Sun Tzu teaches that we listen to people to learn their plans, but that we judge their words by actions. The world has always been divided between doers and talkers. While our modern media is dominated by those who do the talking, the future is being created by those who are busy doing. A good example is what is happening on the energy/global warming front. A great summary is offered by this article in Forbes. While politicians talk about non-carbon energy, the world of doers is embracing it.

Foolish ideas seem logical if they are repeated often enough. Sun Tzu's strategy teaches the use of analogies to support logic. For example, do the arguments about energy policy make sense in terms of food policy? Current food technology does a thousand times more ecological damage than any other human activity including using oil. Farming cuts down trees, plows up the land, depletes limited water resources, spreads dangerous chemicals, and intentionally poisons natural plants and animals. Using ecologically unsound food is destroying the planet.