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Divide and Conquer

February 17, 2025 Tonja Tuttle

By Mark Doggett

In the “Art of War,” Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu asserted that an enemy can be defeated without firing a shot. That may be what is happening to America.

To win a conflict, Sun Tzu said, use manipulation, deception, and the exploitation of weakness. Tyrannical powers actively use these techniques against us to create internal chaos and division.

Abraham Lincoln’s speech in 1858 acknowledged internal conflict as a destructive force when he said, “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” echoing Jesus’ parable in Mark 3:25.

In politics, conventional wisdom recommends one should stay silent when the opposition is fighting among themselves. And battles are rarely won through full-frontal assault.

Rather diversion, sneak attacks, and flanking maneuvers are preferred. If you can split the opponent, you win. You would think we have learned that internal division is a recipe for disaster. But this is not the case. Only unity of purpose can save us.

Progressives believe that utopia is just around the corner if we only try a little harder, that extreme ideas pushed a little harder will finally work. They believe we will come to love cradle-to-grave entitlements and a state-run economy that provides equal outcomes for everyone.

Alternatively, advocates for the elimination of government, no regulatory control, and isolationism still think prosperity will reign if we just let the invisible hand of the market work. They believe we will all treat each other with respect, dignity and fairness without any state-imposed guardrails.

Neither side seems to understand that human nature is neither capable nor willing to do either. Neither utopia nor revolution are not going to save us from ourselves. Continued name calling simply means we are all losing.

America’s enemies prefer to divide us to conquer us. There will be no frontal assault. Americans can split ourselves into tribes just fine. China, Russia, and Iran will certainly stay silent while we convince ourselves to hate each other. Divided we will fall, if we haven’t already.

What is the solution? Exactly the opposite of what we are doing. Here are some places to start:

First, encourage more speech, even speech that is offensive or hurtful. The most powerful words are those spoken with respect and transparency. Reasonable voices always prevail. Those who censor are never the good guys.

Second, love your neighbor. Care about your community more than the personality of the politician. Legislators come and go. The family next door is your best protection against the uncertainties of life.

Be an example of the behavior you would like to see in others.

Finally, get off the internet and social media. Read a book. Call a friend. Join a gym. Take a dance class.

Do something productive. Be a maker, not a taker. Learn a new skill. Work with your hands. Help someone. Stop trying to change everyone else. Start a change within yourself.

I believe that doing these things would make a difference. It may not completely heal the current divisions in our culture, but it would certainly lessen a few problems and contribute more to a solution.

About Mark

Mark Doggett is a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Western Kentucky University.

Culture Home

Has SKyPAC’s new policy loosed evil’s mayhem?

January 11, 2025 Tonja Tuttle

By Chip Ford

The Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center recently imposed a new security policy that deprives patrons of their right to carry a weapon for personal protection, even if they possess a permit. But this policy actual makes SKyPAC customers less safe.

I’m sure the authors of the new SKyPAC policy were well-intentioned. They’re probably confident all risks have been mitigated if not eliminated through their TSA-like security screening impositions. But nothing can ensure total safety, despite sincere assurances to the contrary – especially not against obsessed evil.

On July 20, 2012, about 400 patrons filled a Cinemark multiplex theater in Aurora, Colorado, for a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. Among them was 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes.

Holmes bought his ticket, went into the theater, and sat in the front row, according to the police report. About 20 minutes into the film, he slipped outside the darkened theater through an emergency exit door alongside the screen, which opened to a rear parking lot where he’d left his car. On his way out, he propped the door open a crack. Ten minutes later, he returned through that unsecured door and opened fire on the audience – 76 shots from his tactical shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle with a 100-round drum, and a .40-caliber pistol. Twelve people were killed, including a 6-year-old girl; 70 were injured.

Three years later, Holmes was convicted of all 165 counts against him. He was sentenced to 12 life imprisonment sentences without parole and a maximum of 3,318 additional years on attempted murder.

In 2016, a not-liable verdict was returned against Cinemark Cinemas in a civil trial, denying victims and their families damages compensation. Their lawsuit alleged the theater had lacked adequate security. Nobody was held accountable for the theater’s “gun-free zone” invitation.

In a 2012 analysis of the Aurora theater massacre, Dr. John R. Lott, Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, noted that, of the seven area theaters showing The Dark Knight Rises on that night of July 20th within a 20-minute drive of the targeted theater, six allowed permitted concealed handguns and only one prohibited them: Cinemark Theater had “no weapons” signs prominently posted.

Lott posited: “So why would a mass shooter pick a place that bans guns? The answer should be obvious … disarming law-abiding citizens leaves them as sitting ducks. Gun-free zones are a magnet for those who want to kill many people quickly. Even the most ardent gun control advocate would never put ‘Gun-Free Zone’ signs on their home. Let’s stop finally putting them elsewhere.”

As a quasi-private, taxpayer-subsidized enterprise, SKyPAC is perhaps within its rights to impose this misguided policy. Regardless, that disastrous 2012 “gun-free” theater policy, and the unsuccessful 2016 civil lawsuit by the victims against the theater, left 12 helpless patrons dead, 70 injured, and nobody held responsible but an opportunistic, deranged killer.

Personally, I would not be caught dead (perhaps literally) patronizing any venue which strips away my right of lawful self-defense against the potential mayhem of evil.

I suspect I’m not alone.

— Chip Ford of Bowling Green is a member of Warren County Conservatives and of the Green River Gun Club.

Article published in the Bowling Green Daily News November 9, 2022