ReadyNutrition Readers, we just covered a segment on self-assessment and knowing yourself. I had mentioned a paraphrase from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” that covered that segment as well as this current article: “Know yourself and know your enemy.” We are focusing on the latter part of that one: the enemy. There are several subtleties attached to that short phrase.
9 Prepper Truths You Need to Prepare a Mental Foundation
1. As men are almost identical in many respects, if you know what you are, then you will know what your enemy is.
We’re going to really get into this one in a second. Here is another subtlety:
2. By knowing your own weaknesses and shortcomings, you recognize things that can stop you in your tracks…where you become your own worst enemy!
We covered most of the thought of that in the first article. But wait! There’s more!
3. By knowing your weaknesses, you also understand weaknesses and shortcomings that other men are subjected to and suffer, just as you.
Oh, that’s a deep one! The “drives” that you may have are the same weaknesses and drives that hamper other people…the ones you will have to face on the Day of Collapse. Let’s summarize this and not “blow away” the English-speaking minds:
- By knowing your own qualities and capabilities, you can surmise those of others…for we are men (human beings).
- Recognizing your own qualities that are negative helps you to prevent them from making you your own worst enemy.
- Recognizing that where you are weak and fall short…others suffer from the same shortcomings.
Perhaps this sounds as if it’s a psychological treatise. Perhaps. Consider this: there’s a great deal that can be learned and accomplished in the application of this “pseudo-science,” as most people consider it…although many behavioral patterns and actions are spot on. Know yourself, and know your enemy. What are you? What is your enemy? Well, there was a psychologist by the name of Abraham Maslow. He came up with a “needs pyramid” with the “hierarchy of needs” as human beings run. Here it is:
There is a lot of truth to this. Analyze the pyramid. Here is the key: You need all of these things, and so does the enemy.
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4. The true challenge is to identify the enemy…when he is not you. What will we face? A foreign invasion? A government that lapses into total tyranny? A band of marauders? Or will we simply be faced with neighbors that band together to kill us and take our supplies?
In any of those cases, all of the men and women you face have those needs outlined in that pyramid. It is not so much an “oversimplification,” as it is examining humans from an anthropological perspective and trying to determine what drives them.
5. If you have anything you can use (foodstuffs, medicine, tools, clothing, or weapons, among other things), then you can bank on the fact that others will want it, as well.
I will give you some of my personal stances. I don’t believe in a policy of appeasement. What this means is (if you’ve ever watched the movie “The Postman,” for example) you can’t give an aggressor something to “buy off” his or her aggression and think you’re done there. If anything, it will just be the beginning. It didn’t work too well for the allies prior to WWII kicking off. It never works. It may buy you a little time, but the raiders will be back, to demand more and more from you, until eventually they’ll just swoop in and take it all away.
