May I offer some bad advice about the future?

At times, it seems repetitive to tell people how to look at the future. In many ways, like golf, it’s a simple process you must practice. No shortcuts. Giving the same advice time and time again can feel like a nag.

However, how about giving people bad advice they can ignore? This is a new pedagogical approach, one I am working on for my next book. The power of negative thinking!

I am partially inspired in this effort by this all-too-true blog post on how to lose wars American style.

If you really want to lose a war, follow these easy steps:

1. Underestimate the enemy.
2. Avoid learning anything about the enemy.
3. Explain the invasion to the American public in simple moral terms suitable for middle-school children at an evangelical summer camp.
4. A misunderstanding of military history helps. Besides, comprehension would only lead to depression.
5. Do not forget that a military’s reason for existence is to close with the enemy and destroy him. An army is not in the social-services business.
6. Intellectual insularity should be a primary goal, as it avoids distraction.
7. Keep up to date with the latest nostrums and silver bullets. Organize your military as a lean, mean, high-tech force characterized by lightning mobility, enormous firepower, and extraordinary unsuitability for the kind of wars it will actually have to fight.
8. It is a good idea to bracket your exposure. Be ready for wars past and future, but not present.
9. Insist that the US military never loses wars. Instead, it is betrayed, stabbed in the back, and brought low by treason.
10. Avoid institutional memory. Not having lost of course means that there is nothing to remember.

Mindset is more important than capital, more important than information.