Brecht on Strategy

Bert Brecht, poet and play write, has an interesting line in his ballad “The Legend of the Origin of the Book Taoteking” – namely, the line “how soft water in motion eventually defeats the mighty rock.” (1) If one interprets that as a statement about strategy, it is noteworthy that there is no “decisive battle” leading to victory included in this view; but rather, it is the incessant movement of the masses that brings success. Recent users of this philosophy include women’s movements – an unfinished task, but with some success.

Compare that with Clausewitz and Lenin. The military historian, John Keegan (“A History of Warfare”. Vintage Books, 1993) starts out with a discussion of Clausewitz (also popular reading in U.S. military schools) and shows that there are other, different, non-Eurocentric ways of using military force in other cultures. Keegan also makes the following observation: “it is extremely significant that Clausewitz has always stood high in the favour of Marxist intellectuals, Lenin foremost among them” (p17) The Clausewitzian view presupposes the existence of a fighting force, which has a chance of defeating the opponent, and includes the notion of a “decisive battle” required for victory. The notion of a single decisive battle is absent from Brecht’s view cited above.

Two different ways of thinking about strategy.

Note (1) Brecht’s original: “wie das weiche Wasser in Bewegung mit der Zeit den maechtigen Stein besiegt”