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“If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.”

― Carl Sagan

I don’t know about you, but I personally view life as a war, particularly during this current period of time that we’re living through right now.

If you really slow down to think about it this is not a cynical viewpoint at all, but rather a simple observation of reality. After all, no matter where you are on the economic spectrum when you wake up in the morning to start your day the chances are pretty solid that you’re going to have to go on the attack in your life in order to get something done.

Whether you’re self-employed and having to figure out how to make payroll for the month, or if you’re a construction worker aiming to complete a project on time and within budget, you’ve got battles to fight in order to make it happen.

This is not cynical. This is not trivial. This is reality.

So why am I beginning today’s discussion by framing the vantage point of life in this particular manner?

Well the reason I’m choosing to tackle this particular topic today is because even when life is operating in a manner that you might consider to be smooth it’s still challenging enough as it is.

In other words, there are always bills to pay, there are always medical emergencies, there is always loss of life, there are always accidents, and there are always shortfalls. In short, there is always a battle looming out over the horizon.

It’s because of those unseen battles that are looming around out there in this experience that we refer to as life as to the reason that I view this experience as warfare.

Once again, this is not cynical, but realistically it is more of a way to navigate this adventure that we recognize as the human condition.

Now having said that, I don’t want you to think that I view life as this gloom and doom experience. I don’t want you to interpret this as me walking around with this overwhelming sense of dread and misery because I’m just sitting here waiting to fight whatever battle presents itself to me in this unique life experience that I’m referring to as warfare.

If that is the image that popped up inside your head regarding my perspective of this then you would be incorrect. However, to be fair to you this is exactly why I am choosing to broach this subject in today’s episode.

Now for further clarity, I don’t want anyone hearing this to think that I’m trying to cheapen the meaning or experiences of brave men and women that have actually served in the military while having to endure the horrifically violent outcomes of kinetic warfare. Of course, this is not my intent, but it is my intent to point out that life is still a form of warfare, even though the active soldier’s experience of it may be the most physically and psychologically extreme version compared to many other professions.

The goal of this discussion is to point out that my perspective of viewing life in this particular manner has more to do with my own attempt to rewire my brain for the purpose of living a more disciplined life to the best of my ability.

In short, by comparing life to a form of warfare it changes the way I approach it. In this regard, I’m now looking at life through a different type of lens which has forced me to adapt to my life experience in a way that I believe better prepares me for its unseen outcomes.

You see, I figured out long ago that how you look at a scenario often determines how you will react to that scenario when the moment arrives.

In order to enlighten you on this perspective I’ll use a pop culture reference with the iconic movie Die Hard in order to help illustrate my point and drive it home. There’s a key lesson that I want to point out with this in order to highlight the significance of achieving psychological advantage.

Now, I realize that we’ve just gotten past another Christmas season and are full steam ahead into the new year. However, during this past Christmas season I’m sure you might have had some family members that made a request to watch a Christmas movie.

When this happened you may have heard some friends or family recommend the very popular action movie Die Hard.

Now I’m not here to debate on whether or not you view the movie Die Hard as a legitimate Christmas movie, but if you’ve seen the movie then you understand that it’s quite a thrill ride from the start to the finish.

The point I want to make here with the movie Die Hard is substantial so please be patient with me as I work to point out an interesting lesson to you that I got from this movie.

In the movie our main character John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) thought he was walking into the Nakatomi Plaza to simply visit his estranged wife during a Christmas Eve party.

However, the evening quickly experiences a seismic mood shift when our New York City police detective, John McClane, becomes entangled in a terrorist takeover on his Christmas Eve outing.

As McClane arrives at the Christmas party and is forced to do his best to settle in and try to use the event in order to reconcile with his ex-wife, he ends up walking away to wash up after a long trip.

In his absence a German ex-radical named Hans Gruber (played by Alan Rickman) ends up seizing the tower and taking everyone hostage except McClane.

Now I’m not going to go on with a deep dive into the plot of this story, but after McClane recognizes the type of situation he’s in he quickly understands that he’s outnumbered and outgunned, but despite this he also realizes that the terrorists aren’t aware of him and who he is at the moment that they seize the Nakatomi Plaza.

Because of this McClane recognizes that he has a tactical advantage over his enemy and in this dangerous Christmas Eve scenario that element of stealth is about as much of a gift as one could possibly ask for. However, in McClane’s case he’s able to leverage this element of surprise for an even bigger gift in the movie that turns the tables on Hans Gruber and his unjolly band of terrorists.

You see, eventually the terrorists are alerted to McClane’s presence and one of the terrorists named Tony is sent to go after McClane, but after a fight on the stairway McClane ends up killing Tony by breaking his neck.

Now it’s the next scene that I wanted to point out to you here as to the lesson that I took from this movie long ago. Even though it’s sort of a bit of dark humor, it does drive home an important message in regards to the strong psychological trigger that the scene is conveying from our protagonist, McClane, to the antagonist, Gruber, in the film.

After McClane kills Tony, he then places his body in a chair and puts a Santa hat on his head. He writes a message on Tony’s sweatshirt in red ink and sends Tony down the elevator to Gruber’s floor.

On the lower floor as Gruber is continuing to threaten the hostages all the sudden the elevator dings and opens up displaying Tony’s dead body wearing a Santa hat and a personalized message for Gruber on his sweatshirt.

As you can imagine Gruber and his unjolly band of terrorists are shocked to see Tony’s body, but what disturbs them even more is the message that’s written on Tony’s light gray sweatshirt that reads, “Now I have a machine gun. Ho, Ho, Ho.”

So why am I going to the trouble of pointing this out to you?

The reason that this is significant is that John McClane just gave every single one of us one of the greatest lessons in psychological warfare.

You see, up until this point in the movie McClane and the hostages were the ones that had been hunted and preyed upon. However, when McClane delivered the dead body of one of their own with a personalized Christmas message, this was a seismic shift and major turning point in terms of the circumstances in the movie. The hunted had become the hunter.

In short, John McClane managed to turn the tables on the terrorists by shifting from a defensive posture to taking on an offensive posture against the bad guys.

The Cult of Personality

In shifting gears for the moment, I’ve written and talked about how there seems to be an obvious psychological characteristic that dominates among the most radical leftist that I’ve encountered or witnessed throughout life. This characteristic that I’m referring to has to do with the lack of self-awareness.

So what is self-awareness?

Self-awareness essentially involves the conscious knowledge of one’s own feelings, character, and personality. When one possesses self-awareness they are aware of how their behavior impacts the people in their lives and the environment that surrounds them.

Conversely, the complete opposite of someone who lacks self-awareness is someone who possesses strategic awareness. A person with strategic awareness has a deep understanding of their internal strengths and weaknesses while also possessing a solid grasp on the external environment and their role within it.

“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

–1 Timothy 4:16

People who have strategic awareness are able to identify market trends, opportunities, competitors, anticipate threats, and to make informed long-term decisions for success. In short, people with strategic awareness are

Systems of Degradation