MACOFS Military Maxims — Section 3: Politics & Foreign Policy

Status: Canon (confirmed by creator) — full text preserved per archival standard. Previously excluded per an earlier creator policy holding the Maxims separate from the archive; that policy has since been reversed, and the full text is now archived here.

Source: books/macofs-military-maxims — see Reception & Publishing History, Forewords, Editor's Note & Introduction, and Perold Jonas.

MACOFS MILITARY MAXIMS PART THREE: MAXIMS OF POLITICS AND FOREIGN POLICY (Reorganized in Conceptual Order by Category) ======================================================================

1. PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS & THE NATURE OF WAR

1. What's right is right, what's wrong is wrong.

1. War can be defined as national policy contrary to and/or at odds with any other nation's national policy.

1. The seeds of war do not lie in the weapons of war, but rather, in the hearts of men.

1. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor and contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. People that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.

1. The more widely spread that war is not winnable -- the more chance there is that war can be avoided.

1. An increase in savagery in warfare is apt to follow new developments -- technical or political -- which unsettle the existing order.

1. Atrocity is recognized by such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self perpetuating upon itself -- a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.

1. If God be for us, who can be against us?

1. The result of every war will surprise you.

1. The fate of nations hangs not entirely on the actions of men or women. Battles are not won by swords alone. There are influences beyond, sometimes malignant and sometimes benign, which dictate the outcome of human affairs.

1. PSYCHOLOGY, MORALE & HUMAN NATURE

1. What we believe becomes more important than what we know.

1. Be prepared to immediately forget any opinion or belief upo the presentation of overwhelming countervailing evidence.

1. The truth could be worse than you imagine, but even dangerous facts are valuable if you've been trained to deal with them.

1. To argue with those who have renounced the use and authority of reason is as futile as to administer aid to the dead.

1. The test of a man is not what you think he'll do, it's what he actually does.

1. In judging people, judge a common person by where they stand in important matters, but judge a great person by what they do in little things.

1. The man who hints that you are a thief is almost certain to have a large vulnerable area of dishonesty in his own self.

1. The less a nation has for moral obligation, the more it tends to respect physical strength.

1. When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of customs and training.

1. Would you know the character of a ruler prince, examine his ministers. Would you understand the disposition of any man, look at his companions. Would you know that of a father, observe his son.

1. That system that works best for one person may not be that system that works best for the systems or organization as a whole.

1. A soft word turns aside wrath.

1. More can be learned by listening than by talking when emotions flare and people speak their minds.

1. "It was the obvious thing to do." The obvious slows an opponent's reactions. It takes a moment to interpret a known thing when that thing is exposed as something unknown.

1. It is easier to deal with an open objection than with a profession of agreement in principle which covers an underlying reluctance to translate it into practice. While clear reluctance presents an obstacle which can be surmounted, hesitant acquiescence acts as a constant brake on progress.

1. LEADERSHIP, CHARACTER & PERSONAL CONDUCT

1. Feed your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.

1. Those who say you must know your own limits are those who have surrendered themselves to mediocrity.

1. Press On Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

1. Use the first moments in study. You may miss many an opportunity this way, but the monets of study are insurance of success. Take your time and be sure.

1. When you're short of sleep, it is bad practice to go changing plans without strong reason.

1. Caution is a worthy trait in one who would lead.

1. Most men have no principles. When you need to identify rebels, look for men with principles.

1. You can sell yourself a little bit at a time and pretend it's not happening, but sooner or later you will discover that you have sold everything. This is as true for nations as it is for individuals.

1. The strength in a strong person is in their ability to make a decision and go forward with it unswervingly and in their ability to reverse that decision when they realize that it is mistaken.

1. Only little men are never wrong.

1. When faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then take a look at it again.

1. One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp to tightly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.

1. A leader has a party to preserve, a solemn oath to keep. If at times they feel inadequate, they must never show it. If frightened, they must never flinch. If confused, they must master that confusion. If hemmed in by phantoms, they must always dominate. A leader may feel naked in the face of adversity yet must always persevere.

1. The leader who commands the greatest respect and loyalty is the one who shows the greatest respect and loyalty to their followers.

1. POWER, FREEDOM & SOCIETY

1. People are the true strength.

1. The people who can destroy a thing -- they control it.

1. Only weakness relies upon power without to accomplish its will.

1. Any great civilization must be conquered by subversion -- from within. The people will unite against force.

1. Any civilization which turns its back on its frontiers is in grave danger.

1. The gravest threat to a democracy is the suppression and censorship of the free press and the repression of the freedom of expression.

1. Protracted war will always endanger tge freedom of a democratic country.

1. Freedom decreases as the population increases.

1. Freedom in Finite Space Beyond a critical point in finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.

1. Hydraulic Despotism Hydraulic despotism is possible only when a substance or condition upon which life in general absolutely depends can be controlled by a relatively small and centralized force. The concept of hydraulic despotism originated when the flow of irrigation water increased local human populations to a demand level of absolute dependence. When the water was shut off, people died in large numbers. This phenomenon has been repeated many times in human history, not only with water and the products of arable land, but with hydrocarbon fuels such as petroleum and coal which were controlled through pipelines and other distribution networks. At one time, when distribution of electricity was only through complicated mazes of lines strung across the landscape even this energy resource fell into the role of a hydraulic despotism substance.

1. The Law of the Minimum Growth is limited by that necessity which is present in the least amount. And, the least favorable condition controls the growth rate. Also, growth itself can produce unfavorable conditions unless treated with extreme care.

1. Communist-socialist states have become what communist ideology was created to be opposed to.

1. Short term expedience always fails in the long term.

1. What do you despise? By this are you truly known.

1. POLITICS, GOVERNANCE & STATESMANSHIP

1. Governments are mere machinery. It's those who control them that counts.

1. It is equally criminal in the governor and the governed to violate laws.

1. In a democracy, those we must watch most closely are those we entrust to watch over us.

1. A high moral position causes the people to be in accord with their government, so they will follow it wholeheartedly.

1. The idea that a government must provide benefits for its citizens is a fallacy, a warped concept of government and its capabilities and a mockery of the true role of government.

1. Politicians customarily underestimate the willingness of various constituencies to make sacrifices for the common good.

1. Clandestine political arrangements threaten embarrassment.

1. Governments and political leaders must not interfere with their military employees in the actual use of their tools.

1. One must not allow the political objectives of a war to become lost in any attempt at the military goals. For to do so will allow the generals to take charge; men whose only skill may be tactics and not in strategy and who may have no concept of international political policy.

1. No military commander has the right to dictate to the government what measure of force should be placed at his/her disposal. All military commanders are usurping their responsibility however, if they fail to make known to the government that the force assigned to him/her is inadequate to the task.

1. ECONOMICS, WEALTH & RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

1. Only free competition leads to the quickest possible progress.

1. Shortages cannot exist in a free market: they cannot be avoided in a controlled market. Any questions of shortages in a free market will be based primarily on logistics or in heavily regulated industries.

1. A nation's rate of inflation is equal to that nation's increase in the money supply minus the amount of money removed from circulation. Interest rates are a consequence of the rate of inflation.

1. What the underprivileged need more than special programs and assorted transfer payments is an increased absorption of middle-class values, emphasizing work and frugality that have made success "natural" for many immigrant groups. Denial of this obvious truth has been good politics for politicians seeking to win elections, but the denials and programs that come with them have only made things harder for the underprivileged and delayed their entry into the mainstream.

1. The increase of a nation's wealth in terms of PCI (per capita income) is the best method for reducing that nation's birth growth rate, level of poverty, famine, and death by illness and disease.

1. Wealth in Space We must look to the future in our struggle against humankind's ancient enemies of poverty, ignorance and death. To stand pat and try to struggle through today's problems is to invite disaster. To yearn for a return to a sweeter, bygone era is to invite catastrophe. To solve the problems of poverty, we must create new wealth. To solve the problems of scarcity, we must create new wealth. To solve the problems of overpopulation, we must create new wealth. To protect human freedons, we must create new wealth. The new wealth we seek is eternal and untouched and the highway to reach it begins a few hundred miles above our heads.

1. FOREIGN POLICY, DIPLOMACY & GEOPOLITICS

1. Would you know politics? Read history!

1. If you wish for peace, understand war.

1. Foreign policy is dependent upon a sound strategic situation.

1. While policy ought to maintain control of strategy, it is dependent upon a sound strategic foundation. It is thus of vital importance for a nation's future that when questions of foreign policy are under discussion there should be as clear an understanding as possible of the underlying military conditions.

1. No matter how strong a nation's military may be, weakness in a disputed region invites attack.

1. When you stop a dictator there are always risks, but when you do not stop a dictator there may be greater risks.

1. The moral impulses of a nation compete against the pull of geopolitics. This produces somersaults in its foreign relations. Only when geopolitics (foreign policy) is subordinate to a nation\'s principles will foreign policy be effective, respected by people within and without the state and be consistent; aligned to the nation's standing, without the twists, turns and contradictory actions of competing systems.

1. The game of true geopolitics requires a complete absence of any scruples or moral principles. Conversely, democratic nations are founded upon certain principles and it is these principles which must govern foreign policy or its foreign policy will be ineffective, dishonest and inconclusive and will garner neither respect nor confidence from its allies nor support from its youth or idealistic adults and will tend, over time, to degrade and diminish those very principles and freedoms upon which the nation was founded.

1. To cement alliance or seal support for your cause, have those whose support you seek do something for you.

1. The validity of treaties depends on mutual convenience.

1. History teaches that no agreement between governments has had any stability beyond their recognition that it is their own best interests to continue to adhere to it.

1. Nations do not sign treaties because of some deep seated altruism, nor to a sense of international obligation. They sign treaties because it is in their own best interests to do so. A nation will sign a treaty to limit or reduce the strengths of the other side and/or to heighten or increase the advantages of its own side. Economic and cultural agreements are somewhat less Machiavellian, but not markedly so.

1. STRATEGY, POLICY & THE CONDUCT OF WAR

1. A defensive fight is doomed to failure.

1. The eventual risks of yielding to a threat are always greater than the immediate risks of standing up to such threats.

1. Any defense policy in peace, like strategy in war, must necessarily be a reconciliation between conflicting aims. To be equally strong everywhere, against an opponent with equal resources or a superior sense of proportion, entails being too weak everywhere.

1. The best place to defend your property is on someone else's property.

1. Offensive operations against an enemy's overseas/interplanetary territories may be effective to counter or forestall the danger of attacks being launched against one's own territories.

1. The indirect route is the road to success.

1. To move directly on an opponent consolidates his balance; physical and psychological, and by consolidating it increase his resisting power.

1. Chivalry in war cam be a most effective weapon in weakening the opponent's will to resist, as well as augmenting moral strength,

1. To nullify opposition by paralyzing the power to oppose is far better economy of force than actual destruction of opposition, which is always a more prolonged process and much more costly to the victor.

1. What is war but cunning, deception, delusion, attack and surprise? There is a broadened strategy, a war with intellectual weapons. Why should the enemy be demoralized by military means if it can be achieved more effectively and more cheaply by other means?

1. We have been searching for an implausible equation for generations -- our desire to turn swords into plowshares. The trouble is -- we can't have plowshares if we don't have swords to protect us from the world's despots.

1. REVOLUTION, REPRESSION & SOCIAL CHANGE

1. The concept of trauma applies to societies as well as individuals and it applies uniformly throughout the world.

1. Depression, war, famine, new riches, exposure to new cultures, domination by a new leader -- all these are traumas if they lead to an interruption in the nation's lifestyle. But if the new leader -- however magnetic -- does not foster a new style of action, he will never affect the personality of the state.

1. A time of upset is a rare opportunity.

1. The Pattern of Dictatorship History shows that self-made despotic rulers follow a standard pattern. In gaining power: a. They exploit, consciously or unconsciously, a state of popular dissatisfaction with the existing regime or of hostility between different sections of the people. b. They attack the existing regime violently and combine their appeal to the discontent with unlimited promises, (which, if successful, they fulfill only to a limited extent). c. They claim they want absolute power for only a short time, (but "find" subsequently that the time to relinquish power never comes). d. They excite popular sympathy by presenting the picture of a conspiracy against them and use this as a lever to gain a firmer hold upon some crucial stage. In gaining power: a. They soon begin to rid themselves of their chief helpers, "discovering" that those who helped bring about the new order have suddenly become traitors to it. b. They suppress criticism on one pretext or another and punish anyone who mentions facts which, however true, are unfavorable to their policy. c. They enlist religion on their side if possible, or if its leaders are not compliant, foster a new kind of religion subservient to their ends. d. They spend public money lavishly on material works of a striking kind, in compensation for the freedom of spirit and thought which they have robbed from the public. e. They manipulate the currency to make the economic position of the state appear better than it is in reality. f. They ultimately make war on some other state as a means of diverting attention from internal conditions, allowing discontent to explode outwards. g. They use the rallying cry of patriotism as a means of riveting the chains of their authority more firmly on the people. h. They expand the superstructure of the state while undermining its foundation: 1) By breeding sycophants at the expense of self-respecting collaborators. 2. By appealing to the popular taste for the grandiose and sensational instead of true values, and, 3. By fostering a romantic instead of a realistic view thus ensuring the ultimate collapse, under their successors, if not themselves, of what they have created.

1. History has shown that the civil disobedience policy of passive resistance works against repressive governments only when such a government; 1. Is primarily a government in occupation of a foreign territory, And, 2. When such government maintains a moral conviction and the military arm it directs shares this conviction and is also well-disciplined. The idea of an occupational government may be overvalued, but high moral value and tight discipline of its troops certainly is not. When these criteria are absent, the only method which a repressed citizenry can utilize which will attain its objective(s) of civil liberties and/or equality is the method of force of arms. History has also shown us the ingredients required for a successful revolution; 1) A leader emerges from the masses or is brought in from the outside and assumes the persona of the masses. 2) The masses recognize their chains. 3) Hope and Faith -- When the masses experience hope and faith. Hope for eventual victory and a better tomorrow and faith that their cause is just and eventual victory certain. 4) When the masses have determined a means of escape from their repression; such means often presented to them by their leader. 5) When the masses acquire the material resources to attain their means. 6) Support preferably from no less than 33% of the population and resistance from preferably no more than 33% of the population.

1. No matter how great the strides a formerly totalitarian or authoritarian state may make toward pluralism, freedom, and democracy, it can always return to its former self with the expenditure of enough blood and bullets.

1. PEACE, CIVILIZATION & POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION

1. There is a danger in concentrating attention on the outlawry of war and in treating it as an isolated evil. War is merely the eruptive stage of a diseased condition of peace. More truly the symptom and not the cause. To concentrate on improving the health of the bodypolitic is more promising and hopeful than to compound drugs to check and bring down the fever.

1. Any frustration of offensive potentialities favors the defense, which in turn promotes the prospects of peace.

1. It is wiser to run risks of war for the sake of preserving peace than to run risks of exhaustion in war for the sake of finishing with victory; a conclusion that runs counter to custom but is supported by experience.

1. The chief risk in losing a war is to try to win it -- on the battlefield. It is also the worst danger to the prospects of ultimate peace. If you concentrate too heavily on victory, with no thought for the aftereffect, you may be too exhausted to profit by peace, while it is almost certain the peace will be a bad one, containing the germs of another war.

1. Remember the severe drawbacks of a too complete victory and the importance of avoiding true extreme war aims and the folly of slamming doors to bring about negotiated peace.

1. The most satisfactory peace settlements, even for the stronger side, have historically proven to be those which were made by negotiation rather than by a decisive military issue.

1. Think not only of winning war, but also of the state of the nation after.

1. The act of civilizing a region lies in discovering the appropriate mode of civilization for that area. In some it may be communication or electrical power, in other roads; all to bind together the disparate and diverse regions of the territory. Such a method is always more effective, more efficient and much less costly than posting troops on potentially hostile soli -- which could act only to inflame the passions of the citizens of such a region, may unite them in a common cause and possibly lead to hostile strike at targets so presented. This policy is not limited to conquered territories but is also an appropriate course of action for civilizing the undeveloped regions of a homeland.

1. It is an elementary truth of strategy that the first requirement is a secure base. We should be wise to apply it not only in our defense policy but in our foreign policy. The most serious of all the deficiencies in our preparations for defense is the tendency to underrate the importance of securing a strong moral base. To gain wholehearted support from the young, they must be shown a cause whicjh is worthy of sacrifice and service.

1. Any plan for peace is apt to be not only futile and dangerous. Like most planning, unless of a mainly material kind, it breaks down through disregard of human nature. Worse still, the higher the hopes that are built on such a plan, the more likely that its collapse will precipitate war.

1. Elementary Principles for Peace a. Study war and learn from its history. b. Keep strong, if possible. c. Keep cool. d. Have unlimited patience. e. Never corner an opponent and always assist him to save face. f. Be empathetic -- put yourself in his shoes -- see things through his eyes. g. Avoid self-righteousness -- nothing else is so self-blinding. h. Cure yourself of two commonly fatal delusions -- the idea of victory and the idea that war cannot be limited.

1. SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & THE FUTURE OF CIVILIZATION

1. The most persistent principles of the universe are accident and error.

1. Just because we cannot imagine a thing does not exclude it from reality.

1. No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace or ensure it of victory in time of war.

1. Regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real progress and the freedom that makes that progress possible lies in unification.

1. The safe path is always a stagnant path.

1. The safe path is always a stagnant path. Stagnation leads ultimately to degeneration, dissolution, death.

1. A state without the means of some change is without the means of its own conservation.

1. The Tragedy of the Commons Men seeking gain naturally desire to increase the size of their herds. Since the commons (grazing ground) is finite, the day must come when the total number of cattle reaches the carrying capacity (saturation point); the addition of more cattle will eventually destroy the resource upon which herdsmen depend. The tragedy here is that of a fallacy; that the commons is finite. It isn't. There is an infinite universe to explore with the potential for infinite wealth, infinite energy, infinite resources and infinite habitations.

1. Those who say it can't be done, are usually interrupted by others doing it.

1. To accomplish great things, great things must be dared.

1. To achieve all that is possible, we must attempt the impossible. To be as much as we can, we must dream of being more.

1. Whatever you dream, you can achieve.