The Art of War
The Art of War is a movie in which Wesley Snipes plays a James Bond type character where there is plenty of action and thought..
The story, however, has a lot of interest to people concerned with the commercial and political structure of our current society..
The story is a parable about one man's journey from being a public person to being a private man..
Along the way he learns about the conditions of commercial warfare in the society that affects us all..
The movie The Art of War begins with a public claim in a public arena and ends with the advance of a private claim in a private setting..
In between the beginning and the end, the main character in the film, Neal Shaw, played by Wesley Snipes,
learns the art of war and goes through a conversion from a public person to a private man..
Background..
The title to the movie comes from an ancient work by a Chinese General, who over a thousand years back wrote a treatise on conducting warfare..
This treatise and its ideas and concepts are just as valid today as they were then..
Back in the Second World War era, when William Randolf Hearst was the owner of many national newspapers and was also a Hollywood movie producer, and back before television put its viewers into a trance of fiction and illusion, the art of bringing so called NEWS to the people developed from the written word into the cinema world of pictures and sound..
The Movietone news was in theaters all over America. Crowds would eat it up as a side entertainment to the feature presentation..
The theaters became the source of news using pictures and sound to bring home the news in ways that the written newspapers could only imagine..
After the coming of television and its popularity in the late 50's, it is believed by many that the news featurettes that we remember seeing in the movie theaters have dried up and disappeared..
This is not true..
Today, the news feature in the movie theater and the feature story presentation have been merged..
One is now seeing the factual news coded within the fictional story of the feature..
This factual news does not contain stories of mere persons or events..
This news story deals with the divulgence of "IDEAS" and concepts..
These IDEAS are the controlling maxims and principles that shape the society and control persons lives (but do not control the lives of people who are in the know and have eyes to see and ears to hear)..
An analysis of the movie The Art of War must begin with definitions so that we are all on a common foundation..
It is interesting that the legal definition of "war" contained in Black's Law Dictionary has diminished in content over the years. The latest editions hardly define the term "war" at all..
Is that because since the Second World War (which was the war to end all wars) there has not been a lawful war (since the sovereignty of the nations has been nullified by economic bankruptcy, they do not have the capacity to go to war)..
Now we merely have POLICE CONFLICTS or actions brought on by POLICY of the creditors to enforce the creditor's demands over the debtors..
Going back to Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, we find that war is defined as.. "Hostile contention by means of armed forces, carried on between nations, states, or rulers, or between parties in the same nation or state..
A contest by force between two or more nations, carried on for any purpose or armed conflict of sovereign powers or declared or open hostilities, or the state of nations among whom there is an interruption of pacific relations, and a general contention by force, authorized by the sovereign..
War does not exist merely because of an armed attack by the military forces of another nation until it is a condition recognized or accepted by political authority of government which is attacked, either through an actual declaration of war or some other acts demonstrating such position.."
We also find in Black's Law Fourth Edition that there are classification of war..
There is Public War, Private War, Mixed War, Perfect and Imperfect War, and Solemn War..
"Public" War is..
"Every contention by force, between two nations in external matters, under the authority of their respective governments."
"Private War" is..
One between private persons, lawfully exerted by way of defense, but otherwise unknown in civil society."
A "Mixed War" is..
"..one which is made on one side by public authority, and on the other by mere private persons."
A "Perfect War" is..
"Where whole nation is at war with another whole nation, but when hostilities are limited as respects places, persons, and things, the war is termed 'imperfect war'"..
A "Solemn War" is..
A war made in form by public declaration; a war solemnly declared by one state against another."
Think of a solemn war as one declared by the government of the United States against poverty, drugs, terrorism etc..
Also think in terms of the solemn declaration by the President of the United States each year against some foreign power or entity that continues (at least in the mind of the federal government) to exert a conditional of "national emergency" against the United States in such a way as to constitute a condition of ongoing national emergency..
Think also in terms of the declaration by President Roosevelt during 1933 that there was a national emergency..
With the presidential order defining the persons to be covered in the term "enemies of the United States" to include national citizens of the United States for the purpose of defining that term as it applied to the update to the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act..
Since we have raised the legal term "National Emergency", we should also define that term..
It is interesting to note that the term is no longer in Black's recent Law Dictionary..
But going back to the Fourth Edition, we find the term "National Emergency" to mean..
"A state of national crisis; a situation demanding immediate and extraordinary national or federal action..
Congress has made little or no distinction between a 'state of national emergency' and a 'state of war'"..
Therefore a national emergency is a state of war..
And..the United States has been in a state of national emergency or war upon its own citizens since 1933 by definition..
This is the definition of a MIXED WAR where the public declares warfare against the private persons..
The financial condition of bankruptcy, or inability to pay ones debts in the ordinary course of business, is a condition of an emergency..
"Emergency" is defined in Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, as..
"A relatively permanent condition of insufficiency of service or facilities resulting in social disturbance or distress."
This could be like the inability of the several states of the union in the 1930's to make their payments in gold or silver pursuant to the dictates of the Constitution of the United States of America..
Analysis..
In the movie The Art of War, the Secretary General of the United Nations and his aid is asked by a businessman from China named David Chan..
"Am I missing something?
Is there a war going on that I am unaware of?"
The response by Donald Sutherland, who plays the United Nations Secretary General named Douglas Thomas is..
"There is always a war going on, David. There is your side, their side, and me stuck in the middle trying to make it look like there is peace."
Of course here, it is important to realize that a democracy, like the Greek City State democracies of old, were mere military societies ruled by generals of the army with advisory input by the "persons" ruled over [voting equals advice]..
The City States were always considered to be in a state of war or emergency rule for the so called purpose of self protection..
Today in our world, most "residents" do not understand there is a war going on..
They are just like David Chan who says..
"Am I missing something?"
The story of The Art of War is basic..
It is the story of a man who works as an operative for a secret underground United Nations quasi military force..
A kind of James Bond figure..
His position is not publically recognized as official..
He answers only to a United Nations official played by Anne Archer whose name in the movie is Eleanor Hooks..
The Secretary General of the United Nations unofficially knows of the clandestine team, but has not been officially introduced to the team so that he can use "plausible deniability" if the team is exposed to the embarrassment of the United Nations..
The team operates on the private side of the public institution called the United Nations. It carries out private U.N. policy.
In the opening scene of the movie, Snipes is on a secret United Nations mission to Hong Kong with a few other operatives on New Years eve just before Y2K..
The mission's purpose is to pressure the public Chinese government who are guilty of converting $90 million of United Nations aid given for civil purposes into military purposes..
The number "90" is a combination of the product of 9 and 10..
The number 9 stands for a judgment and the number 10 stands for the law..
So the stealing of 90 from the United Nations is a judgment in law by the creditor against the debtor..
The target of the pressure is one particular Chinese military general who serves as the agent of the Chinese government..
This opening scene is really a private commercial draft presentation by the United Nations upon the Chinese government..
It is an opening of private negotiations administratively to request that the Chinese review their actions prior to more forceful U.N. action..
One must understand what war is really all about..
It is about one nation who is a debtor (designated the tenant) doing something that the other creditor nation (called the landlord) has not allowed or permitted within the designation of the commercial relationship between the two nations..
The creditor is the one who has legal or lawful control over the property or the matter..
The debtor has a mere equitable use or interest as long as the debtor is in compliance with the creditor and his contract..
War starts when the debtor does not abide by the contract or agreement between the debtor and the creditor..
It is much like that of a person who has a mortgage on his home not paying the bank who carries the mortgage or not performing some other act or action specified by the mortgage contract upon the debtor..
The bank is in reality the landlord/creditor..
The house "owner" is really the debtor or tenant on the land until the terms of the mortgage contract are fulfilled and the mortgage contract is canceled in the public records registering the property..
In commercial law, one who does not give actual value for some property cannot become the "landlord" of said property..
He remains merely as a "tenant" to some creditor..
The United Nations gift or grant to China in the movie is given with no value being returned by China..
Therefore, China is the debtor whose use of the grant is conditioned to the terms of the creditor..
The United Nations is the creditor..
If China does not make use of the gift or grant by its terms and conditions, the grantor has the legal power to enforce the matter..
Under international law, where there is no international court, the grantor or creditor can enforce its powers under "private international law"..
This includes the use of sufficient force or warfare, after the debtor has been given an opportunity to correct his wrongful actions..
In the movie, the United Nations gave a grant to China with specific terms and conditions..
When the United Nations had probable cause to believe that China was in violation of the terms and agreements of its use..
The United Nations chose to resolve the matter by using an underground team of paramilitary operatives to bring pressure on China without going through public channels..
This paramilitary operation was a form of "warfare"..
It was public warfare in that the United Nations, a public body in international politics, brought action against a public nation.. China, even though the actions appeared secret or private..
But before actual warfare can exist under the law, the creditor (the United Nations) must serve notice upon the debtor (the government of China) to correct the action or show cause why they do not..
This is in effect the tendering of a draft upon China..
The draft came in the way of a physical action by the paramilitary operation. The ball is now in China's court to accept the draft and correct the problem or to counterclaim the order or redraft the issue..
It is interesting to note in the opening scene that the pressure of international warfare was brought against one individual.. a Chinese General..
The method of warfare chosen to secure a victory was personal blackmail. The Chinese General was known to personally like the sexual favors of young girls. He was blackmailed by the United Nations team at a public New Years eve celebration..
But this pressure was not made upon him personally to force him to change his private sexual preferences. It was made upon him to get him to direct his public government to change its policy with respect to the use of the United Nations funds given to the Chinese government..
This blackmail attempt of the Chinese General was the equivalent of a commercial draft laid upon the Chinese military..
A draft is a legal document or act in which the drawer (the party presenting the claim) is requesting the drawee (the party to whom the claim is being presented) to perform some act or pay some debt..
It is interesting to note that the Drawer is designated the "debtor" for the document while the Drawee is designated the creditor or the bank (being the one charged with the duty to perform the act or make the payment)..
The rules of commerce are quite simple..
If the drawee does not perform the act or make the payment within the designated time (usually three days or 30 days) then the role is reversed..
The Drawer becomes the creditor and the Drawee becomes the debtor by the Drawee's failure to administratively respond to the order..
This is a backwards way (in admiralty jurisdiction or private international law venue) to grant the other party (the Chinese in this case) due process of law and equal protection of law..
Failure on the Drawee's part to either perform the task given in the Draft or to accept the Draft and bring a counterclaim or a responding Draft is deemed "dishonor"..
This means that the other party has "dissed" (dis.. is a prefix meaning to dismiss) the honor bestowed upon him by the Drawer of the Draft who made the Drawee the creditor..
In short, this paramilitary act of blackmail was the method used by the United Nations to warn the Chinese that they needed to restore the funds to the project to which the United Nations had directed them..
Failure to do so would be exhaustion of due process by the United Nations and could lead to further sanctions or open war giving the United Nations the capacity of a creditor to carry out open warfare to correct the violation..
This opening example of clandestine "public-public" warfare in the movie is contrasted with other examples of public-private and private-public and private-private warfare..
Notice how the acts of warfare are defined in commercial terms..
Wesley Snipes character, upon his return from the opening action, and having been injured in this opening warfare, rests privately for six months..
Then he is called back into action by the United Nations to get information on a Chinese Ambassador Wu, who is coming to the United Nations to negotiate a commercial trade treaty for China..
There are many friends of the treaty and many enemies on both sides of the issues..
During times of "warfare", it is sometimes difficult or impossible to know who are your enemies and who are your friends..
Sun Su, who wrote the book named The Art of War, discussed tricks of warfare to surprise and gain advantage over your enemy..
One of the particular nasty tricks is to use enemy agents from within your own army to deceive you. In the movie, there is a lot of deception by the characters, both from within the Chinese and the Americans and the United Nations. One never knows who is on whose side..
Since warfare is really about creditors and debtors, then one has to know which side represents which..
The creditors are the ones in "control" and have been given legal title to the contract or claims. This movie is definitely about control..
Wesley Snipes, who works for the United Nations, is supposedly working with the organization which is always in control..
So why does Wesley's character, Neal Shaw, get to a position where he is confused and definitely not in control?
His character moves from one who has a mission, support of superiors, and is always informed correctly (proper intelligence) of what is going on, toward a character who is being pursued by United States law enforcement officials including FBI and police, Chinese thugs, and even looses contact and support from his superiors at the United Nations..
When persons appear to want to assist him, they really want to kill him..
His only assistance comes from a Chinese girl named Julia. Julia knows that Neal Shaw did not kill those he is accused of killing. She also wants to know what is going on and who was the person responsible for murdering her girl friend and Chinese Ambassador Wu..
Without good intelligence from his superiors (public side), Wesley is obliged to get information on his own (privately)..
He visits an assistant's apartment to get a copy of some audio information. He finds the assistant is in the process of being tortured and killed by two intruders. Wesley goes to war- private to private- against the torturers to try to stop the attack and eventually to avenge the attack..
After killing one of the intruders (the other escaped with the information), Wesley recreates the events of torture against the girl by investigating the forensic evidence in the apartment..
It is like Wesley is slowly walking through the valley of the shadow of death..
It is obvious that the girl was swung around and her head was smashed into a mirrored wall that extended along one side of the large room. As her head smashed the mirror several times, she was cut and injured bleeding on the floor..
The mirror represents the wall between the private world and the public world..
She was being tortured in the public world for her knowledge of events in the secret public war. However, her injures were occurring both in the public world and the private world.
After Wesley analyzes the events, he realizes that the persons who went to war against this assistant were also at war against him..
It is at this instant that Wesley's character moves from being confused in his public capacity and moves toward resolution to fight in his private capacity..
Wesley's character goes to one end of the mirrored wall, smashes a mirror that is not broken, and reveals a secret room or cache holding weapons to carry out war..
This cache is symbolic of the tools we are given in the "private" sector to defend ourselves from the attack of the public. [Notice should be given that the tools of warfare used in the private sector are rarely guns and weapons of destruction. They are the pen.. or the computer, and the truth.]
The two intruders are symbolic of the two men crucified on the cross next to Jesus..
One was a thief and one was a murderer..
The one intruder stole a disk and the second intruder killed the girl assistant..
The girl was a form of Christ (or innocent victim) working for the creditor (God the Father)..
There are so many quotations from the movie that are so instructive in learning the conditions of warfare that it would take a book to analyze them..
Some examples are..
The FBI Agent named Capella is talking with a fellow FBI agent named Ray concerning an investigation of conditions surrounding the events with Wesley's character who is being sought for an alleged murder of the Chinese Ambassador..
Capella says: "Ever watch wrestling Ray? This is just like wrestling. Reality mixed with illusion mixed with bulls hit mixed with big scary guys from parts unknown in dire need of psychiatric care."
This comment refers to the effects of war caused by the participants..
By the way, the FBI, being public and not private, is involved only in the public side of the warfare conducted in the story..
This leaves the FBI agents confused many times since they are only getting and seeing half of the war..
Another great moment is when Julia and Wesley Snipe's character have just escaped from Saint Julian's hospital where they were almost shot..
This is the time in which Wesley realizes that he is no longer in Kansas (in control)..
Julia says.. "I got you figured out. You don't think I see you as scarred as I am. The only reason you will not tell me what is going on is you don't know yourself."
Isn't this precious..
Most persons do not have a clue of what is going on in the public side..
They are a part of it..
They never question it..
They follow all the cra p and public lines and believe what they are told..
Sometimes they think they are being told a lie, but it is too uncomfortable for them to search for the truth..
Eventually, those who do search for the truth inevitably go through a condition that Wesley's character does..
This condition is confusion..
It is sometimes fear. It is a sense that they are all alone and have themselves discovered a terrible secret, but one too scary to deal with..
Later Julia says to Wesley's character..
"You are not used to this are you? Not having control of the situation. Being manipulated. You are normally on the other side of the equation."
This is what happens when the team you are on deems you expendable..
You are no longer supported. This is what the democracy does when it needs to..
The one must be sacrificed for the needs of the many..
This is when one must learn to move toward the private side to protect oneself..
This is exactly where Wesley's character goes. In one part when Julia is in the car waiting for Wesley to investigate a Chinese gang site, and Wesley and Julia are in communication with each other by a sophisticated radio system, Wesley says to Julia..
"Are you awake Julia?"
This question conjures up the idea of mentally aware in addition to not being in a physical condition of sleep..
Julia replies "I am awake. I am just in a different place"
Meaning in her mind she is not in her public location but in a private world of thought..
Wesley asks: "Can't we just stick with the present?"
Meaning the public situation of the war..
Julia replies.. "I read a book about prisoners of war who construct the house of their dreams in their head to keep their sanity."
Wesley replies: "I thought you lost that [your sanity] a long time ago."
To which Julia replies: "Right now I am sitting in a small village in the South of France."
The remedy to public confusion and its debtor capacity is to go to the private venue over which you have control as a creditor..
The goal is to GO TO YOUR PRIVATE HOUSE..
The last "war" in the movie is conducted privately within the confines of the United Nations building..
There is no public involvement..
The United Nations guards are locked down. The FBI agent, Capella, is locked in a bulletproof glass cage. The war is fought by Wesley and a personal traitor to him..
It involves a private girl, Julia, who represents the true church of God over which the creditor and the debtor are fighting..
In the process of the private fight, a glass panel showing the United Nations symbol superimposed upon the world globe is smashed..
This is symbolic of the fact that the United Nations only has a creditorship capacity over the public side and not the private side..
In the end, Wesley's character has a "public" death. In essence, they killed his "straw man" so there is no public record of his existence..
In the epilogue, Wesley's character meets Julia in a private venue..
They have physically gone "home" to the private life..
Both Julia and Wesley's character have moved out of the public life and its quagmire of ongoing debt into a private life and the joys that being a creditor can generate..
It is interesting to note that during this last scene, Julia and Wesley's character are under surveillance by a "military spy" looking figure. It is the same character who surveiled Wesley's character when he was acting for the United Nations..
Just goes to show, the public war effort must have its reconnaissance of characters both public and private..
I have touched on merely a small number of the commercial transactions within the movie..
The real problems with war are..
1) knowing there is a war going on..
2) knowing what type of warfare it is..
3) knowing its rules of engagement..
4) knowing the extent of the war or the territory it is being fought within..
5) knowing who the participants are and what side they are on..
6) knowing what types of acts (or actions) are legally involved
and
7) knowing who is the creditor and who is the debtor in the war..
and finally
8) it is interesting to know that one can remove themselves from the commercial public war by going private..
It is obvious that the movie is telling you that the United Nations believes that it represents the public creditor in these world actions..
The other nations are merely the perceived debtors who cannot win the war in public..
The true art of war on a personal level is to move from the public character and debtor to the private man..
The private side is the ultimate creditor and winner..
The public side is the debtor and ultimate loser..
Wouldn't you want to be on the side of the winner?
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