Be Swift In Battle

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all…The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.” — Ecclesiastes 9:11–17

In the Netflix documentary Miss Americana, Taylor Swift said that being good was “The complete and total belief system that [she] subscribed to as a kid.”

In case you are not a fan of Taylor Swift, you may be unfamiliar with the battles she has been in. Her fans, however, are well aware. They witnessed her transformation in real-time. As Taylor puts it in the documentary, the songs are like entries written in her diary that makes a subset of her fanbase feel like they grew up together.

Taylor Swift and her growth in the music industry gives the most insight into the battle spoken about in Ecclesiastes; and the way war is being fought, because she subscribed to the belief of being good, and had to deconstruct that belief in order to live her life. In other words, she was in a war without bloodshed.

In the book, 33 Strategies of War Robert Greene begins by saying:

“We live in a culture that promotes democratic values of being fair to one and all, the importance…