Diplomacy, Relationships, & Tactics: The Art of War, Week 4 [Wednesday, Period 2]

[weetuskenraider]

Students coming into the classroom might still see Tahiri finishing up with something she was writing on the board.

17. Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) They will win who know when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) They will win who know how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) They will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) They will win who, prepared themselves, wait to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) They will win who have military capacity and are not interfered with by the sovereign.

"Sun Tzu always makes it sound so simple," she said lightly when the class appeared to be assembled. ( But he's not wrong when it comes to these basic principles. )

"But he's not wrong when it comes to these basic principles."

"Try keeping a sovereign from meddling, or giving stupid orders to the military beyond 'go win,'" Ghanima said dryly. "Please, try. Tell me how that turns out."

"This is also where the saying 'know your enemy' was popularized from. Or, to quote directly, 'Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.'"

"So the parts from last week about trying to get the conquered foe to work with you come in pretty handy here, assuming you succeeded," Tahiri spoke up. "But it'd be interesting to hear from you, before we go on, about how you think these five principles translate into a form you would use."

"Especially since Tzu opens this pi'en telling us 'In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.' Killing an enemy is easy. Abstaining from destruction is difficult."

This time it was her turn to write on the board.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles
is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists
in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

"Think about uses of these five principles beyond just use on the literal battlefield, either," Ghanima added. "Try coming up with non-combat scenarios--" Yes, she was aware it was hard for some of you. She had every confidence you could do it. "--in which the five principles would apply, as well as how breaking resistance without fighting could be superior to total and complete decimation."

"It's like --" Tahiri began, then trailed off, shaking her head. "No, no examples from me. You're all smart enough to come up with your own." There, kids. Have a nice big vote of confidence.

"But hey, think of it this way: if you can apply these principles to the right non-combat scenario, you might be able to avoid the fight altogether."

Fitness and Health, Tuesday, Period 4

[doubleohblonde]

Bond had his students meet him in an ordinary classroom today, where the movie projector was set up.

"Good afternoon," he said. "In light of the inclement weather, I decided it might be better to stay in and try something a bit more lowkey this week, so we'll be watching a film about a winter sport instead of doing one." Of course, he somehow neglected to mention that the sport in question was figure skating.

Jack of All Trades, Wednesday, Per 1

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Rather than meeting in the Danger Shop today, Hardison met them at the front of the school next to a portal ready to whisk them away. "Sup," he said, blowing on his hands because even just a few minutes outside was enough to chill him. "Ready to go learn somethin' cool?" he asked. "One thing--where we're goin' is dangerous an' can be kinda expensive. Be careful an' respectful while we're there, especially when you're at the hands-on section of the class, a'ight?"

And with that, he gestured to the students to go through the portal.

The other side was the exact opposite of the cold they'd come from. Furnaces dotting the room put out enormous amounts of heat. There was a place for them to hang up their heavy outer gear and then they were being hustled into the center of the room, out of the way of anyone briskly walking about. "Welcome to a glass blowin' studio," he said as a man came over to greet them. "This is my boy, Mike, who's agreed to give y'all a demonstration of how to blow glass an' let us use his studio for a bit to mess around. Mike's a professional glass artist, been doin' this for years." And had taught Hardison to blow glass for a con, not that Mike had known that at the time.

...Or now, really.

Mike stepped forward and began to explain how to blow glass, complete with a demonstration.

"Y'all got that?" Hardison asked when he was done. "Awesome. Cause now it's your turn to make somethin'. Folks from Mike's studio are around to help an' offer advice, but y'all have free rein to look around an' experiment with a couple different items to create."

[First link to wikipedia, second to a Youtube video with narration.]

Weapons Safety, Wednesday

[likethegun]

Last night, Sam had emailed the students to meet him at the park today, where he was waiting for them all bundled up. "Hey guys. Thanks for meeting me out here, I hope you all dressed warmly. I didn't want to let this weather opportunity pass us by. Sometimes, in a situation where you have to fight, you might not have a weapon on hand, and you'll have to improvise." Sam bent down and picked up a handful of snow, rolling it into a snowball. "Snow might not be devastating, but a snowball fight is always good practice. If you want to team up, you can, but otherwise, it's every person for themselves out here. Don't get too wet."