Paris Hilton Meets Sun Tzu

Friday, June 8, 2007

Paris Hilton Meets Sun Tzu

Paris Hilton Meets Sun Tzu ("The Art of War" author)...

In the Thomas Cleary edition(s) of Sun Tzu's classic treatise on the art of war, (one of his) introduction(s) relates early on a tale of the character of the man himself, Sun Tzu.
It seems that the venerable field commander (Sun Tzu) had been engaged by his emperor (!) to train his concubines in the art of military discipline. These were fearful times and perhaps the emperor thought it best for the safety of all.

Sun Tzu, gathered the young ladies in formation and commanded them to be at attention. The young ladies could not bring themselves to understand the need to adhere to the strict military discipline enforced by this commander - Sun Tzu. Therefore, they laughed and giggled. After all, they were concubines! This so affronted Sun Tzu's sense for military training that he ordered the decapitation of two of the concubines. A messenger sent word to the emperor.

The emperor sent a message direct to Sun Tzu asking him not to kill his two concubines as that would make his "life less sweet" (forgive us if we have the wrong translation). Sun Tzu read the message and proceeded to order the execution. The two young ladies lost their lives in this incident.

Sun Tzu (perhaps) did not relish in the decapitation deaths of young women, he just felt it essential to instill an unforgettable sense of discipline in this small army of concubines (not to mention the sense of utter horror).

Horrible things are sometimes done in the name of discipline - or law or justice. It doesn't matter what term you apply, they are really all the same. We don't relish in the time spent in prison by America's Sweetheart (did we just call Paris Hilton America's Sweetheart?). We just don't see the point to returning Paris to some ghastly fate, where she could be permanently disfigured, disabled or returned to us without her head, even, like Sun Tzu's emperor's concubines. We think we would also feel the sense of utter horror experienced in the ancient times. We think we would all be heartbroken. And, Paris is not one of the emperor's concubines. We think that Sun Tzu died a long, long time ago and his message is not nearly as important now as it was then.

Note: This has led us to the realization of a new word - pshiltoning: (the p is "silent") the shame experienced on behalf of one's jailer, executioner, etc. when forced to impose an apparently unjust and irrevocable sentence. See this definition also in "The Anti-Zen Dictionary".

Also: this posting appears in our sister publication, "The Anti-Zen Handbook".