Learning from History

Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

Orson Scott Card has much to say about Learning from History. Here are a few points:

  1. When the press has decided to report only one side of the story, the public is ill served.
  2. If you do not believe the threats of an insane enemy and destroy their war capacity early, when it can be cheaply done, you will pay for it in blood and horror.
  3. Only fools believe that an enemy cannot do what he threatens to do.
  4. Only fools allow their best allies to be neutralized before the war begins.
  5. Remember the big picture. However much you might want to achieve a short-term goal, you cannot let yourself be distracted from the primary objectives of the primary struggle.
  6. Everybody makes horrible mistakes; the side that learns from its mistakes and relentlessly moves forward is the one that will win.
  7. Without leadership, the cause of democracy cannot be won.

Naturally you’ll have to read the whole article to make sense of those points.

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