Whether it applies to work, life, politics, or conflict, received wisdom tells us we should always have a plan B. And what is plan B? It is the alternative, the second option we keep in our back pocket when and if plan A fails. Now there are two schools of thought on this subject. Some suggest that the existence of a plan B concedes failure from the start. Advocates for this approach believe one should throw everything against the initial effort, leaving improvisation as the only alternative.
At the opposite end of the spectrum there are those who plan everything to a fare thee well, and for whom plan B would be grossly insufficient. They have developed a plan C, D and beyond against all conceivable outcomes. If you are a belt and suspenders personality the latter approach seems attractive, even sensible but too many plans can be useless if one never gets past the planning stage. And we should be reminded of the now famous quote attributed to Field Marshall Helmuth Moltke, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy".
Perhaps the best response I've heard on the subject suggests that the entire purpose of any plan is to know what not to do when the plan goes awry, because most plans at some point encounter the unforeseen, million in one, out of the blue and entirely unpredictable. Spending the time before you begin any endeavor thinking about what can go wrong seems a worthwhile effort, if only to arm oneself for the pivot, or the improvisation.
But what does one do when there is no thought given to what one will do if Plan A succeeds? If this seems unlikely to you, consider the US position in Iraq, or Afghanistan. Military and high ranking civilian strategists had a plan to prosecute an action, and when things did not go according to plan entirely, countless lives were needlessly lost, our country's stature in the world tarnished and our promises once again reduced to meaningless rhetoric. The worst part, was that all of it was predictable.
I do not say this as a Monday morning quarterback but as someone who along with countless others, many in government , the military, and advisory roles asked the single most pertinent question well before the first shot was fired. And what was that question? Simply this: what will you do if your plan succeeds? There was no answer, there never was a plan that had thought through the outcome of occupation and eventual disengagement leaving the political, social and religious elements in place that were at the heart of those country's instabilities.
We are in the early days of an equally predictable plan to radically change the character of our government and eliminate regulations, rules, institutions and entire agencies charged with the responsibility for executing the administration of our democracy. Regardless of where one might come out on the wisdom of this effort and the blitzkrieg like manner in which it is being conducted, it seems painfully obvious that no one has spent any time at all thinking about what our country looks like, how it will operate, and how its citizens will respond when the dust settles and the shambling remains are laid bare for all the world to see.
There are those who counsel patience. Let things unfold as they will and when it becomes untenable the adults will step in again and put things to right. There are after all elections, laws and a Constitution. The courts won't let things get too far out of hand, the market will ensure our economy doesn't go up in flames, Cooler heads, responsible individuals will prevail. Except, there is absolutely no reason to believe any of that is so, and every indication that the protections and expectations we have as citizens of what was thought to be the last bastion of freedom are no longer viable.
Plan A, in the present case is all about one thing, submission. Shock, and trauma are being pursued on a daily basis designed to reduce the public to a state of helplessness--of overload --in which state peace at any cost is all that is left--as long as it isn't oneself or one's family that pays the price. And this is what must happen, because there really is no plan beyond the dismemberment of the working economy, governing infrastructure and rules of law by which we have managed for these several hundred years. It appears Plan A may succeed. If it does, we can be assured that what replaces it will be no plan at all, just the whims of an absolute ruler and his gang of sychophantic subjugators. Is this our legacy as a nation?
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