A great disadvantage to rule followers is a reluctance to shamelessly seize victory. Principle is a foundation that has set apart the highest quality peoples of the world, but it has greatest relevance only when building a civilization and bonding together its contributors. When a civilization begins to decline, principles that used to constitute virtues, quickly become handicaps.
This impulse can be seen in one's earliest recollections of sport and contest. After one's team had taken a clear advantage in a game, gloating and mocking the enemy while demoralizing and humiliating them was seen as a great vice only fit for bullies and braggarts. Soon, most individuals of great capacity were encouraged not to push their advantage to the point of savagery following victory. This behavior would serve to discourage further contests and drive opponents from the field until no one would be left to play! For example, stealing a loser's girlfriend, vandalizing their property, and inflicting violence upon them following a game would be roundly condemned as the behavior of a tyrant, and the society would inflict appropriate social measures to prevent any reoccurence of these behaviors. And indeed, these behaviors in a social contest among peers should be roundly condemned, as they undermine society and weaken social bonds between competitors who should reconvene on the field of contest to again sharpen one another as iron whets iron.
However, what happens when these social sanctions are lifted for one side alone? What happens when the victor is allowed to plunder social positive regard following a victory? What becomes of a culture where the victor claims sexual conquests from the loser's women following victory and advocates for breeding the losers out of existence? Where does a society end up when violence against the losers of civilized social contests escalate to the point of extermination? One cannot retain their principles when they face an enemy who has none!
The enemy has won through lies, apathy, cunning, sophistry, threats, violence, nepotism and a savage disregard for basic principles of fairness, forgiveness, gentlemanly conduct, and honor. And clinging to one's honor when facing a dishonorable enemy risks exposing great weaknesses to that enemy, and encouraging them to conduct further attacks with ever more brazen offenses to human dignity.
Some of the principled are now beginning to understand that abandoning principles of fair play is the first casualty of war. They are beginning to understand that this conflict is not fucking sportsball where a referee can intervene when someone throws an elbow. They are learning not only to strategize, but to militarize, not just to respond to underhanded tactics, but to prevent them, and triumph over them. And they are beginning to rise beaten from the field after one too many illegal elbows to realize that winning will require worse measures in return. Some of the principled still believe the referees will intervene and that they can continue to fight opponents as fair competitors. But enough are beginning to realize that they must defeat the bullies with their own tactics, and then hold the referees to account and replace them.
To win will require them to dig deep into those tactics they were never allowed to practice and acknowledge that the enemy are not friends who they wish to ever face again in combat. They must seize victory when it is possible rather than allowing the enemy a fair chance to prevail. They must gloat haughtily when the enemy is outsmarted and strike where they are most sensitive following their injury. They must ignore pleas to the principles that failed. They must appropriate enemy women, mock the weaknesses of their men, and deny them the resources to regroup. They must make the enemy regret ever abandoning principle, and when the beaten plead for forgiveness, the sorry enemy should be met only with stony resolve and a doubling down on brutal reprisals. The aggrieved must do so with all means at their disposal in full accordance with the law, provided that the law is still being enforced equitably. This enemy has shown itself fully and the only missing component to victory is a team willing to use the same tactics in turn.
Finally, when the battle has been won and the enemies driven from the field with no desire to ever fight again, the victors must learn not only to role model the heroes of the fight, but to beware the examples of fallen antiheroes. The qualities that win a battle are made stronger through that victory. When one is allowed to win through fair debate, logical consideration of the facts, tempered discussion, and continual appeal to first principles, those qualities are strengthened. However, when one wins through deception, intimidation, brutality, and merciless sociopathy, those traits can insidiously prevail. Despite the necessity of compromising one's ethics, a monster is fed. And if one is not very careful, that slumbering beast weaned quietly on poisonous prey may soon grow into a more vile threat than the enemy it was originally raised to destroy.
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