was false.
Mr. Musk has tried to fire all of the USAID staff. He claims all of them are corrupt. There is no evidence. It is a lie.
As a former Military Intelligence officer who served in the Special Forces in the US and at the G-2 level in Vietnam, I understand first hand the harm that lying to yourself has. Westmoreland’s staff closed their eyes to the way peasant armies work. The Viet Cong and the North Vietnam Army use a dual command structure. They have a Political Officer and a Tactical Officer. They have a dual command, unlike our system. Refusing to see that politics influenced military action was deadly. They saw the enemy by looking at a mirror that reflected their own views.
Joseph Goebbels knew what he was saying was propaganda. He believed that if you tell a big lie enough times, people will believe it. The problem is that you begin to believe what you say. This works for a short time but not in the long term. Besides Goebbels understood that what he was doing was propaganda and not truth.
Stalin did not react when he was told the Germans were going to invade the USSR. Hitler was blindsided by accurate military intelligence, especially in his invasion of Russia.
It does not take a futurist to see that made as instructed “truth” is a bad strategy in the long run. It causes you to make decisions on facts that are false. You cannot separate truth from lies. Those around you know better than to tell you the truth.
When does it all end?
It ends when a little boy in the crowd shouts “The emperor’s not wearing any clothes!”
And then it is too late.
One Response
You are amazing. This article is very deep and thoughtful.
Confucius did say, “a gentleman should slow in speech but quick in action”. While people intentionally/unintentionally make a quick statemen regardless if it is consistent with his/her role, a “ clique” may be formed through this type of communication. Then, social desires become a barrier of personal and society growth.
Sometime, people may not intend to lie because they really believe it when they say it, or maybe that is the only way they know how to express themselves.
My comment is not about political topics but everyday life. I hope the little boy wasn’t lectured by his parents after he went home😊.