Change, Adatability, and Flip-Flops

Sun Tzu's Sun Tzu's strategy is a philosophy of continually adapting to changing situations.However, Sun Tzu's strategy recognizes there are two types of changes in the environment: changes affecting the ground, which are objective, physical changes, and changes that are solely climatic, that is, subjective, emotional changes. Adaptation can also take two forms: objective changes to methods and psychological changes to character that affect how decisions are made. Such adaptations can be short-term adaptations or long-term reformations. Dramatic changes to the environment can also give rise to entirely new philosophies, which are, by definition, fundamental changes in motivation. Changes in methods can take the form of words, meant only to affect impressions, or they can be changes is actions, meant to change the physical situation. The critical idea here is that there are many different types of changes. We can lump them all together under a single term "change" but we can understand what flavor of change we are talking about only with a little analysis. In politics today, there is a tendency to characterize any change in position as a "flip-flop" and inherently a sign of poor faith. However, the last person you want to elect, especially as president, is someone who cannot adapt his methods, grow in character, or expand his philosophy if the changes on the environment warrant it. Of course, you also do NOT want a president who has such a nebulous philosophy, weak character, and uncommitted methods that he changes with every slight shift in the wind.