In Martial Arts, stress testing is the best and most efficient method to prevent delusion.
What that basically means, in the simplest of way to explain it, is that we take a technique - any technique - and test its efficiency against resistance.
If what we do fails the stress test, we know there is work to be done.
If what we do PASSES the stress test, we know that next time we need to stress test a notch higher and harder, which means that there is work to be done.
If what we do keeps failing the stress test of efficiency, but we make no change to what we are doing, or, we abandon the testing entirely, then we know with certainty that "delusion" has infiltrated our system.
From there on we will no longer be able to tell the truth from a lie. Nor will we be willing to.
Stress testing applies wonderfully to Skills.
For example, imagine that you are pinned on the ground by an opponent. The pin inflicts pain, limits your mobility, and cuts off your supply of blood and oxygen. In other words, at some point, the pin will render you unconscious - which mean 100% loss of control.
In that stressful situation you could choose to tap out, giving your opponent the signal that you have capitulated, or, you could apply skillful counter techniques to escape and maybe even reverse the pin you're under.
Your successful escape will depend on your skill being on a higher level than your opponent's, your strength, your mobility, and your mental and emotional resilience and adaptability.
In short, at least in that circumstance, you'll have to be better than your opponent at that particular technical conflict.
Responding in French to a Peruvian Necktie is not going to cut it. This means that responding to an aggressive technique with the wrong defensive answer will give your opponent a certain victory.
But why would anyone respond to an attack with a strategy meant to fail?
Here are a few possible reasons:
1. Lack of skill
2. Lack of capability to apply a skill
3. Lack of willingness and mental strength to engage in the conflict, even at the risk of loss.
4. A strategic choice to pretend that you're fighting back while all along you're throwing the fight to set some gambling scores.
5. You're not really the one being attacked, so you can watch from a safe distance while pretending to be involved. That way, even when losing, you're winning..
Now, of course, this was a metaphor for something else.
In today's reality, an oppressor has attacked humanity with a devastating force and a complete disregard to any moral code. In response, almost the entire rest of the world is overwhelmingly responding with a losing strategy, while at the same time continuing to gain from their trade and gamble with the aggressor.
Seems to me that option #5 from above is the one at play.
This matters, because we live here and there. We're a part of it, albeit incapable to do anything else but witness a disaster in the making.
We can move and breathe while humanity is under attack because we're in a relative state of safety and isolation from the actual conflict. We're not losing our lives; somewhere else, someone else is.
This brings a schism into focus.
On one hand, humanity itself is attacked and it does respond, but lacks the skill and capability to apply skill to solve the conflict.
On the other hand, a very small segment of the same humanity has gone bad, rotten to its core, has clinched the reigns of power and assumed full decisional control, turning humanity's conflict - and destiny - into profit; profit used to expand control over humanity, ensuring a total and complete level of unchallengeable absolute power.
So when your Governments express “outrage” against the ongoing attack on humanity while continuing to profit from the conflict, you'll know on which side of the schism you are, or should be.
Most importantly, know that we are all under one of the most historic stress tests of all times and the stakes have never been higher.
You and I are not the prize anymore; we have fully become mere bargaining chips.
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