First Way to Lose Your State Is to Neglect Art of War
Carl von Clausewitz, the famous armed forces theorist, said, "War is the continuation of politics by other means." He meant armed forces means. Conversely, politics is the fine art of war cloaked in civility and procedure. Alasdair MacIntyre wrote in his book, After Virtue: A Written report in Moral Theory (University of Notre Dame Press, 1984), that politics is "ceremonious war carried on by other ways."
Politicians need to written report state of war, says Machiavelli, not simply acquire the fine art of fighting and defending through on-the-task training. That's similar learning to play world-course poker in front end of the Goggle box cameras against skilled players. You lot will learn many lessons, but you'll lose a lot of easily, too.
You may not carry a gun, or a sword, merely every politician is a soldier nonetheless. The council table is our main battlefield, merely nosotros fight every bit in the media, on the street, in coffee shops and in committees. Sometimes nosotros're fighting for the customs, sometimes for quango at large; other times we're fighting for ourselves and our own ideals.
Some of us are foot soldiers, others are generals. All of us demand to know the rules of the battleground, however. Anyone who comes to office thinking politics isn't a battlefield, or isn't willing to learn the rules of the fight, will lose – lose votes, face, reputation, respect and award. Politics is war.
Machiavelli opens Chapter XIV: That Which Concerns a Prince on the Subject of the Art of War, with:
"A prince ought to dedicate himself to no other art, nor study anything other than war with its rules and discipline. This is the sole art that is expected of rulers. Information technology is so powerful that it not only maintains those who are born princes, but it ofttimes enables men to rise from a private citizen to that rank."
Power and knowledge are linked. You demand cognition to put the edge on your weapons. Similarly, Sun Tzu wrote,
"The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a affair of life and death, a road either to safe or to ruin. Hence information technology is a subject field of research which can on no account exist neglected."
Sun Tzu: Book one: Laying Plans
If you don't know the rules, Machiavelli warns, you will lose your condition, your reputation and possibly more:
"When princes have thought more than of pleasure than of arms, they accept lost their states. And the first reason y'all lose it is because y'all neglected the fine art of war; and the best way to acquire a country is to become master of that art."
What rules? How almost your procedural bylaw? Practice you know it well enough to derail an opponent with points of guild, or well plenty to defer a challenge? When tin yous call for a recorded vote, and why do you want one? Have yous read your municipal and departmental policies? What about your strategic plan? Your mission or vision statement? Your code of conduct and confidentiality documents?
What about your provincial municipal act, the planning act, conflict of interest human activity, libraries act – these and similar legislation all provide the ground rules. Only they're not all you lot need to acquire.
Other Weapons, Other Tactics
Communication is a weapon, too. Having a good communication strategy coupled with adept relations with the media so you can use them to get your message across can be a game changer. You need to know how and when to communicate, and what to say (and not say). You need to know when to speak, and when to shut up, when to deflect questions, when to go 'off the record.'
Facebook, blogs, Twitter and other social media are a new battleground you lot have to sympathise and use. You demand to know how to monitor net, and how to apply it for your own reward.
Are y'all comfortable enough in cyberspace to Google information to support your statement while your opponent prattles on trying to kill your motility? Tin can yous e-mail beau councillors during a debate and round up support on-the-fly when necessary? Or do yous believe it isn't proper to apply the modern tools of advice to your advantage?
Are you blogging yet? Do you take a Facebook folio, or a LinkedIn account? Do you stand for with the media via email or Facebook updates? You lot can be sure your opponents will exist using these and other online services, and using them as weapons against you when they can. Larn how to wield them for yourself.
If you come up to the tabular array without a adept knowledge of these rules and services, others in your council who do know them will take reward of your ignorance. They will score points and they will play tricks and belittle you lot. You lot, in plow, won't trust those who are able to use process and legislation to their advantage (and likely to your disadvantage):
"Amid other evils, beingness unarmed brings causes you to be despised, and this is i of those ignominies confronting which a prince ought to guard himself."
Like in any sport, the person who knows the rules controls the field and decides who plays on the team. Arm yourself with knowledge, he says, otherwise y'all're a casualty-in waiting:
"There is nothing comparable betwixt the armed and the unarmed. It is not reasonable that an armed human being should willingly obey someone who is unarmed, or that the unarmed man should be secure amidst armed mercenaries. Because, there being in the armed man contempt, and in the unarmed man suspicion, it is non possible for them to cooperate."
The public and your supporters will think you lot a fool, too, and you will lose your base of operations among the electorate if you often get tripped up past those rules they await you to know:
"A prince who does not understand the fine art of state of war will non be respected by his soldiers, nor can he rely on them."
And y'all volition be hands fooled by staff, too. Staff will take reward of your ignorance to become things by y'all that further their ain agendas.
Machiavelli recommends you study all the relevant laws and bylaws, policies and procedures, so you know how and where to fight:
"…to find out how the mountains rising, how the valleys open up out, how the plains prevarication, and to understand the nature of rivers and marshes… The prince who lacks this skill lacks the essential trait that a captain should possess, for it teaches him to surprise his enemy, to select quarters, to lead armies, to array the battle, and to successfully besiege towns."
We all know politicians who barely read their agenda, let lone bylaws and policies. They come to the table unprepared; they go off track because they don't follow proper procedure, they brand motions contrary to existing policies and bylaws, and they bollix with irrelevant questions during debates. Non only are they ineffective as politicians, but they take council along unnecessary detours that commonly waste material fourth dimension and sometimes resources pursuing their goals.
Knowledge is a weapon yous need to exist able to wield to be a successful politician. The better you know the rules, and the meliorate informed you are, the more y'all are armed for the fight at the council table.
"Amongst other qualifications essential in a skillful captain is a knowledge, both full general and particular, of places and countries, for without such noesis it is impossible for him to carry out whatsoever enterprise in the all-time way. And while practise is needed for perfection in every art, in this information technology is needed in the highest degree."
The Discourses: Three, 39
Study your politics, report your history for examples from the by. Pay attention to gimmicky news to learn how others rise and autumn then you tin imitate their success and avert their failures:
"To exercise the intellect the prince should read histories, and study at that place the actions of illustrious men, to encounter how they take conducted themselves in war, and discover the causes of their victories and defeat, then as to avoid the latter and imitate the quondam."
Read and heed the local media, especially. Whether you lot agree or disagree with them, whether you accept confidence in their objectivity or coverage, doesn't matter. It matters is that you keep abreast of local events and bug. Don't comment on a local event y'all are ignorant of.
Always know what the editorials are saying about y'all. Too many politicians turn confronting the media when they get criticized in an editorial, or when a story wasn't equally flattering every bit expected. That's unwise: if you lot don't deal with them, if y'all don't do interviews, if you don't read or watch the local news, you're similar a general giving upwardly the field to the enemy after a small skirmish.
Y'all will make enemies of the media if you lot brand a point of ignoring or dismissing them. Better to make them your allies or at the very least keep them neutral. Make a show of greeting them, compliment them on their coverage; joke with them when you are criticized. If you lot show them a friendly, human side, rather than take an adversarial stance, the media will develop at least a modicum of respect for you lot.
"When the lion fawns upon the lamb,
The lamb will never stop to follow him."
William Shakespeare: Henry Vi, Role iii, Sc. Four
And grow a thicker peel if what they say bothers yous.
Exist prepared, says Machiavelli, something he reiterates in Chapter 25. Don't stand idle. Don't wait until bug occur – plan for them, plan for the worst, and be fix to respond when adversity arises:
"A wise prince ought to discover some such rules, and never take things like shooting fish in a barrel in peaceful times, but instead should vigorously utilise the time to his advantage in such a fashion that the resource may exist available to him in times of adversity, so that he is prepared to resist fortune's blows."
A skillful and farsighted mayor never stops studying the issues, never ignores the media reports, never stops observing his or her opponents to run into where they are headed. That way, when trouble does heighten its head, the mayor is prepared to run across it.
If you don't already know it, learn to play chess. Even if you lot never win a game, chess volition teach you how to strategize, plan ahead and motility your pieces in concert with the others; supporting and defending one another. There are many lessons in politics a wise mayor can learn from chess.
"To win or to lose a chess game against Machiavelli would be equally entertaining, as either scenario would unfold equally a tale of interesting interpersonal disharmonize, camaraderie, treachery, and above all, rich strategic thinking."
Playing Chess with Machiavelli, by Andrew S. Gordon,
IBM TJ Watson Inquiry Centre, 2001
Expect to the addendum for a summary of the rules of state of war Machiavelli presented in his work on military science, The Fine art of State of war.
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Source: http://ianchadwick.com/machiavelli/chapters-8-14/chapter-14-learn-the-rules-of-war/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWhen%20princes%20have%20thought%20more,become%20master%20of%20that%20art.%E2%80%9D
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