So often we hear about how to defend freedom and liberty. But how often do we hear about how to destroy freedom? After all, the bad guys need instructions too, right? So while these instructions can be inverted as ways to protect and preserve freedom, they will be six points on how to destroy a nation. That said, medium and order may vary based on which nation you wish to ruin.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Sun Tzu, the Art of War. Now, this doesn’t just mean knowing about your enemy, it means knowing what they actually want, not what the stereotypes that encompass them want. Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that these groups are purely out to save the world, and sometimes they are, but it’s important to know both the specifics of what they want. It’s also important to know about them now rather than how they were decades ago. After all, how much does someone change over the course of years, now consider how much a nation can change over those same years. Sure it’s a lot slower, but motives, opinions, and risk tolerance in society do shift over time.
The second thing to note is this, said by Sun Tzu, “Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.” To truly destroy a nation you can’t just invade it with force. Especially in the modern era where anyone determined enough, at least in countries like the USA can make a weapon that can wipe out entire buildings. Besides, unless if you can take over the country in a few weeks then you’re just giving the nation a common enemy and time to rally. You’re also inspiring people to hold onto their values much stronger, after all, nothing draws someone to thoughts of justice, heroism, and religion quite like war does, at least when it’s fairly cut and dry on who’s bad and who’s good. But if you’re quiet, have the gift of patience, and do your work well, you can destroy the nation before it even knows you’re there.
Our third point comes from The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis, “Tortured fear and stupid confidence are both desirable states of mind.” While both are well and good in destroying a nation, why not use both. If you can. Setting up fear of their own nation, or in some distant enemy, real or imagined works wonders on grasping power. After all, what good is freedom when a burglar breaks through you’re door? If they’re terrified, they’ll be more than happy to let you into even the deepest corners of their lives, and once your there, you’ve practically already won. That said, stupid confidence is also desirable, for they can’t just remain terrified forever, they’ll naturally get numb, which while not horrible isn’t ideal, because once they’re numb they might start to think, which is a terrible idea. Instead set up for them to destroy cardboard cutouts, set up easy to defeat foes so that they’ll feel victorious and prideful, but not so difficult that they might not grow from it.
Another task to set yourself about is destroying their morals. This works well when used with subtlety. No one will kick a puppy just out of the blue when asked, you have to work towards it. “When we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away…” -said, Sun Tzu. As you corrupt a country, you have to make it feel like it’s getting better. Emphasis the mistakes, and immoral actions of the past, while glancing over, or place blame elsewhere for those currently underway. And once you’ve eroded their morals sufficiently, it’s no longer a war of ideas, holding on for the hope of a better world. No, at that point they’ve become just like you. At that point, taking over is just a matter of business.
The Last point is that you should start with the youth, the sooner you can corrupt them, the sooner you’re victorious. As Sun Tzu put it best, “To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” The youth are always the most susceptible to change, sometimes that can be a wonderful thing for freedom and liberty, but it can also be a wonderful tool for its destruction. If you persuade the youth, to follow in your footsteps, it’s no longer about whether you’ll win; it’s about how long it takes for those already set against you to die off, and who knows, maybe some of them will follow the youth.
Now while the Children of the Republic don’t support destroying liberty, it is important to know the strategies used by those who will, because they won’t hold anything back, and if we don’t know how to see them coming, they’ll have destroyed freedom before we even noticed.
