I am not getting the opportunity to do many new posts on Sun Tzu because of the campaign (see VoteGaryG.com for posts on politics and Sun Tzu), but recent communication with one of our members, Shane (wafukiwi), started me thinking about the role of the five elements in Sun Tzu's system. 

I normally talk about the five elements (mission, climate, ground, command, and methods) as a system giving us a complete perspective on strategic systems. However, they are much more than that.

A SOSI Member writes asking about how our decisions in challenging situation relate to the "unconscious" mind, an idea that we cover in the series of public articles starting here though his question came from studying a specific set of Sun Tzu's Rules. ([node:content/151-command-leadership link]).

This topic is somewhat philosophical, but many may find it interesting. Below are the specific questions that I was asked and my responses.

A reader recently saying that she hoped that The Art of War was "not a real aggressive type book."

Because we describe Sun Tzu's methods as "winning without conflict" and "winning productively," it seems some people get the wrong idea about Sun Tzu's strategy.

Both Kevin Hinton and Sunny Forsyth, SOSI Warrior Class Members, have recently pass their finals for Warrior Class Basic Training Certification. Congratulations to them both!

How do we elect such poor decision-makers to office? As anyone who studies our warrior's rules at this site knows, politicians are our most fertile source of examples of defective strategy. This fact raises the question: how do these people get elected to office in the first place?