Sometimes it is not wise to engage in outright war with your fellow man. While I mean this primarily in the social sense, it can also apply to physical violence. Many times it is better to peacefully draw out the enemy.
When we engage in total war, we can anger someone and make a lifelong enemy. While I have no problem with angering others, it is not a wise long term strategy. Especially if the goal is to acquire power, make connections, and secure trade.
An angered enemy has no interest in a trade embargo with you. And you must always consider the effects that your actions have on various business opportunities.
In this brief post, let’s look at a simple way you can allow an enemy to defeat themselves instead of having to attack them directly. Every frontal assault, while extremely satisfying, will have the opposite effect that you intend for it. When have you ever been insulted by someone else, demolished in a social debate, and then actually converted to their line of thinking?
Ego always prevails over truth.
To draw out the enemy is to allow them to spread themselves too thin. They come too far out of the “fortress” of their mind and are trapped. You draw them out by asking them questions. simple, innocent questions. Then you allow them to believe they are gaining the upper hand, as you express to them that you are impressed by their reasoning. this compliment causes them to lower their guard and they can be drawn out even further.
Eventually, you have drawn them out so far that the kinks and cracks in their argument begin to show. But you continue to draw them out with more questions, pretending to ignore the obvious holes in their argument. Continue to draw them out until they are spread so thin by their own words that their position collapses in on themselves.
Ideally, you would perform this technique in the presence of as many witnesses as possible. they will think you noble because you did not engage in a frontal assault. they will think your enemy foolish because they could not defend their own position is a simple, civil discussion. By doing this you have destroyed your opponent without violence. You have engaged in civil discourse and laid open the truth.
Read: Patience
You have drawn out the enemy, and they have been defeated.
Remember the second battle of Ai in Joshua 8. They drew out the enemy by pretending to retreat out of fear. This drew the enemy out of the city and allowed Israelite guerrillas to overtake the city and set it on fire underneath the very noses of the Canaanites. Do this to your foes, especially those who hide under the title of “Christian”.
Read: Tribalism
