The art of culture war
Gwern Gwynfil
Sun Tzu was a 6th century BCE Chinese general, military strategist and philosopher, and author of the ‘Art of War’. As curious as it sounds, his teachings still hold many lessons for campaigners, culture warriors and leaders today.
Underlying much of Sun Tzu’s strategic thinking is an ethos of allowing your opponents to find their own way to defeat. ‘He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight’. Unfortunately, it seems that most of those who would align themselves against the wailings of the populist right have not yet read Sun Tzu.
Choosing the Field of Battle
Controlling and choosing the ground upon which to fight certainly confers huge advantages.
Unassailable higher ground, fortified and defensive locations, a natural redoubt, will all add to the chance of victory. This is also true of cultural battles.
But the populists seem to be being given free rein to make these choices.
Why on earth have trans rights issues become synonymous with toilets? Women’s toilets too.
You would never know from this particular culture war battlefield that women transitioning to men consistently outnumber men becoming women by over two to one. Of course, women becoming men don’t suit the populist narrative so they are ignored to make way for ‘hot button’ selective issues which can be amplified to fit a certain narrative.
Those who would oppose such misinformation and misleading portrayals are often sucked in by this, engaging directly on narrow terms set by those who stand to benefit from them. Thus the battlefield is set to favour the populist.
‘Balk the enemy’s power, force him to reveal himself’
Nothing enrages a populist more than being ignored. They thrive upon the engagement and proliferation of debate and fierce argument around the issues they identify as having the right mix of emotional triggers, with enough basis in reality, so that they can construct a vaguely ‘factual’ argument to underscore the emotive response they seek.
Rarely, if ever, will this withstand real scrutiny, facts and data but it can be enough to convince on a shallow reading.
Ignoring such forays forces them to escalate. Inevitably, the more they escalate the weaker their argument becomes, they become desperate in their pursuit of triggers, using ever more lurid and isolated examples to trigger a response.
Make no mistake, it is those arrayed in opposition that they seek to trigger, not their supporters. For populists, it is vocal opposition that validates them and gives them credence and relevance. They have understood Sun Tzu in ways that those who would stand in opposition have not.
‘If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate them’
The way to ‘win’ the culture wars is to disengage from them directly in every sense. Allow the opposition to scream and shout into a void until they are hoarse and tired. It is only engagement that gives them fuel and power.
Let me take a recent example of allowing the populists and culture warriors to win without even bringing them to the field of battle. An illustration of how they have understood Sun Tzu’s Art of War whilst those arrayed against them have yet to learn these lessons.
‘Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war and then seek to win’
In early November, groups campaigning on behalf of Palestine and pressing for peace in Gaza, staged a statue based protest in Cardiff. Their target was the statue of David Lloyd George. They had been drawn into framing legitimate aspirations for peace in the Middle East around a campaign to remove a statue of Wales’ only UK Prime Minister.
This gesture campaigning playing entirely into the hands of the populist culture warriors – it is easy to portray those who attack statues as narrow and blinkered.
Nation’s own Martin Shipton responded to the event with a balanced piece on Lloyd George, his mixed record and fallibility but also his position within his time and drawing attention to some of his more valuable contributions as well as his failures.
The organiser of the protest subsequently responded with a long, rambling polemic, taking a clearly one-sided view of David Lloyd George.
There are valid criticisms of Lloyd George and of Empire in that essay but they are a little lost in what becomes a diatribe, dare I say, a rant, against a dead man from a very different and now relatively distant era. There is no living memory of Lloyd George as PM.
From the very beginning, by choosing to fight a statue, the peace campaign message on behalf of Palestine was destined to be utterly lost in engagement with irrelevant arguments. The people suffering in Gaza don’t care about David Lloyd George or his statue (very few people do), this battlefield will never further any discussion or debate about the need for a ceasefire, for peace and for rebuilding.
The populist warriors did not even need to enter the fray as the battle was lost before it had begun.
‘The Supreme Art of War is to Subdue the Enemy Without Fighting’
Let us imagine a different approach to enlisting a statue in the cause of peace. Wales has an immensely long and rich history of campaigning for peace at a global level.
There is a statue of Henry Richard, the ‘apostle for peace’, on the square in my home town of Tregaron.
The Temple of Peace is in Cardiff.
Shortly after David Lloyd George’s time as Prime Minister of the UK and Empire came to an end, hundreds of thousands of Welsh women were signing the incredible Women’s Peace Petition.
A direct line can be drawn from Henry Richard, with his lifetime of shuttle diplomacy across the length and breadth of Europe, to the creation of the League of Nations and, subsequently, the United Nations. The Temple of Peace, peace petitions and a persistent Welsh voice advocating for peace has played its part in this process for more than a century and a half.
With such a deep and lasting national tradition of campaigning for peace available in Wales, being sucked into a battle about a long dead politician demonstrates an immense lack of tactical awareness. Why allow the internecine culture wars of our age to dictate the battlefield when there is no need to do so?
Positive Contemporary Campaigning
Imagine 350 people gathered as a flash mob at the feet of Henry Richard in Tregaron, drone footage of a packed market town square, stirring speeches highlighting the horror and injustice of war, all embedded in a cultural memory of campaigning for peace – these are the unassailable heights campaigners should seek.
This time the battle is won before it has begun, with affirmation and actions that drive attention and amplify the message. There is no room for culture war as you already possess all of the higher ground.
Patience, Young Grasshopper
Whenever the temptation arises to engage with populists on a field of their choosing remember, ‘if you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by’.
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According to the US National Institutes of Health, there is a consistently greater prevalence of trans women (male to female) than trans men (female to male), which is the opposite of what is asserted here. Gwern Gwynfil should cite a source for his assertion. In any case, women do not become men and men do not become women. Some women feel uncomfortable when trans women (natal males) enter their single sex spaces, such as toilets. Men, on the other hand, are not particularly bothered if trans men (natal females) use their spaces. The Women’s Peace Petition was indeed a fantastic… Read more »
Shwmae Richard, you are correct about that study (2020). what you’ve missed is that even in that study incidence of FTM has increased to parity with MTF by the end of the study period. UK census data shows overall parity MTF and FTM too but it also shows that the balance primarily comes from the youngest age bracket. Demographically in the 18-24 bracket FTM outweighs MTF. Perhaps it is simply that women becoming men are more willing to say so now? Perhaps there are other reasons. It is also telling that chest transition surgery outweighs genital surgeries by a factor… Read more »
You’re engaging on the culture war though by taking a stance on that stupid trans debate while telling the reader that they shouldn’t engage in culture wars. If you were speaking as a critical thinker shining a light on the absurdity of culture wars then I shouldn’t know what your viewpoint is on trans women using public toilets, but I do, because not only do you have a clear side, but you chose to tell us. Engaged. Engaged in an all but retired debate too aside from a handful of pigheaded zealots on both sides. Like most if not all… Read more »
I don’t think a few lines highlighting an issue as an exemplar is engagement.
And don’t think for a minute that I don’t believe that women have the right to safe spaces. But the safe space debate, the women’s rights debate, neither have anything to do with trans issues. It’s an artificial conflation created by populists for their own ends.
An excellent example of letting them set the battlefield and one I highlight to illustrate that point. Please read the article again.
MSM does a damn good job for all sorts of regimes wanting to get away with the serious erosion of our rights while the masses are distracted by junk issues. Whoever dreamt up the plot to make boys in frocks a big issue was/is a dangerous manipulative type.
I’m reaching for a Mike Smash phrase but in a genuine, not facetious, way. ‘Wise words, mate!’.
Quoting from the article: You would never know from this particular culture war battlefield that women transitioning to men consistently outnumber men becoming women by over two to one. Of course, women becoming men don’t suit the populist narrative so they are ignored to make way for ‘hot button’ selective issues which can be amplified to fit a certain narrative. A bit disingenuous here. The reason the issue of men transitioning to women receives more attention is because it’s about permitting biological males into biological female spaces. Due to the obvious natural differences between these two, we are right to… Read more »
Diolch Steffan, you have beautifully demonstrated how easy it is to fall into the trap laid for you by populist spin.
You have here bundled a woman’s right to safety, trans rights, biological sex vs gender, and violent sexual criminality into a mish mash which has no logic or reason.
All of these are important but they need not, and should not, be conflated in an emotive mess specifically and exclusively designed to cause fear and consternation.
You’re fighting the battle in an arena chosen to favour the populist.
It is fascinating to see “populist” evolving into a pejorative term in real time. The OED defines “populist’ as “[i]ntended to appeal to or represent the interests of ordinary people”. That seems to me very positive, and on that basis YesCymru is surely a populist movement. (If it isn’t, what is it?)
Agreed. The evolution of terms generally is fascinating! And the way in which they are debased over time, especially in politics. Liberalism, socialism, populism, pretty much any -ism, eventually becomes a pejorative term with only the most tenuous relationship to its original meaning.
Not sure you’d use it to describe any cross party campaign group though 🤔 surely ‘popular’ would suffice?
Best advice here is – stop digging that hole. The “battle” is what it is, although I would call it a “skirmish” because it’s messy but doesn’t amount to much. Nobody really gives a sh*t until a line is crossed. That the line has been, will be, or is crossed is what bugs those who display hostility. Away from matters like the safety of women’s spaces, Senedd candidate lists where “gender” gets some sort of priority, physical contact sport, and not much else, who gives a damn about a man in a frock ? And the woman who kits herself… Read more »
Its actually been shown to be an argument designed by MRAs/misogynists to reintroduce single sex spaces like gentlemen’s clubs. Its about dominance over women. Women’s safe spaces should not also be where they pee. Everywhere should be safe. But if you get duped into just arguing about toilets you can ignore all other (actually existing) VAWG like what happens in their homes and schools and workplaces. And until this nonsense started rape crisis centres often accepted men and boys… you’ve fallen for it and proved the point perfectly!
In fact Adam’s article added deep and much needed historical context that was missing from Martin’s short rant. Talking about Lloyd George, whatever we think of the statue it is important that this formative period for much of the world, in a particularly brutal time of empire is properly understood. Try not to take it so personally Gwern
Shwmae Jon, I don’t disagree with the need to talk about history at all. Fairly sure I credit Adam with some valid points in his essay too. But this does not change the fact that it is a polemical criticism of DLlG. Neither does it change the reality that Adam’s energy, time and effort as a peace campaigner on behalf of the people of Gaza was totally sidetracked into a fight about a dead person. The protesters idea of hanging an event campaigning for peace on the destruction of a statue was a tactically poor decision – gulled into playing… Read more »
I don’t see any substance to your criticism or the article that is all. Lloyd George has been portrayed as a sort of Welsh folk hero so we mostly hear about the no doubt important internal reforms his government achieved, although, this can also be put down in part to growing internal pressures from an emerging labour movement. What Adam did was add the historical record that much of the rest of the world, especially people in the former colonies are keenly aware. I, like you am not entirely sold on the tactics of targeting statues but at the same… Read more »
Please do not drop tampons in the urinal. Thank you.
As someone pointed out above, the chances of any of us encountering one of the 1in10 at a convenience are slim and when we do we don’t care so using that as a dog whistle was a mistake Gwern. I would like to add my own warning as a corollary to Sun Tzu:
While waiting at the river for that one enemy, an awful lot of your friends will drift away.
‘ Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.’
Xx or xy, there isn’t a third category.
It’s a lot more complicated than that Alun.