Eminem is a master for many reasons - his utter devotion to his craft, his insane work ethic, his obsession with his art But what sticks out to me right now is his ability to capture the emotions that I feel (along with millions of other fans) with extraordinary accuracy.
This got me thinking. I wonder how many people feel as I do. I wonder how many dudes out there are pissed off to the core. I mean feeling rage all the way to the core; like the rage is in your bones. I wonder how many guys out there have their blood boiling hotter than the fires in hell. I wonder how many dudes out there have been done wrong, done dirty, by the people who were supposed to have their backs.
I wonder how many guys would connect with this Dr. HAHA Lung character, who so eloquently glorifies - and simultaneously demonizes - how Hannibal, Vlad Tepes, Dracula, Spartacus and Musashi painted history with the blood of their enemies.
It seems that sometimes, you can't just "let it go." So writes Lung in the opening pages of The Lost Arts of War, Ancient Secrets of Strategy and Mind Control.
Only when I read Lung's stories of these great men who came back to murder their enemies do I feel a deep sense of calm, a psychological and bodily sensation that is so strong that it feels trance-like. If you've ever been paralyzed with rage - by this, I mean so angry that your thoughts won't stop revolving around the particular insult, act (or memory thereof) - so much so that you couldn't think or do anything but stay stuck in that feeling, you need to check out Lung.
And truth, as someone once said, has a particular ring to it. The trick that Lung teaches is similar to what you'll learn from Robert Greene. You need to find some way to get yourself out of the moment. Stop thinking about the person who betrayed you or stabbed you in the back, and focus your mind on a higher purpose, some "ultimate strategic goal."
That phrase - ULTIMATE STRATEGIC GOAL - is used in the above-posted documentary on Sun-Tzu, by Dr. Richard A. Gabriel, Distinguished Professor in the department of war studies at the Royal Military College of Canada. During his commentary, Gabriel states that so often in war, generals focus on the individual battles, instead of focusing on what is truly important: The political context of the war, the ultimate strategic goal, what the purpose of the war actually is.
Also discussed in the Sun-Tzu documentary is the concept of Go versus Chess, a notion that Robert Greene addresses in the final chapter of the 48 Laws of Power - Assume Formlessness. This analogy is repeated throughout, and emphasized in the analysis of Vo Nguyen Giap's strategy (Go-like) versus the U.S. strategy (chess-like).
So, what does this mean in a practical sense? Why is this relevant to daily life, and not just some mildly interesting academic anecdotes?
Because life is war. People may deny this, but as Robert Greene says on the FIRST page of the 33 Strategies of war, "we know it and feel it in our battle scars." If you've lived a peaceful, coddled little life, then maybe you don't see life as war. If you haven't had to "choke down the most bitter morsels of life," in Nietzsche's words, then sure... you can say that life is not a war.
But if you've ever ventured out in life - to be greedy, in Gordon Gekko's words, for life, love and money - then you have undoubtedly felt the attacks of those on the other side, and perhaps even those who were supposed to be on your side. If you've been brave enough to try to bring your dreams into reality, then you've probably experienced a nightmare or two. If you've ever been strong enough to fight for what you believe in, then you very well may have felt the crushing blows of the opposition - people too blind to see your vision, too deaf and dumb to hear and understand it, but loud enough to silence you.
Or... were they just dumb enough to TRY to silence you?
We make our own fate. Hannibal, Spartacus et al taught this lesson to the mightiest forces on earth at the time. If not the ultimate validation of Nietzsche's Will to Power, is it not an irrefutable argument - empirically (and EMPHATICALLY!) supported by the blood spilled by Musashi and the lives taken by Leonidas - THAT WHEN A MAN TRULY DETERMINES HIMSELF TO DO SOMETHING, HE CANNOT BE STOPPED!
We study history in order to make history, Dr. HAHA Lung comments on the first page of Lost Arts of War.
For you to take this as seriously as you're supposed to, consider this. The only other dude I personally know who takes Robert Greene as seriously as I do is a brother of mine who worked for years as a military interrogator. He is the one who introduced me to the good Doctor Lung. He did so during a time when I was hustlin' hard on a project that is now almost complete, and the despair produced by the loneliness was overwhelming me. He had never seen my like that, and he gave me some of Lung's books.
Imagine my surprise when I saw in Lung everything that I had read before: Ayn Rand, Robert J. Ringer, the heroes of history written about by Robert Greene.
So, if you feel how I feel, and you're pissed like I'm pissed, then there's only one thing to do.
Read.
Apply.
Get money. A "wily bank account," in Lung's words. Success is the best revenge (oh, how differently they would have all acted if they could've seen the future!), as Eminem says in Where I'm At. And like he says in Soldier, why murder your enemies, when you can keep them alive so you can keep coming back to kick dirt on them?
The blueprint has already been laid out.
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