THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

SIEGECRAFT: HOW THE WEST WAS WON | nationalsalvation.net

Thinking ahead and thinking things through does NOT mean central planning.

Populist leadership can be as simple as recognizing worth and expertise and drumming up support for those that have them, while at the same time recognizing what is insane and harmful and sweeping such people out of the way. But somebody, a generalist, needs to have an idea of what is going on, or there will be no change, no revolution, and no politics.

Another example I gave in the past is how the West was won. There was no central planning. There was a little politics and there were guidebooks. The guidebooks described the trails heading West, how to survive in the wilderness, and how to scratch out a living wherever you were. This was revolutionary. This was planning. But it was NOT central planning.

There was a kind of bureaucracy involved in printing and selling the books, in the manufacture of the wagons, and in holding a group together while trekking months through the Great American Desert and keeping scalps away from bloodthirsty Injuns. There was planning, but no CENTRAL planning.

It is not that anyone thinks you are trying to create a mass movement, it's that you still have more practical knowledge to share with those who could you use it. I know you are tired, so we will focus on organizing what you have already written, a job well done. Organizing always brings out new insights and general conclusions and this is what Dave is doing at National Salvation.

To make things work, enough people must see the need and enough must know what to do. The more that see the need, the more will know what to do. The more that know what to do, the fewer needed to see the need.

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