|
Learning from the Stones
by Dr. David Lai
Reviewed by Roy Laird
According to an old Chinese proverb, "Stones from other hills can help us polish the jade on this one." I came across this proverb while reading "Learning from the Stones," by Dr. David Lai, a professor at the US Military College in Carlisle. (Go to
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pdffiles/00368.pdf to view or download Dr. Lai's article.) If the proverb is true, then we can use books and articles from other fields to enrich our understanding, and help our non-playing friends and acquaintances see the beauty of the game. Occasionally, they may even help us to better understand the world through our understanding of go.
Dr. Lai's article, published by the Army's Strategic Studies Institute, is such a piece of writing. The Western way of war and diplomacy, according to Dr. Lai, contains elements that reflect four common American pastimes -- football, boxing, poker, and chess. The NFL has failed to find a worldwide audience for American football, despite many attempts, because of the popularity of the game known in the rest of the world as "football" -- soccer, which "relies on skills and maneuvers than that force on force play. . . . Soccer is a paradigm of Sun Tzu's way of war. It does not seek annihilation of the opponent." The author finds a similar contrast between boxing, viewed by many around the world as a cockfight-like aberration, and tai chi. "Boxers meet incoming punches with punches. . . . Tai chi practitioners . . . deflect incoming hits and then return with a seemingly soft but powerful push. Tai chi is perhaps the best example of the Chinese philosophy of yi-rou-ke-gang (use the soft and gentle to overcome the hard and strong)." Poker has no obvious Asian counterpart, but Dr. Lai finds key elements of poker thinking in American foreign strategy. "Poker players have no control over what appears in their hands. Risk-taking and bluffing therefore are the best strategies. . . . Typical manifestations of poker-type foreign policy are threats and ultimatums."
Like most attempts to describe go by comparison to the familiar, Dr. Lai's most extended comparison is with chess, illustrating the fundamental difference with examples from foreign policy. He finds that South Korea takes a go-like yosu-miru, or probing, approach to North Korea with its "Sunshine" policy, while the US is all saber-rattling and dire threats. But I leave it to you to discover other interesting tidbits. For those who enjoy "go-as-it-applies-to-life" thinking, it's an interesting read, with a few valuable stones to add to our bowls of wisdom.
Back to Reviews
|
|
