Art of war
By: Abhimanyu Bhowmik
Tags: Think Different, War, Art Of War 3, Self Improvement, Art Of Living

What is the art of war? How people win wars? If you think about it, it’s nothing but knowledge. Yes, you can say mere knowledge will not help anyone to win a war and I agree with that. But in this case, I am not talking about mere knowledge. I am talking about true knowledge. If you think carefully you can understand, that the lack of knowledge is the only source of uncertainty. Ya!! you guessed it right! I am talking about quantum mechanics. It’s the fundamental principle of nature that prevents us from knowing the future but we can predict it, right? If we go back in history, every war was won by true knowledge and wisdom. From military campaigns to legal issues, business to politics, and in every field, you can think of, even in everyday negotiations, if you have more data of the opponent, there is a much more possibility to win. But there is a catch, knowing that anybody can’t always win is a true piece of wisdom.

Let’s take a scenario, consider the history of taxes. I know you are not expecting it but I got a new concept while reading that. In the past, there was no tax in the US or in the UK. In 1874, England made income tax mandatory and in 1913, the US declared permanent income tax. Before that, only at the time of wars, temporary taxes were levied on the citizens. However, when the income tax was announced, it was primarily for rich people. It’s like the Robin hood principle, “Take from the rich and give it to the poor”. But the government doesn’t act as a capitalist system. If you don’t spend money, you will not be allotted the same amount the following year. The government will deduct the budget. As a result, all government officials are trying to spend more money to continue getting funds. That’s why government expenditure is increasing day by day but the government needs to get more to spend more. Then they started to charge income tax from the poor and the middle-class people as well. Now the people who once voted for the tax system became victims themselves. Meanwhile, the rich found the way through taxes, and the middle class became the main taxpayers of a country.

So, why are the middle class and the poor losing? The upper-middle-class consists of the most educated and intellectual citizens in society but why does the rich win? It’s only due to the lack of financial knowledge among the middle class and the poor. In the financial war, you have to understand the dynamics of money. Not only theoretical economics. If it happened so, then the economist would have been the richest people in the world. But that’s certainly not the case. The actual knowledge of money is the only key to win the financial war. But it’s certainly not only the knowledge that helps us to win the war. The weapons also play a significant role. In this case, it’s obviously the money. Rich has both, financial knowledge as well as money. But if someone has only knowledge without enough money, he can’t win this game. But it’s the knowledge that signifies the importance of money. In a nutshell, true financial knowledge encourages a person first to have money and then to use it.

You can also say, what about the actual war? Not only does it involves knowledge, but also all the different kinds of characteristics like courage, confidence, deliberate practice, mental strength, and so on. So, where does the courage comes from? It comes from belief; and where does the belief come from? It comes from trust and trust comes from knowing the truth. That’s where knowledge comes in. By deliberate practice, training, and self-recognition, someone can understand the truth. That’s where real knowledge lies. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. By taking action, he/she learns about their individual capacity. The knowledge of our true potential and the strengths and flaws of the opponent develops trust within ourselves. The trust gained from knowledge over time develops belief, and the belief ignites the fire of courage within someone. This courage accompanied by belief and trust comes out in the form of confidence. And the confidence with persistence builds mental strength over time. So what is the actual backbone of this architecture? True Knowledge. It’s the only fundamental thing behind the “Art of War”.