Kamil Kazani: Honor
Cultures of honor naturally develop wherever there’s no higher power to impose the rule of law. That proves it’s the only evolutionary stable strategy under these circumstances. The more unpredictable image you project, the more cautious the malevolent actors will be.
If your honour prohibits you to give concessions and the malevolent one truly thinks so, he won’t make demands. Furthermore, if he thinks you are unpredictable, he’ll be afraid to provoke you.
The confrontation is not a kinetic conflict. It is a social game built on mythos, beliefs and psyops. Malevolent powers purposefully project unpredictable image to scare you into submission. They pretend to be determined, unbending, uncompromising so there’s no point in resisting.
This makes sense. Power is mythical in nature and once the mythos is gone, power is gone too. Any misconvenience (in this case rotten meat in soup) can spark a revolt.
Let’s sum up. International conflict is not a kinetic clash of inanimate powers. It’s a confrontation of two human collectives consisting of animate creatures united by a mythos.
International relations are sometimes quite similar to the prison relations. In both cases you are locked with malevolent actors who want and can hurt you. And you can’t get anywhere. Don’t give concessions.
the malevolents forces you face are animate. They are human institutions coordinated by a mythos. If the mythos is gone, they’re gone too. Fortunately with time passing, their hubris grows and they start acting stupidly. If you don’t fall for a psyop, they lose.