This is American Strategy, a newsletter about finding an MJ*-level edge at scale.
For over thirty years I’ve intently observed digital and generational change. I’ve tried to characterize the landscape. I’ve hoped to observe subtle changes others overlook, especially about how we think and our ways of being in the world. I’ve prayed to understand so I could explain the depth of changes I sense us living through as the analog world yields to digital natives increasing in influence and power to shape events.
I’ve been circling and circling some core, some center of gravity in these observations. That’s all they are really. I’ve learned there is no grand theory of everything here, except within my own head (at times). That’s not a good thing, but it’s a thing, an analytical tendency I have. I’m biased toward synthesis over deconstruction.
With that in mind, let’s begin our journey here, friends. Very few or many thousands of miles could follow. Today, I’m thinking a lot about looming armed conflict with China and the actual conflict between Russia and Ukraine. I’m also thinking of Title 42, border security, domestic violent extremism, and vulnerable institutions. As ever, I’m also thinking about what happens between our own two ears as we find our way through these trying times.
I’m thinking less about what happens between my own ears, thanks to those around me. And therapy. Don’t be afraid of therapy as part of your way of being in this age.
My organizing thought in all this complexity is simple to say but hard to achieve. It is this principle of coherence: to successfully navigate these times, we need a uniquely American strategy that readies us for sustained conflict, ideally by projecting what we need to avoid it.
Included in this notion of readiness is the commitment to improve come what may. That means not losing ourselves and the core principles of our democratic way of life.
These principles are contested, so I keep the dialog between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln about what the Founders were after in the Declaration in mind. It is what overcame the three-fifths clause of the Constitution and the justification that became for an alternative vision of our way of life, one that still lingers on- and offline.
We can lose these principles and win in conflict. We can keep these principles and lose in conflict. Or we can keep these principles and use them to win in whatever conflicts come. Hence, readiness is crucial, and Jordan-level readiness at that.
My strategy for readiness honestly confronts conflict coming at us on four fronts—considered by me as four distinct wars—at once: World War 3 (WW3), Civil War 2 (CW2), the unfulfilled American Revolution (AR1), and our daily mental health battles to overcome that feeling we are nothing or less than nothing (MH0).
American Strategic is dedicated to deconstructing each of these and synthesizing our perceptions into something more. Maybe much more.
I’m encouraged by the famous Chinese proverb that our journey begins under our feet. The subtle observation here is not that we need to take a step to begin, but that before we we take the first step, we need a clear assessment of the ground truth beneath our feet. Getting that right is a journey all its own, and that is this journey into what I call Jordan-level readiness, the hallmark of American Strategy to me.
The quest for a quintessentially American strategy, to not be quixotic, must fulfill the promise of freedom in the hearts and minds of freedom-loving people. It is ineffable in essence, but it has many manifestations. Its hiddenness is great ground to stand on.
With the esoteric aside, let’s get pragmatic. Coming at us fast is a battle of wits for peace against four clear rivals at once:
WW3: Aggressively autocratic great powers. We know who they are.
CW2: Domestic violent extremists and others who are good with Jan 6.
AR1: Institutional forces limiting the rights, place, and authority of ‘the other.’
MH0: Deep anxieties and traumas residing in so many of our bodies and minds.
All of these are the ground beneath us, but they need not be where we stand forever. Let’s walk and talk.
*MJ = Michael Jordan, the person with the highest readiness for his job that I’ve ever seen anyone have for any job. His gold standard of readiness is the flow state we need.