fandomhigh | Diplomacy, Relationships & Tactics: the Art of War [Tuesday, Period 1]

When the students came in this week, there was a passage from the eighth p'ien written on the chalk board.

There are roads which must not be followed,
armies which must be not attacked, towns which must
be besieged, positions which must not be contested,
commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.

"Sometimes, we must allow the distasteful thing to happen to make way for a greater victory." Ghanima was leaning against the wall, watching them from behind her glowing eyes as she balanced a sleeping Trebor on her hip. "Sacrifices must be made. This is most easily seen in war; sacking an innocent town for supplies, or killing civilians to prevent your position from being discovered."

"However, it doesn't just apply to physical combat." She shifted Trebor to her other hip as she pushed off the wall to pace between the various piles of cushions or groups of chairs, looking at each of them. "What do you do when your boss, or 'sovereign' tells you to lie about something that happened at work? Or if reporting a crime implicates someone dear to you? Today, we discuss those choices, and how we know which battles must be fought, and which ones we must let pass us by. Sometimes it is a matter of personal conscience, while other times it is the good of one against well-being of the many."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As the lesser of two evils.

Arden Finch

Take notes, pass notes, poke the person next to you!

A roving batch of bullies is picking on a homeless man. However, if you stop and intervene, you'll miss the train and be late to work. Normally, this would not be an issue, but today you are closing a merger worth thousands of jobs. If you're late, the deal falls through. Calling law enforcement is not an option for some reason; either you directly intervene or you do not. What do you do? Why?

Arden had ways to stop the bullies and make it to the train, but she was still very carefully hiding those. "I'd try to yell at them to cut it out and lie that I was calling the cops or flag down someone else, but I'd do all that while still walking to catch the train, so..." She looked a little guilty. "I'd catch the train. Because a lot of people are counting on me."

"A perfectly valid approach," Ghanima replied. "Cowards will often scatter if someone bites back, they want an easy target. And by cutting through other people's 'see no evil' willingness to turn away from unpleasantness, you may inspire someone else to stop and take a stand."

"Of course, they could opt to escalate, and move to target you -- though you are already about to get on a train to remove yourself from the situation -- or stay and get violent with him, but you've already made the decision to prioritize the good of the many over the one."

"And I hope I'd stop if I didn't have a train to catch, but I don't think I can say for sure until I was in it. You said there were a bunch of bullies and I'm not a great fighter, so if they did decide to turn on me, things would get dicey. But a homeless person is more vulnerable and invisible than I am, so it's possible they wouldn't want to escalate to me. But I'd be in trouble if one of them was like, 'Oh yeah, or what?' at me."

A sovereign of a neighboring kingdom is weak and under attack. They call upon you for aid - and without your help, they will fall - but your spies report that your lands are next on the invading army's list. Do you go to their aid, half-prepared, or do you let them fall to buy time to save yourselves?

Oh, Arden definitely disliked this. "Um. Does it seem like going in half-prepared would actually hold their armies off? Because if yeah, then sure, send 'em in and frantically prepare back home - if they turned to fight me, they'd still be trying to fight a war on two fronts and that's not really great for them, either. If not...open a relief column between our two countries, accept the refugees in, and recruit however many of their able-bodied people we could to come train with us to fight for their homeland, you know?"

"Do you have the resources and time to find out?" Ghanima asked.

"You know that their military plans to come for you next -- but do you know the political climate? Does their populace support this? What is the current status of their army? Tired? Hungry? Raring to go? Would being proactive and launching your own offensive fracture them, or just weaken you before you're ready to commit? Can you afford to feed the refugees and another army on top of your own, if you open the relief column?"

"What do you prioritize first?"

"The status of their army," Arden said after a moment's thought. "Knowing who we're going up against is really important and we might find viable targets. Then my own country's resources, to see what we can afford, both for making sure the army is supplied and also for humanitarian aid."

They're around, before and after class.

Slow but around.

Diplomacy, Relationships & Tactics: the Art of War [Tuesday, Period 1]

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During the Lecture

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Talk to Ghanima & Trebor

ooc