kimberlysteele | The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Chapter Six: Vacuity and Substance

Entry tags:

The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Chapter Six: Vacuity and Substance

The scene: Inside Thornton's (gas station) in the suburbs of Chicago.

Her: You need to put on a mask!
Me: I don't do that.
Her: There's a MANDATE! You have to wear a mask!
Me: I know about the mandate. I'm not going to wear a mask. Do you want me to pay for my gas or not?
Her: (blood boiling) YOU... You check out with her... gestures to the young woman behind plexiglass at the register.

A pleasant transaction ensued. I gave the cashier my money, she made change, I thanked her, and I was on my merry way.

Sun Tzu says whoever occupies the battleground first and awaits the enemy will be at ease; whoever occupies the battleground afterward and must race to the conflict will be fatigued.

When I encounter a maskturbator like the gas station manager at Thornton’s, unlike the maskturbator, I am calm and ready. I know the battleground, I understand exactly why I am at war, and I am ready to be hauled off and murdered if necessary because of the courage of my convictions. Death means nothing to me. I am not afraid of it. The gas station manager had no such advantages. She was a terrified, cowed, petty dictator clinging to what little vestiges of power were afforded to her via a mandate. I can almost guarantee she hates her job and everything about it, including customers like me who stand up for their Constitutional rights. She is not ready to die and unlike me, she has made no peace with death, otherwise she would not wear a talismanic binky on her face because the government tells her it will prevent a pathetically non-lethal disease.

The approach outlined above, despite its innocuousness, is a way of forcing the enemy out into the open. We have gotten to a point where showing one’s naked face in a gas station is an act of civil disobedience against the tyrannical State. By demonstrating to the petty tyrant of Thornton’s I would not be moved, she was forced to expose the weakness of her cherished mandate.

I formed a group in early 2021 on Facebook called Speakeasy Illinois to support the owners of businesses and establishments like my own Kimberly Steele Studio that do not force anyone (employees or customers) to be injected with experimental gene modifiers or to wear masks. The group grew from 2 people in February to its current 4400 members today. The army I have amassed is mostly a secret one. The attacks are subtle and quiet. Members send reports from the front lines of which stores, gyms, and offices are face-friendly and which are not. We have our own bits of dialect: “patriot” or “patriotic” means there is zero pressure to mask or vax. FD means face diaper, which is lingo for the mask.

We strike when the enemy least expects us — one of the primary rules of Speakeasy Illinois is to avoid maskturbator/vaxturbator establishments in favor of their patriotic counterparts. Our main weapon against the proto-communists is to ghost their stores and ditch their venues. Nothing scares a maskturbator who complies with government orders (hoping to trade what freedoms they have left) like an empty house. Though many of my soldiers have wanted me to help them create harassment campaigns of going into mask-insistent stores and screaming “you’d better take my money!” it’s not an approach I endorse.

Ghosting their venues works like a charm. There is a theater where I live that puts on live musicals. Their most recent stunt has been to insist that every person walking in the door shows proof of vaccination. Their strategy has gone over like a lead balloon and now they find themselves struggling to put butts in seats. To pretend that it isn’t happening, they have resorted to giving tickets away for free in order to put bodies in chairs. Despite being in a state run by a lunatic leftist emperor-governor, we have put them in a position of either stopping their vaccine nonsense or going out of business. Sadly it looks like they will choose the latter.

This is what maskturbator panic looks like

“If I do not want to engage in combat, even though I merely draw a line on the ground and defend it, he will not be able to engage me in battle because we thwart his movements.”

The line in the sand I draw and encourage my Speakeasy infantry to draw is one of politeness. No matter what the enemy spews, no matter how rabid or stupid they act, we don’t sink to their level. We hold our heads high and proud. If the maskturbator absolutely insists, we loudly say “NO SALE!” and leave the establishment, preferably with a smile. Had the ridiculous Thornton’s manager called the police on me, I would have politely stepped outside the store, waited for the police, and then handed them the cash or card to take inside to the register person. Had the police arrested me and hauled me off to jail, I would let them make an example of me in order to use the outrage to further my cause. I am always ready to strike where they are vulnerable, shifting like water to avoid the substantial and strike the vacuous.

Our members show up in stores constantly without masks, which gives us the advantage of hollowing out the enemy via amorphous psychological warfare. Courage is infectious. My members constantly report others taking off their masks because they see us doing it in public. The enemy only knows how to hate and fear. They destroy and suffer the blowback of destruction; we build and enjoy the effects of construction.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Your courage is very inspiring. We have ditched the mask mandates in my locale but some people still wear them. Not many I'm happy to say.

Sonkitten INSISTS I wear the mask no matter how hot it is. He loves rules. 🙄. If he weren’t autistic, he’d probably hold great power in our 21st century.

—Lady Cutekitten

Thank you. I'm glad there are some areas of the world where most people didn't lose their common sense.

I think my husband (autistic) would wear the mask if I was still doing it. He also loves rules and laws. What is it about autistic people and rule following, I wonder?

Releases endorphins?

My husband is also on the spectrum. It has made for some interesting negotiations during our marriage.

We’ve hung together for twenty seven years. Nobody can get me more irritated more quickly than him. I’m not eloquent enough to describe what we create together.

I think for a lot of autistic people, myself included, it's because we suck at inferring other people's expectations from context. If there are clear, explicit rules that are at least occasionally (but fairly) enforced, then what other people happen to want from us is less relevant: we can point to the rules and they usually have to leave us alone.

This also, I think, makes us more sensitive to the sort of double binds you see in wokeness, where the rules can just be reinterpreted as needed, and so you can never be sure what won't get you in trouble later.

I have a mild case but I am a fierce individualist and hate being told what to do. My issues express themselves in different ways but there does seem to be an element of obsessiveness baked into the condition. While the mandates were in effect I found it relieved some of the pressure I feel in public places to cover my face. I refuse to indulge myself in that sort of bunkus; I joked to a friend that I could finally hide my identity and be completely anonymous in public and did nothing but complain about it.

Well, I haven't gone quite as far as you, but i am doing some boycotting.

I do still comply and don a mask in some situations that demand it, although I try to avoid those places when I can. For example, I grudgingly mask up at the veterinary and dentist office because I need those services, and don't want to argue with a mandate that in my estimation is stupid but, unlike vax passes, not technically illegal. To my mind, mask mandates, however stupid, still fall within the legally-allowable category of dress codes and religious head coverings that businesses have always been allowed to impose. Vax mandates, on the other hand, violate bodily autonomy and therefore constitutional rights. That's the line in my mind, anyway; others may differ. But I support your choice to fight the mask in your thoughtful way.

That said, I am doing a lot of boycotting and choosing shops with no mask mandates whenever practical, and I will not patronize buisinesses that ask for proof of vaccination or negative tests.

My local theater has also instituted a "show your vax papers" (or negative test papers) policy, and I unsubscribed from their email and will not be going back. Good luck filling seats. A local dance school where I once took some classes has instituted a vaccination or negative test protocol for everyone over 12. My understanding from the scuttlebutt is that they're puzzled as to why they have almost no registration for classes (despite having such strong "safety protocols" to reassure people), but are chalking it up, to, get this, people being "hesitant" about coming back to in-person activities during an "ongoing pandemic". (It assume that it just never occurs to them to check with schools that aren't demanding vax passes and find out if maybe they don't have that problem.)

Anyway, just my thoughts and data points.

Mask mandates are STILL in effect in Illinois??? Holy moly...

I guess I should consider myself blessed in that things have kind of returned to normal where I live; which is in a PMC neighborhood within fairly blue rust belt city, within a purple region, within a consistently blue state. Luckily blue collar people and other practical-skilled workers outnumber PMCs in the metro area overall.

Thankfully our statewide mask mandate expired back in May and hasn't been renewed since. Now businesses merely 'suggest' that people wear masks, i.e. anyone with half a brain ignores the suggestion and goes maskless in public places. Still lots of maskurbating, fear-driven, and virtue-signalling sheep though and I can safety guess they're all thoroughly vaxxed. I haven't put on a mask in public since the day the statewide mandate expired, and there's no way in hell I'm letting any gene-editing serum needle get anywhere close to my body.

I've been grocery shopping (among other ordinary errands) maskless since May and no one has given me any trouble or even any funny looks. Yesterday I dined out for the first time since the panicdemic started. My brother and I walked into a neighborhood restaurant, maskless of course. None of the staff were wearing masks; very few of the patrons were either. We sat down, had a very pleasant meal, was treated well by the establishment, no muss, no fuss. It felt like normal. Let's see how long this lasts. Our new governor (very recently assuming office to take the place of the meglomaniacal psycho-creep who was just forced to step down) could institute a new mask order at any time she feels like it and all the obedient sheep will dutifully comply.

I'm soon selling the house and moving to an outlying area where right-leaning and libertarian values are more the norm, in anticipation of our hopelessly-corrupt and compromised state government going full authoritarian again; at least in a less s-lib/PMC area, local officials and the people themselves are magnitudes less likely to comply with draconian mandates, much less enforce them or tattle-tale on neighbors and businesses for failing to comply. I really hope I don't have to end up moving out-of-state altogether. Western NY is my home and I really don't want to flee like a coward with tail tucked between legs. I think this is a modern American problem in general; when the going gets tough, people just up and run to somewhere else instead of making a concerted effort to try and fix the problem locally.

BTW, I absolutely love what you've been doing in your area. the "Speakeasy" name is very powerful and carries multiple meanings. Even though we don't have it so bad here (not at the moment, at least), I still think it might be a good idea to help create public awareness and help sympathetic people in my area avoid maskturbator/vaxturbator establishments in favor of their patriotic counterparts, as you put it above. Right now, as far as I can tell it's only the real bougie-trendy/hipster businesses that are still all-in on this insanity, but it would still be nice to develop a basic idea of where NOT to patronize.

Sorry for the run-on rant. I just don't have very many people I can talk about this stuff with in confidence.

How friendly is your group toward those who have made their own assessment of risk relative to available information and have chosen to wear masks regardless of state messaging and who would not impose their own choice on others? Your language choices suggest that there's only one approved "choice" but perhaps what I read as mockery is something else?

Does Sun Tzu talk about how to handle a situation when one is attacked by a party that thought was (in principle at least) an ally?

My group is not all that friendly towards people who choose to wear masks. The problem with the mask is that it is a symbol of leftist hegemony more than a functional item. So those who wear it become symbols whether they know they're doing it or not. I don't allow people to shame others for wearing a mask in my group. Sometimes we have to conform. For instance, many people will be fired from their jobs if they don't mask up. That said, I'm fairly clear: I stand against the people who wear masks when they are not forced to do so. It's like my veganism. I stand against people who eat animals and I occasionally make fun of them for doing it. Nevertheless, I realize I am not likely to change them and it's not my job to browbeat them into making the decision that was right for me. As far as Sun Tzu, I'm pretty sure he talks about that but I forget which chapter at the moment.

I like to say my husband and I deserve each other... ha ha! Yes, he really knows how to push my buttons. 27 years, congratulations!

That makes sense.

Thanks for your considered answer. It's unfortunate that we're all reduced to favoring select versions of evidence that solidifies positions and pits us against each other, as though we each aren't symbolic of some sort of hegemony.

That, "I stand against the people who wear masks when they are not forced to do so" rather than organizing with those who reject the policies of force is your position, says a lot about humans' innate tendency to ... well, I'm not sure I should say demonize, but certainly otherize and exclude, other people (even those who are exercising their freedom of choice which is ostensibly the point around which your battleground is drawn).

Although, beam in my eye, and all that - I admit, I don't feel particularly compelled to organize in solidarity with those who belittle me with name-calling.

Best of luck, and if it's something you envision, I hope your group makes a positive contribution toward protecting people's rights and healing our social divisions.

Yes, our emperor-governor is still virtue signaling as hard as he possibly can! I really appreciate the glimpse into your life in a blue state. I think you're smart to move out of PMC land while you still can. I would be in deep dung if I had not bought a small house in a very non-PMC neighborhood six years ago. My business that has been deep in the heart of blue PMC-ville for nearly 23 years of the 26 I have been in business is collapsing because of New Normal PMC panic over corona-chan. It's not sustainable out here. I'm sad and I'm angry. These people don't realize how much ruin they've caused because they've managed to insulate themselves from it. I never had a problem staying in business as a music teacher before the corona panic, despite massive blows to the economy.

"Western NY is my home and I really don't want to flee like a coward with tail tucked between legs. I think this is a modern American problem in general; when the going gets tough, people just up and run to somewhere else instead of making a concerted effort to try and fix the problem locally."

THIS. That was my equivalent to creepy voices in the head - to get a spate of news articles and divinations that made it look like a really good idea to move to a specific town that appeared to already be the exact type of town those of us here working in the community groups have been trying to make this one.

I have a deep personal bond with the land here, my home and garden, and even the town... though I would currently welcome many of the townspeople to get in the sea, I generally adore many of the others. The lady at the tea store is the funniest person alive; I laughed so hard at her angioscopy story I had to lean against the counter. That is a serious gift. So if Something(s) wanted to put me in the classic Jane double bind (Barenaked Ladies song lyrics: "Jane says that cowards stay and traitors run") that would do 'er.

So I am very carefully following the rules of engagement behind the most politically correct, covid-rule following, hostile to anyone who is not extraordinarily wealthy and old lines imaginable - because like hell they will take this place. The problem for them will be that they don't actually know what the rules of engagement are, though they think they wrote them.

When I was in middle school, I was very frustrated by the fact that people did not seem to follow the rules, which I tried to follow very diligently. So, I paid very close attention to the actual rules that I though seemed to be being applied - not the ones people said they use (like, it's bad to bully), but the real ones that incorporate what is and is not allowed based on various differentials of social standing, and then wrote those down to see if those rules made more sense. Since we are all, supposedly, no longer in junior high, there are of course much larger rulebooks at play, and it will be interesting to see which of us figured those out better, eh?

(Also, OMG, the play is Kinky Boots, my sides...)

I constantly organize with those who reject forced policies, so I'm not sure I understand your point. I do empathize with those who must wear masks because their bosses force them or because they have to obey to board a plane or visit a hospital. The essay is about building the morale of people who stand against creeping totalitarianism.

I think what you are reluctant to look at here is your own role as a conformist and how that conformity firms up the narrative of mask mandates. This happens whether you like it or not. I don't hate you in the slightest for wearing a mask, just as I don't hate people for eating eggs, cheese, and meat. I just wish you wouldn't; you don't have to.

I think there are some autistics who delight in wokeness because it allows them to carve out a niche and make a set of stringent rules they can then use to appear to come from a position of authority. For instance, the pink and purple haired, tattooed types who make endless "educational" videos on sexual preferences. These videos are partially to scold all who would see them as freakish and also as a way of drawing boundaries around their own imaginary banana republics where pronouns, lingo, and behavior is strictly policed to better adhere to the vision of the individual's fantasy utopia.

Edited 2021-09-16 20:00 (UTC)

LOL true enough! Masks would make it a hell of a lot easier to turn over a bank if I were inclined in that direction.

Thanks for this. That seems reasonable to me. You have the same argument as my mom: it's the same as No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.

In my group, there are several hearing-impaired people and it's absolutely horrible for them -- not because they can or cannot wear masks, but because they need to read the lips of the people in stores trying to serve them! There is also an entire generation or two of school kids who are being damaged by having to wear masks for 6-8 hours, despite the masks putting them in real danger of oxygen shortages and bacterial infections. The more masks are normalized, the worse the above people will suffer, and that's enough for me to show my naked face to irate gas station managers and deal with the consequences. Nevertheless, you do you, boo. That's the great thing about American values. It's a nation founded upon respecting people to make their own decisions.

I am staying put in my prairie homeland until I die. I love my town (Aurora) and I love my exact location (East) with my yard that I've spent lots of time on (never enough) and learned the trees, talked to the houses, fed the feral cats, etc. I'm glad I never moved away like my ex-friend who moved to Europe and then became torn between two continents. Frankly, I couldn't afford to move away and that's what kept me from doing the "grass is greener" thing. In hindsight, I'm glad. It's not healthy to bounce around the globe for the whopping majority of us. Some of us are globe trotters -- I think they're a special nomadic elite. I was a globe trotter in a previous life; maybe that helped me get it out of my system in this one. Far too many have convinced themselves they are globe trotting elites when they'd actually be much more at peace if they stayed put or at least stayed semi-local to the place they were born. There is a great deal of Fear of Missing Out and that is what compels people to uproot and move far away. In doing so, they miss out on the priceless experience of intergenerational family bonds and the spirit of place.

Co-signed. When we found this house, I thought of that SPCA commercial - this will be my Forever Home. When I was door knocking running for council, there was one elderly woman who put so succintly the way people feel when they are welcomed to this place my mouth dropped open and all I could say was "exactly": "This place just wraps itself around you like a warm hug."

I was not careful in my wording. Yes, I see that you are organizing with those who reject forced policies/policies of force. What I wished to point out was that your stance against those who wear masks (not by compulsion but by (however misguided) choice) denies you potential allies who wish to resist coercive governance but who, by your own defining name-calling are to be mocked and reviled. In that stance-against, you entrench a binary through your deliberate belittling. What kind of morale is built by that? Superiority?

I have thought about my conformity and I recognize there's overlap between what I think is a helpful choice for the commons (given life-experience in crowded/polluted countries where mask wearing is a common response to respiratory threats), what is being mandated to our long-term detriment, and conformity to family-members' desires (given higher risk for some), so I'm not sure what to say there other than the government can go (unDruidly-word) itself with these things that just make us all draw lines against each other.

And that I will now stop whining about being "bullied on the playground" because it sounds stupid.

I've always had a hard time applying Sun Tzu to my own experiences, so I applaud you for making a go at it with yours.

Thanks for clarifying. I am superior to those who wear masks out of fear. So yes, I am trying to build morale via what I presume is my superiority. I often call meat eaters necrovores. It's straight up name calling and I don't find it to be problematic. I am not always nice. I try to be blunt and to the point: maskturbator is a great word for that. It doesn't mean I hate anyone or want them to be prevented from wearing their masks in a free environment. The whole reason I am bluntly naming with the maskturbator meme (that I did not invent, necrovore however is a term I coined) is because of government overreach: if we give an inch lately, the government takes a mile. So I don't budge.

Did you follow John Michael Greer's book club on Dion Fortune's The Cosmic Doctrine? Many of my essays on the Art of War, including this one, expand upon Cosmic Doctrine and the concept of evil within that book.

Thank you for your compliments. Another great book for applying Sun Tzu to regular life is The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.

It just seems so bizarre to me at this point how people are STILL buying into this narrative!
I mean, seriously, don’t people take the time to look at opposing viewpoints? I know it’s difficult sometimes to turn off that television and maybe many people just don’t know where to go for different opinions because it’s been so heavily censored. But there are so many who wouldn’t believe the evil that exists even when it’s staring them in the face.
For example, I could post an article from a reliable source stating that wearing the masks makes a difference that is statistically insignificant (less than 2 percent) but somehow I feel like it would be the same as beating my head against a wall. I no longer bother.
I’m in Florida (central east coast, AKA the Space Coast) and September is one of the hottest months of the year. People are still wearing their filthy face coverings out in parking lots, pumping gas, etc. There are no mandates but they are still buying into it, despite that giant UV sterilizer up in the sky.
They have been cooking the numbers all along. And the masses STILL believe.
I knew when this thing started that it was a giant psy op for some kind of nefarious agenda and here we are 18 months later. Those of us who saw this coming were right. But it’s not cool to talk about such things, is it? We’re not part of the cult.
I haven’t worn a mask in public since the beginning. I’m used to being an outcast and simply didn’t give a crap what people thought of me. I wasn’t going to be a sell out.
I’ve worn it twice to get medical care for my cats and had to wear it at work for awhile but thankfully my department supervisor wasn’t a maskhole and I would “forget” when having to travel to different areas. And then they started going over the top on their testing policies (3 times in one week for the CNC department) and when it eventually hit our department, I quit. That was 2 months ago and I’ve been unemployed ever since. Being told what to do with my body wasn’t an option. Being tagged like livestock isn’t an option, either. Luckily I’ve saved some money because shopping for frivolous reasons has become too depressing and irritating for me amongst the walking dead.
So the madness is still here in Florida, despite claims that it is a free state.
For example, a potential job interview. Nice looking place from the outside. Empty lobby. Bottle of hand sanitizer and a sign on another entry door that said masks required… I brought one of the old face diapers from my past job from a collection in my console and when the guy came out to greet me I was told I had to wear it if I wasn’t “vaccinated”. I’m not used to wearing the ridiculous things and asked him right away about the company policies.
Typical work day...Temp scans upon entering. Masks all day. They don’t have break rooms and people eat lunch in their cars. Soooo….no microwaves, no hot food, I have to bring a crappy sandwich to eat everyday? Or race to some fast food place and wolf my food down on the way home?
And if you were caught without a mask, the supervisor would “let you know”. Well I’m a 55 year old woman and I will not be yelled at. And at this point, God help anyone that does. I have a loud mouth and a gift for insulting people. And I’m over it.
So that interview lasted about 5 minutes. At least I got to dress up.
Our governor Desantis is putting on the show of standing up to Mr. Potato Head but it could just be more Freemason theater. I’m grateful for what he’s doing but remain suspicious of him as well.
We’ll see.
Sorry to go on so long in so many directions.
Kimberly, what you’re doing is wonderful! It’s going to be all about establishing a parallel society and you are well on your way. Try reaching out to the health professionals also because you know it’s just a matter of time before they deny us medical /dental care, and all of those who have walked away have valuable knowledge and have proved their honor.
What a scary but interesting time to be alive.

Colleen

PS...could you give me a quick explanation on how to download photos onto a post? I wrote something recently and could not figure it out, despite links from Flickr, etc. It has to be something simple that I’m missing. Thank you!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 3

The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Chapter Six: Vacuity and Substance

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject