Bleeding Edge

GRIST FOR THE WHEELS OF THE EMPIRE 

‘The Story of the Malakand Field Force.’ his book that was published in 1898 was a heroic battle story written in the format of all heroic battle stories he had read. And so he styled himself after those stories that he already loved. Now to be able to write like his idol Gibbon, the master historian — that would be heaven…

Indeed this was Winston’s first long form story hastily put together in a book sized long article format. Not only this was practically the first book he had ever written, but it was also the first literary undertaking of his career. So it must have been the famed beginner’s luck — as it happens sometimes — that favoured him with a commercial success. A stunning first timer’s success that netted him £ 600 pounds sterling in payment, when he sold the book to the publishers. And this is the first serious money he ever earned, and went from being completely broke in India’s Bangalore barracks, to being able to afford the rental of a small stucco home in Bangalore’s Whitfield neighborhood. This small residence was once called Waverly Inn, and this is where Winston Churchill stayed and wrote feverishly. That is he wrote in the ‘cracks of time’ he snatched in between all other things that had to be done. he wrote in the midday heat, instead of taking a nap, and in the middle of the night with the help of the kerosene storm lamps, and indeed in what was the only time available to him, after the morning office hours, the parade grounds inspections, the polo games, the drills, and all other officers’ duties and the interminable social game of the British Raj in India. Because this is where he had to “date” and also entertain some beautiful expat young ladies in order to just keep up with social custom, and exercise his manhood in a bit of friendly fornication — lest he be considered a poufter or worse. Still the polo games allowed him some time to write, because he was a natural rider, and a brilliant player, and didn’t need to train and practice as often as others did. Indeed Winston was one of the best Polo players in all of India — and with that bit of fame and with the money coming in from the royalties of the book in England, he could afford the little bungalow called Weaverly Inn that he had spotted at the Whiitefields commons — so he can take the lady friends and do his evening aerobics in privacy and comfort. And since his publishing income was a tidy sum — he reasonably decided, that there was money to be made in writing and publishing and so he should keep at it best he can. Indeed for many years hence, ‘writing’ was his preferred method of ‘bread winning’ and even ‘buttering his toast’ and thus he kept writing more articles and more books — always thereafter.

As a matter of fact, over time, he came to be a most worthy and profitable author, and that was the reason he always retained a secretary. A secretary that could write in short hand stenography, while taking dictation, from Winston lolling in the bathtub. A bathtub that was always at the ready to receive him in the cool water that kept him happy in India’s midday heat. And by placing a board across the tub — he could write effortlessly and rather happily. Still to this day — I do this wherever I find myself in a hot tropical clime and I need to combat the heat, because it cools you down fast and keep you cool thereafter. Yet Winston at this early time, still saw writing not as a career, but as an avocation that kept him in hard tackle and biscuits, if not in champagne and cigars, or sherry and cigarettes — depending on the commercial success of his writing. And he kept at it, until his dying days, and beyond. And I am not just using the word “beyond” in jest, but simply because he left at least two great works started, yet unfinished. Ergo, now am sure, Winston is busy writing those two ‘magnus opus’ manuscripts — undisturbed — by dictating long sentences from a heavenly bath to a cherubic secretary somewhere in the clouds up above. Now am sure he has the length of time to finish both the biography of Napoleon, and that of Julius Caesar in due course. Eternity is a long time and he is a fast writer. Don’t quite know what publishing services they have up in Heaven — but am sure with his talent for Diplomacy, he’ll find a way to publish at the Angels winged press.

Yet in his early life, he struggled to find a publisher, and therefore this writing ‘avocation’ was not just a personal silver-mine for him, but also a fabulous second, or even third job, depending on who is counting, and one that not only kept him fully employed at all times of the day and night but also supplied Winston Churchill and his family and friends, with the victuals and all the drink & cigars, he required, while also paying for the Clubs and city pads, and also for the family’s Home House ChartWell, along with supporting his loving wife and children. Yet it was writing that also gave him rare pleasure and endowed him with many readers, friends, and voters, but also with fame and fortune, and a NOBEL PRIZE for LITERATURE, as a small reward for all his troubles and many years of writing. And specifically for his multivolume detailed History of the Second World War, which was indeed what prompted the Academy of Sweden to award him this highest and rare honour as a prize for Winston Churchill, the AUTHOR and the referenced body of work in memorializing the second world war.

And this is where he got from the humble beginnings of his first book written in snatches of sleepless nights, and time stolen in between fighting and training, and amid spurious spurts of energy, during the long nights after the fierce battles in the Pashtun tribal areas of Afghanistan, in India’s Northwest frontier. And it was here that he also wrote even more than what he wrote when he got back to his barracks, or when he was ensconced in his pink Indian stucco garden bungalow. A little home that he loved because this is where he found his own slice of Paradise, away from all the cares and worries of the world he inhabited. A place he called his first home, and his first house, where he focused on writing in peace and quiet.

And from that time on, he was hooked… He got hooked to being a writer, and he started down that strange and lush garden path, that might lead to all kinds of adventures…

Apparently, he must have liked what he saw, what he found and what he felt, in this writing occupation, and from then on — he kept on writing feverishly.

Yet that battle of the Malakand campaign, also gave him a most distinct event that he was to carry with him for the rest of his life, because he also remembered this fierce military campaign, not only as the ‘cradle’ of his first book, but far more importantly as his first battle-kill. Indeed his first battle-kill was the dispatch of this tribal belligerent Muslim militant, who mercilessly severed the head of the fallen and mortally wounded officer who was not only Winston’s Superior Officer, but also a close friend of Churchill, who thus prompted Winston in revenge to ‘blow him away’ and thus lose his ‘virginity’ in that most awful bloodsport of taking a human life in angst of war. Many years later Winston always remembered this moment reverentially when in private reflection, and was always somber and sad, recalling this episode of his tumultuous and often quite violent life. Yet when Winston was sad and he recalled the loss of his brother Officer’s life — he tempered his emotions with the retelling of the story of how he send the militant killer’s soul back to it’s maker; for reasons that he sometimes jokingly claimed to be as simple as arming himself with divine and instant justice, and thus ‘return’ that ‘defective specimen’ back to the factory of souls. And of course this politically incorrect joke, was only shared in the context of drinking bouts of friends and officers, full of mementos, bravado, and camaraderie. As we all know when men are found retelling stories of battlefield events, some long tales, and coarse stories are shared amongst brother officers for their own hearing. These are manly pursuits and habits, that are only shared during “barracks talk’ and are not fit for dainty ears. But are perfect for use when seated around the ‘Men’s Mensa’ and also best told at the Polo games, or when horsing around, and especially fitting language to be used during men’s drinking hours, at the club, at the drawing rooms, inside the Parliament’s tearooms, or even at the Gymnasium, and the Library — because these are indeed the only places and times these talks are allowed by puritanical pearl clutching society ladies. So before we judge Winston, or jump to conclusions, let us remember that we all have at times the need to vent, especailly when we are ‘At Liberty’ speaking amongst ‘Fellow Officers’ and Military ‘Leaders of Men’ who had all experienced this rare Military aphorisms… Death is a constant companion to those of us who are of a battle hardened nature, and the niceties of civilian life might escape us….

Yet one knows that Winston never spoke of this incident, or of the many others like it — at any of his many gatherings in the family home-house, or in front of his wife and children, or even in front of female guests, or reporters — because he knew well enough that taking a life is not an easy subject to talk about. And it is always reserved as a ‘Man’s Burden’ and a ‘Sensible Secret’ in the public’s eyes still reeling in Victorian morals with tones of modernity. It is also best to never talk about it, because in the eyes of the ‘weak’ and the ‘opportunistic’ it taints the man as bloodthirsty and callous. But we all know that it falls upon some of us to preserve our Civilization as Guardians under Arms, and although it offends the sensibilities of the delicate members of Society, it is something the Military men, and even those serving at the Quiet services, have to indulge into — always judiciously, yet quite often. But this was and still is always a “Man’s Secret” and especially today, in this era of illogical political correctness, when people only employ empty & polite words, and carefully crafted flat conversations, always avoiding everything that might be politically charged. And that is why we never hear, nor see Churchill’s ‘killing exploits’ described in any effect on the official or even the unofficial yet fawning biographies, references, or articles written about Sir Winston Churchill and his military career. We as humans, always gloss over death, religion, politics, love and taxes — although these things largely define us, and instead choose to make small talk as if we can escape either one or all of these facts of Life.

Winston didn’t make small talk, and nor you should… because those Men amongst us who are ‘experienced’ — we all know that War is Hell; and taking a life during the heat of the ‘battle’ is just a toss in the simple calculation between losing your own life, or that of a comrade and friend, or ‘taking’ that of the ‘enemy.’ That is the momentary yet intuitive calculus that allows you to draw the trigger towards you, and then … it just happens.

War is the ultimate blood sport and a much needed balm for the Warrior soul. Naturally Winston Churchill was one of those Warrior souls, and he had the scars on his body and heart that prove it. As a matter of fact Winston was shot at, way more than the 50 odd times that he engaged enemies in violent conflicts around the World, during his cavalry heroic soldierly career, and he sure as hell shot back against the enemy far more times than that; ostensibly dispatching more than ten dozen enemies in total by his own hand over the years. Yet he always found the merit, and took the time to do what’s right in the heat of battle. One time he saved a bundled baby ostensibly only a few hours old, that had somehow fallen in the battlefield, and had survived the run of the men’s feet and the hooves of the horses, the shrapnel and bullets, and the general mayhem. When this baby was discovered by a fellow soldier, Winston had the courage to take responsibility by taking charge of the situation, and riding up to deliver this newborn baby personally to the Enemy’s rear guard. He did this right upon the cessation of the day’s hostilities during the evening hours after the cavalry’s last major ‘charge’ that had generated the general rout and the panic amidst the flight of the retreating enemy in the wilds of Sudan…

Yet the fact that he even did this, by risking his own life in order to give this baby back to the enemy’s women — proves the mettle of his character.

Winston Churchill was not only famous for bravery and courage in the face of the enemy but also because he fought on all five continents, and he dispatched dozens of enemies — always with the requisite compassion and care. And like Alexander, the Great he fought throughout the known world, and much like his idol, he was always magnanimous to a fault, towards the foe, and he never ‘dispatched’ a wounded, or a ‘retreating’ man. Winston also never shot a man in the back, and he never ever, allowed any atrocities to take place under his command. He was not ruthless in any other way either, and he was always a romantic who is guided by strong Victorian principles and Western protestant Christian values, and he would not deviate even a tiny little bit from his foundation — no matter what the times and circumstances might have offered as an excuse for ethical shortcuts. And the truth of his upright behaviour was proven in battle after battle, where Winston fought ahead of everyone else, as if he were invisible to the enemy’s flying bullets — while he charged the enemy lines always ahead of everyone else; mounted upon a horse of fury like another God of War, and very much like Alexander who also believed that his Destiny for Greatness as a son of Zeus always protected him.

And understanding Winston Churchill’s fearlessness is easier, if we know that because he knew that he was the ‘secret son’ of the King & Emperor Edward VII, and he used the same incantation of ‘Invincibility’ as a faithful Talisman to protect him from receiving any serious harm in the hands of the enemies he frequently dispatched. This was just like Alexander fought at an earlier time in the same fields of war, in the far-off Pashtun frontier lands of the Northwest Indian provinces, where many Englishmen have come to take their eternal holiday, over time. Both back then and now, that this region is called Afghanistan and all the other “stans” like Balouhistan, Pakistan, etc.

And in keeping up with Alexander is why Winston Churchill always drove himself to achieve much at an early age, because not only he compared himself to Alexander the Great; this famous patron saint of all courageous Fighters, Military Men, and Empire Builders, but also because he emulated him in heroism during battle-action, and in courageous abandonment of care for one’s self, during the heat of the conflagration of blood and men.

And that is how came that Winston Churchill exhibited this unique quality of tremendous COURAGE when fighting on the battlefront of the Northwest frontiers of British India, or for that matter everywhere else he fought. Yet, the fact that this battle against the Pashtun tribes happened in the same furthest place that Alexander the Great himself, had conquered, more than two thousand years earlier — surely did not go unnoticed by Winston Churchill who engaged the enemy frontally, and fought bravely, thus earning honours in the Northwest Indian frontier’s Malakand Campaign in what is today’s the Pashtun province of Afghanistan.

Seems to me we are still fighting in that frontier today… the same war of Empire building as yesterday and about two thousand years ago. But never mind that — History surely does not repeat itself. At least not in the same way…

Yet, these are the fighting events that Winston later described in his book: ‘The Story of the Malakand Field Force’ written by Winston S. Churchill … the pivotal first book that launched his writing career. ‘The Story of the Malakand Field Force’ (1898) and was followed soon by the book ‘The River War’ (1899) and these two were actually the only two books that Winston wrote about those personal battles that he himself was centrally involved in, as a horse mounted Officer, and where he had taken charge as he came under heavy fire, he risked his life, and he saw his comrades dying, while he fought back courageously dispatching the enemy widely, and thus saving the lives of his men under arms…
And that is also why Winston Churchill always loved the Greek Delphic Oracle telling him in his mind’s eye, the same ‘Hrismos’ (Prophecy) that was given to his idol Alexander the Great by the willy priestess Pythia: “You are invincible, my son.”
And it was maybe the oracle leading him, because Winston Churchill also liked to retell the prophetic advice given to the Ancient Greek Leaders, but also to Kings, and Emperors, and even the Roman Statesman and Quaestor Marcus Tullius Cicero known to us today as ‘Cicero’ who was given the defining Churchillian definition, by the Greek Delphic Oracle during the Roman Empire’s turbulent days of 83 BC. Cicero being a contemporary of Julius Caesar had quite a few enemies of his own… and some powerful friends as well. Tellingly the oracular advice he received when asked about his fate and fame was this:
‘Make your own nature, not the advice of others, your guide in life.’ Cicero followed that advice carefully as he laid the protection of the realm and of the Roman Empire as his undying priority for the Life he chose for himself.
And young Winston Churchill surely took this advice to heart and did the same as he fashioned and directed his own Life after that of the Great Men who had come before him, in this ever spinning wheel of Life and History. And he especially loved and studied the just Cicero.
And therefore throughout his long life — he also on occasion, felt as an even fashioned himself as the Oracle for his nation, for his contemporaries, and for the whole of the British Empire and the government at hand seeking to protect them all from the coming dangers. Much like Cicero, Winston was always found consuming and digesting highly classified intelligence information, and studying maps, and questioning ranking leaders — all the while while ‘reasoning’ the ‘Great Game’ going forward, very much like a good long term Master chess player being able to divine the opponent’s future moves, all the while planning his own tactics in a long held Strategy at least twenty-five moves in advance…
It also helped that as a child he had studied and digested all the great battles of history and then had replayed those same battlefields amongst his tin & lead soldiers and battlefields and seas all located in his splendidly equipped for simulated battle room. But during his Life hardly anyone believed that Winston was any kind of Oracle for having studied the Delphic Oracle’s divination powers and for having engaged in the Art of War for so much — for him, yet so little for others — of his young life.
And he was never shy about dispatching his advice towards all centers of power so much so that all his contemporaries theorized in advance of what angle Winston would take on a subject and at times even wagered folding money on his imminent tacks and attacks. Much humour ensued from these prognostications about the ‘Bete Noir’ of British politics. The man many secretly referred to as the ‘Black Swan’ because of his pernicious and at times alarming prophecies. In his defence, Winston believed it better to be alarmed ahead of a catastrophe and thus avert it — rather than being taken by surprise and fall in a fit of panic as a nation. An ounce of prevention … etc.
Yet for the purposes of this book and for the edification of the reader as well as for the education of the student of the Art of Power & Leadership these following learnings are necessary in order to exercise the Art of power and leadership, and therefore we will continue to read the same ‘Hrismos’ (prophecies) the Oracle offered to the leaders of the world during the time of it’s existence, as Winston Churchill had studied and memorised during his formative years.

Circa 339 BC
In 339 BC, Philip interfered once again against the Amphictyonic alliance when the Krissians trespassed on Apollo’s sacred grounds. Philip punished the Krissians, and consequently in 338 BC. defeated the combined armies of the Athenians and the Spartans, thus becoming the dominant force in Greek affairs. Eventually, at the Battle of Chaeronea he was successful against the Athenians and Thebans but he was assassinated before he could lead the invasion of Persia.

Circa 336 BC
In 336 BC, Alexander the Great visited the Delphic Oracle wishing to hear a prophecy that he would soon conquer the entire ancient world. To his surprise the Oracle refused a direct comment and asked him to come later. Furious, Alexander dragged Pythia by the hair out of the chamber until she screamed: “You are invincible, my son!” [Greek:‘ἀνίκητος εἶ ὦ παῖ.]
The moment he heard these words he dropped her, saying, “Now I have my answer”.
Circa 300 BC
In 300 BC, Diogenes Laertius recorded that when Zeno of Citium “consulted the Delphic Oracle, as to what he ought to do to live in the most excellent manner, the God answered him that he ought to become of the same complexion as the dead, on which he inferred that he ought to apply himself to the reading of the books of the ancients. Accordingly, he attached himself to Crates of Thebes…
Circa 279 BC Roman Period
In 279 BC, when plundered by a Celtic invasion, the Oracle declared: ‘Care for these things falls on me!’
The Celts were met by earthquakes, avalanches, and a massive snow storm, forcing them to retreat. But the Romans were a different matter. In 191 BC, the sanctuary of Delphi fell into the Roman sphere of influence, and the oracle generally supported the rise of Rome henceforth.
Circa 83 BC
In 83 BC, Delphi was razed by an attack from the Thracian tribe of Maedi who extinguished the sacred fire which had been burning uninterrupted for centuries. At the time of Pompey the Great, Cicero, Pompey’s ally, consulted the Oracle as to how he should find greatest fame and was told: ‘Make your own nature, not the advice of others, your guide in life.’
Pompey was subsequently defeated by Julius Caesar. Yet Cicero remained relevant and victorious because he had cultivated his oratory and his leadership skills in the courts in preserving Rome from the Catilinarian conspiracy, earning undying fame.
Circa 67 AD
In 67 AD, Emperor Nero, who was just 30 years old and had killed his own mother in 59 AD, when visiting the Oracle was told: ‘Your presence here outrages the god you seek. Go back, matricide! The number 73 marks the hour of your downfall!’
He was angered and had the Pythia burned alive. Nero thought he would have a long reign and die off at 73. Instead his reign came to a short end after a revolt by Galba who was 73 years of age at the time.
Circa 117 AD
In 117 AD the Emperor Hadrian visited Delphi before he reached the throne. After drinking of the Kassotis, his destiny as Emperor was proclaimed. When he had acceded to the throne, he ordered it blocked up so no one else could get the same idea in the same way.
Circa 362 AD
Hagiography has it that in 362, on behalf of his emperor Julian the Apostate, Oribasius visited the Delphic oracle, now in a rather desolate state, offering his emperor’s services to the temple and, in return, receiving one of the last prophecies by the Delphic Pythia: ‘Tell the emperor that my hall has fallen to the ground. Phoibos no longer has his house, nor his mantic bay, nor his prophetic spring; the water has dried up.’
Several ancient and modern era historians doubt the authenticity of this last ‘Hrismos” supposedly coming from the Delphic Oracle, because they characterized it as a “Christian Oracle, devised to show that the Delphic Apollo foresaw the mission of Christ and the end of all Oracles.”
All in all the Oracle of Delphi had an Incredible influence on the Leaders of Ancient Greece and its Peoples, and on all those who sought their Prescient Advice and their Prophetic Counsel for well over a Thousand years….

Nice work if you can get it…

And sadly most of you cannot access the intelligence output of CIA, anymore than the Senate reports of the NSA, or of Naval Intelligence, or seeing the briefings that the President of the United States gets. Because today’s CIA’s output is exclusively designed for one Consumer: the President of the United States, and the Security and Safety apparatus of the US government. And the same holds true for the National Agencies all around the world. They work for their Leaders and their government’s security services and nobody else…

Now there are a lot of other advisors out there, but either they are not that intelligent, or they don’t have the reach nor the scale of the modern or the ancient Oracles. And clearly not that of the CIA today, the NSA, or the NIA, or any service of any other decently strong and truly intelligent, Intelligence Agency operating out there.

Of course there are privateers and pirates in that business too, and far too many advisors who are trying to make a buck through reading the tea leaves, and hoping to discern the trends and the answers to their questions. Even old “has-beens” like Henry Kissinger who runs an advisory service like that; and people pay him big bucks to analyze situations, propose Strategies, and forecast outcomes, based on his personal intelligence alone.
As a solo prognosticator, of course he has to rely on some of the schmoozing with the high and mighty ones, and he does this exceedingly well over “Supper & Symposia”where he invariably gets to be in order to listen to nice conversations, to ask questions, and to innocuously push for ideas, lobby for corporations and countries, and lobby for people & special interests all the while gathering useful “intelligence.” It’s a nice job if you don’t get bored by this Lifestyle but on the upside old Henry gets to go to all the nice dinners too. But I assure you from personal experience having seen him and having had intelligent discourse with the man — he is neither naked, nor a virgin, and mostly not stoned in these luminous gatherings. Drunk maybe, but still ambulatory and intelligent enough to remember and record all his important notes in pencil scribbled hastily inside his little black book that he always carries around…

And the only smoke that might be generated would come from a phat Cuban cigar that occasionally crosses his lips and releases a giant puff of white smoke cloud. Indeed the young virgin “Pythia” being the Oracle of Delphi, had her smoky divinations too, but that was in order to be able to deliver her “Hrismos” through an inspired trance, but she also had quite a few other tools of intelligence at her disposal. The Delphic Oracle and the League of Delphi, much like the Delian League, the Athenian League, the Pax Romana, the British Empire, and the League of Nations that all succeeded each other after it, have in some form maintained some of the Delphic aspects of convening the “mighty & powerful” and after some long discussions and sessions of “parlay” they led to some spectacular spurts of Historical Human Progress. It is in the very nature of these institutions that they were created in order to be utilized in this manner and thus they have also always acted as a ‘dampener of passions’ and the “cooling of heated as the “oil in the stormy sea,” against anarchy, widespread conflict and discord that brings misery to the people. The essence of the Oracles is that they equalized the information flow and exchange so that there is a balance and no conflict ends up being one sided. Indeed they always tried to soothe the passions of the Leader in order to avoid war, and conflict, and in that capacity acted, very much like today’s NATO, or CIA, the NSA, and the United Nations, all rolled into one.

The Oracle always acted and advised for the people’s mutual benefit of reducing friction and maintaining the Peace. Because above all else this was their ultimate purpose: To provide Safety & Security for the people and for their Cities, their States, or their Nations — as the times required. Yet in order to accomplish what the Oracle needed to perform, vast numbers of human assets and knowledge were required. And that took capital that was in turn provided by the “Questors” in order to “assist” the God’s divinations. And indeed this treasure was used well, along with a wide range of information gathering & analysis human networks, and other tools, that were made up of strictly neural knowledge seekers, latticed throughout a system of deeply informed acolytes, and analytical wisdom seeking zealots of the God Apollo, and their friends – spread widely and wisely, throughout the farthest reaches of the ancient world. In short they were something very much like what the Churchill Society of today aspires to be.

Yet besides royal gifts of gold and silver along with promises of truce when the Delphic Alliance demanded of it – the powerful visitors had to spend time at this amazing mountain valley Sanctuary of the God Apollo. A place that was considered to be the center of the Earth. And it was here in Delphi that the royal Visitor deposited their gifts and themselves for a fortnight in order to first get to know themselves and then to think deeply the proper questions they needed to ask, before they received the powerful Divine Command that guided them which way to Go Forth…

That is why the mosaic “Know Thyself Was at the Entry Hall of the Royal Rooms reserved for the Royal Seekers of Wisdom:

.’

This above is ancient Greek for “Know Thyself”

The Delphic oracle – the beautiful nymph — provided basically the same function towards the Leaders of the Day, as today’s Prognostication Services, and the Not so Secret Agencies, whose acronyms we all know well enough.

–Christine Keeler could be an Oracle of today, or at least of the Cold War era, as she did back in the early 1960’s for the Russians…

And maybe that is where the Oracle of Delphi resides today, dispersed around the world; In Langley Virginia, in Vauxhall Cross London, in Kremlin’s Lubyanka Square, in Beijing’s forbidden city, and in zillion other less esteemed places in between.

.’

So if you are the President of the United States, or the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, or the Master of the Kremlin, or even the Premiere of China, or a potentate of another lesser known place, and you cannot travel back in time to visit Delphi and ask the Oracle the beautiful “Pythia” about What To Do? – you still have to ask the RIGHT QUESTION first and foremost, of your Intelligence services if you are hoping to get the right answer or at least one that will serve some useful purpose at all.

Because today’s “Prognosticators” they are rather smart and have amazing tools at their behest and they are surely able to tell the Hegemon and the Rulers of Today, exactly what to do… But the quality of the question You might ask, will determine the quality of the answer you will receive. So if you ask boring and stupid questions like the ones that most ordinary people ask — you’ll get faulty answers that are of no use to you or anyone in Power.

Yet most of the Leaders today unaided by their own real intelligence residing between the ears of those elusive ‘smart humans’ tend to always ask the trite questions such as this: “When is the next war coming?”

And then, we would have to tell you this: Maybe in 3 years, or maybe in 5 years, or in 15 years, or maybe in 25 years, or just in 6 months, or in 3 days, and the answers they are getting will all be true, based on variable supportive data & evidence — and we would all be absolutely correct, in all of these various instances.

Indeed all of the Intelligence Services would be correct in whatever answers they give us, because they always are…

Right?

And they would be correct since they always hedge their bets and try to speak like learned lawyers because they don’t want to be proven wrong, even after a quarter of a century. Do you remember the WMDs of the War on Iraq?

Or the fault of making any use of the advanced knowledge about the attack of 9-11, and all the other manifest failures of today’s prognosticators, and of the most expensive Intelligence Service Apparatus the world has ever known. Or is just the failure of the leaders trying to shift the blame onto someone else?

To protect the stupid leader, the intelligence apparatus becomes the “Fall Guy” that is squarely made to fail.

And sometimes that’s their only job, and their maximum usefulness.

Because today’s Oracles are the Intelligence services who are fast becoming the scapegoats for when our policies fail, and for when our Military tactics meet with setbacks or when our Strategy falters. But surely they are not the ones to blame and humiliate publicly, when your treasured Strategy falls flatter than old parchment paper, or a slice of pizza and a glass of Coke left out overnight. And that’s the built-in institutional malaise of today’s prognosticators, the Intelligence Services and their Masters.

Wouldn’t it be better to ask the Right Question of the Oracle to begin with in the first instance?
Ask questions such as this one, the Athenians ought to have asked before the Peloponnesian War commenced?
Because in my mind this Question should have been what Pericles of Athens ought to have asked the Delphic Oracle: “How are we going to be able to avoid War and find a path to common Peace and Prosperity with Sparta and her allies?”
As always the Quality of your Questions today, will determine the quality of your answers. And in here the value of your inputs, will determine the value of your outputs. The quality of the ingredients you put in the dish, will determine both the success of your recipe as well as the taste of your food…

Ultimately, the proof is always in the pudding.

Even if it takes a young nubile priestess to help you reflect on that amazing reality…

A snapshot of reality is what the best of Leaders ought to strive for, and that is being achieved easily here and at the Churchill Society.

But who is the person today that can effortlessly smell the wind and call the rain?

….

Nobody.

….

To be continued…