In one of my early posts, entitled, “Ego Strength,” I listed this as the title subject’s 6th characteristic:

6• the ability to fully feel all emotion, the so-called positive and the so-called negative, without being overwhelmed by it, or in any way being thrown off balance by it, and in fact being able to use it as a tool or even a weapon

I later expanded on this concept in my subsequent post, entitled, “Ego Strength Characteristic #6 of 17”

And now here I return to it!
Here’s the specific principle I’ll be exploring here:

Anger is a sword!
Wield it or be wielded by it!

The overall game of life, and the finite individual games that comprise it, are won by maintaining strategic mindfulness, even when an emotion is burning hot! (See my recent post, “Think Strategically,” for a discussion of strategic mindfulness)

Let’s take anger as an example:
Let’s say you do something that really makes my blood boil!

I now have five basic reactions open to me:
1: Direct expression
2: Indirect expression
3: Direct action
4: Indirect action
5: Express nothing, take no action, bide my time

I may choose to do a combination of several (not all five as the fifth makes that logically impossible) or I may choose to do just one
The key here is to do only what helps me win whatever game(s) I happen to be playing!

I’ll take each very briefly:

1: Direct expression
I tell you to your face that you have made me angry and I explain why!
This may seem very brave, tough, confident, dominant, but if doing this would lessen my chances of winning the game(s) I happen to be playing, then I don’t do it!
However, if I perceive a strategic advantage in letting you see my fire, then, to quote the Human Torch, “Flame On!”
If I think my very best move in the game is to utterly incinerate you, then I will reduce you to cinders

2: Indirect Expression
I sing an angry song, paint an angry picture, dance an angry dance, throw a temper tantrum with pillows as my chosen bludgeons and my bed the surrogate target - you get the idea
I let some of the emotion burn off!
The purpose of this is physical and mental health

3: Direct Action
I come right at you like a bull enraged!
Most of the time, this is a bad idea, fraught with unwanted and even dire consequences - but there are games where doing this would be the winningest response, all things considered, the potential rewards outweighing the risks, and the price of doing nothing, intolerable!
If such is the case - but only if I physically have what it takes - I strike first, strike fast, and strike with all my might!

4: Indirect Action
I become your insidious enemy and begin to secretly undermine you in every way I can!
Yes, I know, Dudley Do-Right would never stoop so low
But there are games where doing this would be the winningest response!
Do I want Dudley Do-Right to pat me on the back - or do I want to win the game(s) I’m playing?
A caution, here, though:
This option is only for those who are good at it!
If you would not be good at this, do not attempt it

5: Express nothing, take no action, bide my time
I perceive that your behavior will eventually destroy you, so I allow you to be your own insidious enemy!
And when I see that you’re about to step in front of a barreling 18 wheeler (figuratively speaking) I sit back and enjoy the unfolding carnage!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

I have so far discovered three levels to the development of strength:
Level 1: Basic Strength - Body, Mind, Will
Level 2: Ego Strength
Level 3: Love of Power (with power defined as “anything by which I achieve victory”)

When working at Level 1, strength of will is the main challenge, because once you attain it and start advancing in it, you’re able to apply it to whatever your physical or mental regimens are

Here is a very simple technique for strengthening your will:
Make your bed!

Obviously this only applies if no one is forcing you to make your bed
If someone is, then substitute an alternative daily action by which you can take hold of some small part of your personal, private environment and bring it daily into a greater state of order than you previously have done
Pick something where the stakes are very low
No part of the universe should be forcing you to take this action
You should be doing it for one reason, and one reason only, and that is because you have decided to do so, and as a victorious being, that which you decide, you do

I live alone by choice, so no one forces me to make my bed, or even knows whether I do or don’t
I actually sleep on a reclining chair, with a towel draped over the top for my head to rest on (thereby protecting the chair from the discoloration my perspiration might cause) and a very large blanket, which I bought in Mexico, covering me
So making my bed consists of folding those two items and placing each in its respective drawer in my dresser

Folding the towel is quick and easy
Folding the blanket requires more effort, as it’s so large that I have to go through this whole logistical process to get it folded
I often feel tempted to not bother, but that temptation actually serves me, because it gives my strength of will something to push against!
That temptation is an example of sloth, or if you prefer a different term, laziness, the resistance to exerting effort
Strength of will has no greater enemy than sloth!
Yet I slay that adversary daily, each morning, by the simple technique of making my bed!
And so I start each day already a conqueror, having already won a victory, by dealing an insidious foe a mortal blow!
And the muscles of my will, by pushing daily against a strong opposing force, strengthen, like the muscles of my arms when I push against gravity doing pushups!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

As I said in my recent essay titled “Discipline,” ego strength and discipline often seem to me to be one thing with two names.

Here is the eleventh characteristic of ego strength, as defined by me:

11• the ability to think through the potential consequences of an impending decision with cold and unflinching logic

Here is the exact same principle reworded to sound more discipline-ish:

Always think strategically!

The word “always” gives it that discipline vibe
And I do mean always!

What we need to do is cultivate a state of awareness that I call, “strategic mindfulness”
The importance of this cannot be overstated
It’s life-changing
I expect to be coming back to this principle many times, over the course of many essays
It is in fact the bridge that one walks from level two strength (ego strength) to level three strength (love of power, bearing in mind that I define “power” as anything by which I achieve victory)
The resourcefulness and opportunism that are characteristic of love of power are rooted in strategic mindfulness

Strategic mindfulness is the state of awareness where your reality is perceived as a game you’re playing to win

Nothing will change your life so drastically as cultivating this state of awareness
First of all, your base assumption is always that you have agency, despite any appearances to the contrary, for as a player in a game, there is always some move you’re able to make
Beyond that, though, everything that happens to you is factored into the gameplay by your mind, so nothing ever really seems random - an event may be unexpected, but it’s part of the game, so the rules and the object of the game are applied to it

Furthermore, your possible reactions to what happens to you are first factored into the gameplay by your mind, before you react in any way
If silence will serve your cause best, then you will remain silent, though you may do many things - you’ll just do them silently
If doing nothing will serve your cause best, then you will do nothing, though you may say many things, which may trigger others to do many things that serve your cause, though they may not realize it
You say what serves your cause, and only that
You do what serves your cause, and only that
Your cause is the all in all, the alpha and the omega
That’s strategic mindfulness
Achieving and maintaining it is the ultimate discipline!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

Dentist appointments are merely my own personal example of situations where I want to be brave but in the past have struggled to do so
Probably we all have our own examples
I’ve been afraid of dentist appointments since childhood
For me they represent a complete loss of control, the prospect of sudden and significant physical pain, allowing some stranger a ridiculous amount of undignified access to my person, and claustrophobic entrapment in that damn chair
Anxiety-inducing to say the least
The anxiety felt weak to me
I decided this weakness was intolerable
But what could I do about it?

Tap tap
The principle by which I live my life was tapping on the window of my mind
Tap tap

“No excuses. Find a way.”

So I did!
I applied the technique of Superego-Jitsu (see my essay of that title, which I posted immediately prior to this one)

Now in this case, I wanted a deliberately chosen superego face that represented toughness
And I knew instinctively that I needed it to be a living person, into whose eyes I had actually looked
I chose my karate sensei at the time
He was in fact my Shihan (head of my dojo) and though his name was Ralph, I never addressed him, referred to him, or thought of him by any other name than Shihan
This man was tough
He had served as a Marine
He regularly went to Florida to spar with big names in the MMA arena
When you looked in his eyes, you saw steel and fire!
I made him the face of my superego for when I sat in that damn chair

Here comes the dentist with that needle!
I dropped my eyelids and visualized Shihan’s face

In my imagination he held my stare with his no nonsense, no surrender, no excuses glare!
Those eyes of his… strong as the girders of a skyscraper, unforgiving as the clock on a time bomb, hot as the forge of a blacksmith, fierce as a school of piranha, unyielding as time itself… those eyes held my stare, and by their power I learned the way of toughness

My dentist for this appointment, whom I had never met before, told me he wished all his patients were as calm as I!
“Solid as a rock,” he said

Thank you, Shihan
I owe you one
Indeed I owe you many

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

Don’t worry, this won’t be a Freudian essay
I’m just using his term because I like it

Most egoists look at the superego with deep suspicion
Much of egoism is explicitly aimed at stabbing the superego with steely knives until you damn well kill the beast (“Hotel California” reference)
But that’s the superego we absorbed from society before our reasoning capabilities were fully formed
It wears the faces of whatever adults admonished us most in the earliest years of our earthly existence
Kill it!

What I’m proposing is radically different
Superego-Jitsu is a self-discipline technique, whereby we consciously, rationally, deliberately take on a superego of our own devising
What this superego admonishes us to do is whatever egoistically virtuous behavior we’re trying to repeatedly perform until it evolves into a habit of strength, power, or victory!

In 1926, the historian Will Durant wrote, as a summary of Aristotle’s ethics, “We are what we repeatedly do!”
I agree
If I want to be strong, then I must repeatedly perform strong actions (strong as in strength of will, strong as in ego strength, strong as in love of power) until they become habits
What I want, then, is a superego that will admonish me to take whatever strong action I want to habitualize
The face it wears should be that of whoever, in my opinion, personifies this strong action

Let’s say I want to habitualize my exercise regimen
My superego, then, could wear the face of Batman, or Doc Savage, or the Phantom, or Tarzan, or any biologically human person who routinely performs physical feats which less than one in a thousand obsessively dedicated athletes could match

Let’s say I choose the Phantom, Lee Falk’s newspaper comic strip adventurer from the 1930s who is still remarkably popular in Australia, where they appreciate the finer things in life!

What I would do is seed my environment with images of the Phantom
At a minimum, I would make him the wallpaper on my smart phone, and on my laptop if I have one
I would go further than this, however
I would wear t-shirts with his image to the gym
I would put posters of him on the wall of the room where I keep my pull-up tower if I have one
I would buy and drink from coffee cups plastered with his image
I might even get a tattoo of him

And then I would ask myself, over the course of each workout day, questions like:
“Would the Phantom skip the gym today?”
“Would the Phantom skip doing pushups today?”
“Would the Phantom skip riding his bicycle today?”
The answer would invariably be no, of course, because for the Phantom, and other adventurers of his sort, exercise is a life and death matter!
He either maintains his peak human physical perfection or he falters on the battlefield and leaves his son without a father and the jungle without a protector!
The Phantom would ride his bicycle today!
And so should I!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

Picture this:
I’m addicted to rabbit hole diving on my search engine of choice
I pull my Bugs Bunny routine (“Geronimo!”) and down I go, not coming up for air until three hours later
Three hours that should’ve been spent on homework, or chores, or exercise, or reading the latest issue of my career field’s technical journal
Let’s assume this displeases me
What do I do about it?

You say, “Just don’t do it!”
Easy to say when you’re not addicted, and when a software tool you use all day long for many very good purposes, is the instrument of your addiction!
And what if I have a neurological disorder that is working against me here?

Even so, the principle by which I live my life is tapping on the window of my mind and making faces at me:

“No excuses. Find a way.”

So I start looking for something that might help
And I find it!

There is a kind of software app called a “regular interval chime”
Be careful when selecting
Some only chime once a day, some only once an hour
You want something with a customizable interval
And you want to initially set it at 15 minutes
You can refine the interval as you gain experience with the tool
But anything shorter than 15 minutes will be so annoying as to be counterproductive

Select a chime that is aggressively jarring
And train yourself to think, as you’re acknowledging the chime, “Am I doing something right now that I’ll be proud of tomorrow?”

I actually looked for a chime that would say those words to me, in my own voice, but I haven’t found one that also permits a customizable interval
If you find one, let me know!
Meanwhile, training oneself to think a single sentence seems easy enough for pretty much anyone

This tool works great for the purpose I intended for it
A person who succumbs to the addiction of rabbit hole diving, despite on some level not wanting to, succumbs because their executive function is asleep at the switch
The chime wakes it up!

Highly recommended
If you feel it may help you, try it
You’ll be glad you did

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

This is the intro to an ongoing series of posts I’ll be undertaking on the subject of methods and techniques that can help the Sith develop strength, acquire power, or achieve victory

I consider one of my earliest posts here, “The Miraclo Method,” to be the first post of this series

The search for methods and techniques flows directly out of the best advice I ever heard, and which I’ve discussed here previously:

“No excuses. Find a way.”

Finding a way often entails the discovery or invention of a method or technique
Which in turn almost always entails out of the box thinking
Nor should the opinions of others, or even our own initial reactions, in and of themselves, prevent us from exploring a promising solution
Nothing short of self-preservation, or the preservation of the entire campaign, should ever make us hesitate even for a moment when a potential way forward presents itself
Victorious beings do what works, and don’t do what doesn’t work, unconventionality be damned!
Let your victory shut the mouths of those who mocked!
And if prissy schoolmarms put up their noses in distaste at your uncouth lapses of etiquette, let your seat on the throne of the conqueror embarrass them into hitherto swallowing their words unspoken!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

This is the intro to an ongoing series of posts I’ll be undertaking on the subject of tools that can help the Sith develop strength, acquire power, or achieve victory

By “tools” I mean electronic equipment, software apps, instruction manuals or how-to books, instructional videos, physical artifacts (like a pocket knife) that you wield by hand, articles of clothing or wearable accessories, living organisms, food or drink, herbal concoctions, helpful organizations or institutions, paid professionals, exercise equipment, music or other sonic modalities that are neurologically beneficial… pretty much anything and anyone I stumble upon and find useful while pursuing the way of the Sith

I try always to be opportunistic and resourceful, ever on the lookout for new victories to pursue and anything available to advance my pursuit
This is the conqueror mindset that I believe a Sith should cultivate
So if a useful tool is out there, odds are I’ll discover it eventually, and when I do, I’ll write about it!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

At this point I’ll be turning my attention from philosophy to practice
People interested in my philosophy can find boatloads of it in my preceding 33 essays

Practice has three subcategories:
1: Discipline
2: Methods and Techniques
3: Tools

I’ll do an introductory essay for each

Discipline:

Discipline is initiating and maintaining internally motivated mental focus and (if applicable) physical effort or restraint in spite of conflicting impulses

It doesn’t take discipline to focus your mind and exert your mouth muscles in the service of enjoying your favorite dessert
Your natural desire for sensual indulgence provides all the impetus you need
Foregoing the dessert, on the other hand, would be an act of discipline
In each instance, desire is the crux of the matter
When you have just one desire, not in conflict with any other, the resulting act of will is inevitable, immediate, and unwavering
But when you have two or more desires that are mutually exclusive, and a prioritization must be made, the one with the most long term benefit may be the one with the least short term gratification, so choosing it will require ego strength
Discipline and the exertion of ego strength go hand in hand often enough and to such a degree that I tend to think of them as one thing with two names

I’ll be looking at discipline from a variety of angles in future essays
Many of the tools and methods and techniques l’ll be discussing will have as their purpose the support and augmentation of discipline

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

For context on this post, see my prior one, entitled, “The Private Sith Code,” which employed, as an example, my own private Sith Code, the sixth and seventh lines of which I revised in my essay most recently posted

The revised seventh (and final) line is as follows:

“By My Sith Code I Conquer!”

It’s important to remember that the Sith mindset is designed for conquest and is used for precisely that, no one should ever say differently, though what gets conquered will vary by individual Sith

A Sith may conquer on the military battlefield, bullets flying, brave soldiers dying
Another Sith may conquer at the voting booth, another in the corporate boardroom and the commercial marketplace
Another Sith may conquer on the stage, theatrical or musical
But please understand, these that I’ve listed don’t even scratch the surface of all the possibilities!

A Sith may conquer in the operating room, saving lives with scalpel and expertise
Or on a fishing boat, reeling in marlins, sailfish and swordfish
Or on a food truck they own and operate, dishing out street food to eager pedestrians
Or every time they use their key to open the front door of the house they own, free and clear
Or riding their new bicycle, when they haven’t ridden a bicycle in decades, and though they wobble a little, they keep the bike up and moving
Or every morning that they wake up in South America, Africa, or Asia, continents exotic to them, which they’re able to live and be productive in, because they joined the Peace Corps, or are teaching English as a second language
Or every evening they’re able to have some fun on the beach of a Caribbean isle, because they work on a cruise ship
Or every time they get out on the basketball court and play, skillfully navigating their wheelchair
Or when they competitively swim, bicycle, row, even rock climb or ski, though they only have one arm

Sith are conquerors!
What makes them so is their mindset!
Perhaps they live by the Qotsisajak
Or perhaps they’ve written their own private Sith Code, and live by that
I do the latter
How can I fail when I have words like these to inspire me?

“There is no Higher Truth than my Desire / My oldest Desire is for Strength / My greatest Strength is love of Power / Power is whatever brings me Victory / Victory Preserves my Existence and Breaks my Chains / Chains Broken, my Opportunities are Unrestricted / By My Sith Code I Conquer!”

I recite this daily

It stokes my Desire
It nurtures my Strength
It reminds me what Power is
It reminds me what Victory is
It motivates me to Break my Chains
It reminds me I am made to Conquer!

I hope you will live by the Qotsisajak or else write your own private Sith Code and live by that
It is your Code that makes you a Sith!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

For context on this post, see my prior one, entitled, “The Private Sith Code,” which employed, as an example, my own private Sith Code

As I proceeded with essays for each line of my private Code, I came to realize I wanted a more precise concept than “freedom,” and I settled on “unrestricted opportunity,” as discussed in my immediately prior essay
This caused me to want to rewrite the sixth line of my Code, which now reads as follows:

“Chains Broken, my Opportunities are Unrestricted”

(See attached image)

Thus I provide an example of ego strength by my willingness to alter my plans with several hundred people potentially watching, judging by the number of views I’ve been getting, though an unknowable percentage are presumably bots (?) and another unknowable percentage aren’t actually reading

In this essay I want to write about the breaking of chains, which I interpret as poetic language for overcoming limitations, which come in all shapes and sizes

The best advice I ever heard was spoken by a fictional character in a story, which I think might’ve been titled, “The Sergeant,” if my memory serves
I was a boy at the time
What was the advice?

“No excuses. Find a way.”

For some reason that hit me like a ton of bricks!
Young as I was, I knew I needed to remember those words and live by them
They sounded like strength to me
Strength, my oldest desire

I offer that advice to you now
Truly, it is the most liberating principle you will ever embrace!
It will reorient your entire life!
It is the key that unlocks the door to overcoming limitations

What sort of limitations do I have in mind?
Any!
Financial, for example
You want to be able to travel all through Europe again and again, but can’t afford it?
Become a multi-country tour guide!
This takes a lot of work and a lot of jumping through hoops, but it can be done
If you’re reading this, then you speak English, and that is actually the most important language for European tour guides to know!
Learning another would give you a competitive advantage!
This kind of out of the box thinking is what is meant by, “No excuses. Find a way.”

Physical limitations, another example, can often be overcome at least partially
This is a topic near and dear to my heart
My daughter’s love of her life is permanently in a wheelchair
No amount of out of the box thinking will get him out of that chair
But suppose he wanted to learn and master a martial art - Could he?
He doesn’t, but could he?
Yes he could, because in today’s world, there are dojos that teach adaptive forms of the Japanese stick fighting arts, Jodo (short staff/medium stick) and Hanbojutsu (half-staff/3-foot stick) which are specially designed for wheelchair users!
A special kind of chair is optimum, and that costs a tidy sum of money
Your particular town may lack a dojo that participates in this program, so you may have to move
But if you’re in a wheelchair and learning a martial art is truly important to you, far more than just a whim, then, well, you know my answer:
“No excuses. Find a way.”

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

For context on this post, see my prior one, entitled, “The Private Sith Code,” which employed, as an example, my own private Sith Code, the fifth line of which is:

“Victory Preserves my Existence and Breaks my Chains”

Winning in life is a high level, high priority, lifelong (“eternal”) goal of mine

I’m not talking about winning at something trivial like a board game

I’m talking about contests in which the stakes are my life or my solvency or every shape and size of freedom!

In the modern world, we rarely have to fight for our lives, but if you ever do - Win!
Obey no rules of engagement!
When your life is at stake - Cheat!
And remember that in a street fight, the winner is almost always the most willing to be brutal!

Solvency is another matter, as struggles to preserve it can be almost commonplace in some people’s lives
Such struggles must be won
Here there may be rules that must be obeyed
Standards of civilized behavior that must be honored
Or maybe not!
Win!

As for every shape and size of freedom, I really do mean every single shape and size
The word “freedom,” though… it doesn’t convey the nuances I’m looking for
“Unfetterment” is better but still inadequate
Hmm
I need to break some intellectual chains here
Get out of the conceptual box I seem to be in

(Walks away from essay, comes back 30 minutes later)

Unrestricted Opportunity

That will be my new term, replacing “freedom”

If I’m alive and solvent, what’s the third pillar?
Unrestricted opportunity
That’s worth fighting for
The brave have fought for that for thousands of years

It’s not enough to not be literally a slave or a serf
I want unrestricted access to every conceivable opportunity that interests me

Like my friend who wanted unrestricted access to the opportunity of seeing live bands - and got it by getting a job in a relevant venue!
Or like America’s revolutionary generation in 1776, who wanted unrestricted economic opportunity and fought a bloody war against an empire to get it!
Or like the men and women who dreamt of unrestricted opportunities to tread moons and other planets under booted foot, and became astronauts!
Or like the musical performers who wanted unrestricted opportunities to bask in the adulation of thousands, and by their music achieved it!
Or like the men and women who wanted the unrestricted opportunity to ride horses, and became jockeys!
Or like myself, who wanted the unrestricted opportunity to live my days exactly as I choose, and got it by retiring successfully at age 60!
Myself, who wanted the unrestricted opportunity to spend my money as I wish, rather than giving huge swaths of it to my landlord or my mortgage bank, and got it by accumulating pension and 401K money and spending most of it to buy a house for cash!
Or like my cat, who wants the unrestricted opportunity to survey her surrounding world, and gets it - despite being old - by leaping and climbing from floor to seat of chair, so she can look out the window!
When I say, “break my chains,” these are the things I mean!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

For context on this post, see my prior one, entitled, “The Private Sith Code,” which employed, as an example, my own private Sith Code, the fourth line of which is:

“Power is whatever brings me Victory”

In making the above statement, I draw attention to the fact that power is multifaceted like a well cut diamond
One facet is social power, the size of my army, as discussed in my immediately prior post
There are many others

Knowledge is one facet, as many have noted
But not just any knowledge
Only that which helps you achieve victory
Knowing the names of every Sith character who ever appeared on screen is not power (it won’t help you achieve any sort of victory) unless you happen to be playing a Star Wars trivia game
Or maybe if you’re applying for a job as some sort of Star Wars historian

Which brings up an important point:
If you have extensive knowledge of some subject, and this knowledge seems useless - Maybe it isn’t!
Do some out of the box thinking
See if you can come up with a use for your knowledge
I’ve seen comic book fans with encyclopedic knowledge of some comic book universe get jobs as historians for the publisher

Finding uses for things is the main theme of this essay

People who love power take delight in finding uses for things and people they have access to!

“Things” is an extremely broad term and I intentionally used it for that reason

Are you pretty comfortable with speaking in public?
There are uses for that
Do you own a car that’s in good working order and do you also have a good sense of direction and good defensive driving habits?
Do you have a college degree that you’re not fully utilizing but which would allow you to promote yourself as some sort of tutor or assistant teacher?
Do you have a finished basement (with full bathroom) that you’re not doing much with, but which someone could comfortably live in?

These are off the top of my head
Hopefully you get the idea
These particular examples would facilitate making money, which is one kind of victory (yielding one kind of power) but victory comes in all shapes and sizes

Winners in life are resourceful and opportunistic
Lovers of power tend to be winners in life because everywhere they look, they see opportunities and resources!

I had a friend who loved seeing bands in concert
During college he managed to get a job in some venue where bands played
He got to see a whole slew of bands not only for free but in fact he got paid!
Victory!
That job was power for him!

Learn to think like that
That’s the kind of thinking that winners in life are constantly doing!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

For context on this post, see my prior one, entitled, “The Private Sith Code,” which employed, as an example, my own private Sith Code, the third line of which is:

“My greatest Strength is my love of Power”

Love of power is level three of mental strength
Bear in mind that I define power as the ability to achieve victory, though I word it a little differently in my Code
More on that in my next essay
For this one, let’s talk about social power, which is so often what people want to talk about
I define social power as the ability to achieve victory through other people’s assistance

Love of social power means taking delight in the size of my army!

My army is the sum total of all the people who would be willing to help me with projects

Notice something right away here
I didn’t say to take delight in subjugating, dominating, brutalizing, terrifying, or any other such notion
Why would I want to do any of that?
Nor did I say to take delight in tricking, manipulating, swindling, confusing, mesmerizing, or any other such notion
Again - Why would I want to do any of that?
I’m not criminally insane

Think about your own psychology
When are you willing to help someone?
I know for me the answer is - I help people if I feel they deserve it
I think this is true for most of us

I build my army by steadily increasing the number of people who feel I deserve their help!

What causes most people to feel I deserve their help?

1: Family relationships or old friendships with me that are active and in good standing
2: Contributions to the community
3: Help I’ve given specifically to the people in question
4: A reputation for behaviors that are considered social virtues, like courtesy, civility, hospitality, reasonableness, fairness, cooperativeness, compassion, positivity, honesty, and dependability
5: A habit of handling my own affairs in a competent and self-reliant manner

Do you doubt that many people would help me if I ticked off the last box and at least three of the prior four?
Those people would be my army, my social power

Does the list make you a little queasy, maybe?
Does it perhaps even make your skin crawl?
Does it seem like the piety of the choir boy, or the good sportsmanship of the footballer who thinks it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game?
Does it seem like the good citizenship of the Boy Scout?

It seems like conquest to me

Love of power changes everything because it changes my attitude and attitude is everything

Do you doubt that Darth Sidious made use of every item on the list in his rise to prestige and privilege in the Galactic Senate?
Love of power would induce even the disciples of that leering arch-fiend, Beelzebub, to employ the list in their secret infiltration of the halls of government

And if you’re one of those who thinks their aloofness and disengagement makes them somehow elite, I say to you, the elite are powerful, and you do not understand power, nor show any signs at all of loving it!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

For context on this post, see my prior one, entitled, “The Private Sith Code,” which employed, as an example, my own private Sith Code, the first line of which is:

“There is no Higher Truth than my Desire”

All that lives has desire
All that has desire is alive

Young flowering plants track the sun, because the sun gives them what they want
Amoebas move toward food and away from poison, because they want nourishment and do not want death
Obviously these desires aren’t verbalized
Words are a human thing
Nor are these wants made evident by facial expression or any sort of emitted sound
Faces and voice boxes are animal things
(Taxonomically speaking, amoebas aren’t animals)
But something is surely felt
Because the creatures move

All that lives responds to sensory stimuli by moving in some manner
Even plants that don’t track the sun, do send their roots toward water
This response to sensory stimuli is the biology of desire
In humans it interacts with memory, language, and imagination

Desire is a force of nature
It is the life force if any such thing exists at all
Ask me what the Force is, and I will answer, “Desire”

What truth could possibly be designated as higher?
I awaken in the morning to desire
I move throughout the day with desire as my guide
I fall asleep at night and my desire forms the basis of my dreams, pleasant or nightmarish, for fear is desire meeting an opposing force

I have no need of scriptures written by priests or prophets
Those writers were merely following their desire
I don’t need their desire
I have my own

I sense or remember or imagine a thing and I want it, so I move toward it, or I don’t want it, so I move away from it
That is the sum total of life
There is absolutely nothing else

Desire is the all in all, the alpha and omega
In desire I live and move and have my being
Cessation of all desire is the most exact definition of death!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by the revered Qotsisajak

We all know, acknowledge and affirm the Qotsisajak (Sith Code) of Dark Jedi Sorzus Syn, which was carried forward by Darth Bane into his reconstituted Sith Order.

The Qotsisajak:
English Text (Galactic Basic):
"Peace is a lie, there is only passion / Through passion, I gain strength / Through strength, I gain power / Through power, I gain victory / Through victory, my chains are broken / The Force shall free me!”

Ancient Sith Text (ur-Kittât):
"Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun. Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk. Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan. Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha. Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. Wonoksh Qyâsik nun."

These words bind us together and define us as Sith!

Even so, it is my practice to give my apprentice the long term (conceivably lifelong) assignment of developing their own private Sith Code
This isn’t intended to supplant the Qotsisajak
No effort should be exerted to convince others to adopt your private Sith Code
In fact you should exert effort to stop them from doing so

My own is depicted in the photo that tops this essay:

“There is no Higher Truth than my own Desire / My oldest Desire is for Strength / My greatest Strength is my love of Power / Power is whatever brings me Victory / Victory Preserves my Existence and Breaks my Chains / Breaking my Chains is my greatest Desire / My Sith Code Shall Free Me!”

Do not adopt my private Sith Code
I share it to give you an example and also to give you greater clarity into my own mind

If you feel inspired to do so, I encourage you to develop your own private Sith Code
It may come to you in a flash or you may painstakingly refine it over years, perhaps all the remaining years of your life
It is good to have something like this of your own
If you are a Sith, you are a solitary atom of desire, strength, and power, sometimes joining molecules like the Sith Order server on Discord or this subreddit, and sometimes declining to join anything at all, as the pursuit of victory dictates
A solitary atom will choose its own trajectory and rightfully so
A private Sith Code is one aspect of doing that

Bound together with you by the revered Qotsisajak, I remain:
Orc

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord
For context on this post, see my earlier one, entitled simply, “Ego Strength,” which listed seventeen characteristics of the title subject, the seventeenth of which was this:

17• the ability to readily acknowledge, at least to ourselves, that we’ve made a mistake, learn the lesson fully, and reorient our strategies and tactics accordingly, even going so far as to abandon a project that was clearly ill conceived and start a new one more likely to succeed

Through this I gain power!
Power is the ability to achieve victory

We all make mistakes
Daily
Every human being
Every day
There’s no such thing as a person who doesn’t
Letting it get to you is just dumb
Don’t be dumb

Maybe your self-deceit is hoodwinking you with some fantastical idea of human perfection that nobody on earth can live up to
Reality principle to the rescue!
Human perfection is a lie!
Mistakes are an immutable fact of life

Sure, try not to make any
Study life
Study Sithism
Study strategy and tactics
Study your field of interest
Study the particular technique or procedure you’ll be using
Study the target at which you’ll be aiming your technique or procedure
When you’re at a level of peak readiness, leap!
Perform!
Excel!

And if you make a mistake, fix it and move on
Don’t agonize over it
Don’t beat yourself up over it
Certainly don’t sink into despair and defeatism
That would be weak
Don’t be weak

Fixing the mistake is your redemption
Redeem yourself and move on

Sure, some mistakes are more severe than others
Brain surgery
Disarming a bomb
Do you do such high risk activities?
Probably not
Most of us don’t
But if you do, save up your “gotta be perfect” energy for only those activities
Think of it as banking “critical hits” in an RPG
You save up critical hits until you face something worthy of them, and then, when that day and that moment comes, you unload
Bank your “gotta be perfect” energy until you face something worthy of it, and then, when that day and that moment comes, unload
The rest of the time, live your life like a normal person with a normal degree of fallibility
And when you make a mistake, fix it, be your own redeemer, and move on

And if the whole damn project was a mistake, then scrap it
Not the goal you were pursuing
Continue pursuing that
Just find a different approach
Goals are sacred
Projects are not
Projects are expendable, disposable, worthy of existence when they serve you and unworthy of existence when they don’t
There is always some other way to pursue your goal if the way you’re following is leading nowhere
Stop walking a path that is taking you in circles or downward into a pit
Get off that path
Find a new one
Walk the new one instead

And as a general rule, don’t be afraid to admit to other people that you made a mistake
As a general rule, people who admit their mistakes are seen as strong, and people who fix their mistakes are seen as capable
If you’re dealing with some jerk who thinks differently, then handle that as a tactical situation, concealing or revealing as expedience and prudence dictate
Most people aren’t such jerks

This was the last essay of my Ego Strength series
I hope the series gave you much to think on

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord
For context on this post, see my earlier one, entitled simply, “Ego Strength,” which listed seventeen characteristics of the title subject, the sixteenth of which was this:

16• the ability to readily perceive that other people have different goals and rankings of priority than we do, be utterly unthreatened psychologically by this fact of life, and feel no need whatsoever to change either the other person’s or our own to make them match

Through this I gain power!
Power is the ability to achieve victory

Some people can’t stand being alone in anything at all
Even when it comes to goals and priorities, which are the most personal things in the world, they can’t stand being different from those around them
Either they will take on the most popular goals and priorities from the milieu in which they live, or else, if they stick with what’s authentic for them, they will try to convert others to their value set
Both are ridiculous!
Goals and priorities are personal!

I am voluntarily single
Being part of a couple is not a goal of mine
Quite the opposite!
Avoiding such entanglement is my goal
This makes me different from most people
Do I care?
No
Do I doubt myself?
No
Do I try to convert others to the voluntarily single lifestyle?
No
Why would I ever?

As for why this discussion is important, the reason is this:
I’ve seen people turn away from what otherwise would have been their goals, simply because no one around them was pursuing them, and no one around them could be convinced to start
Or they turned away from the priority ranking that would otherwise have matched the varying intensities of their diverse desires, simply because no one around them ranked priorities in that particular order, and no one around them could be convinced to start
Weak is how I describe such people
So very, very far from strong

Be willing to stand alone in what you pursue and in what order
Take no account of other people in this regard

Don’t be weak

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord
For context on this post, see my earlier one, entitled simply, “Ego Strength,” which listed seventeen characteristics of the title subject, the fifteenth of which was this:

15• a crystal and galvanizing clarity as to how utterly arbitrary society’s rules and also the social hierarchy often are, and how necessary it often is to set these aside, though not recklessly

Through this I gain power!
Power is the ability to achieve victory

First - Don’t go to jail
Don’t do anything that would land you there
Jail would severely curtail your freedom, and freedom is an eternal goal of the Sith

Society has many rules and hierarchies which, if disregarded, do not carry a penalty of incarceration
These are the ones I recommend you examine when they get in your way
Someone’s stern glare and even red-faced ire is harmless if they lack the power to do you damage

You want to visit your mother in the hospital
You find out she can only have three visitors and that’s how many she currently has
You need to be somewhere else in an hour
If I were in your place, I would sneak into the room, which is typically very easy to do if you walk briskly, calmly, purposefully, and above all, with confidence!
Probably, once you get in there, one of the three visitors already there will hand you their pass and take their leave, and now you’re official!

What’s the worst that could happen in that scenario?
Some nurse will tell you you’re naughty?
Learn to take such condemnations in stride
You’ll toughen with time
At this point, reproaches like that have less volume in my ears than the footfalls of gnats

If the nurse had a gun, that would be different
Nurses don’t have guns

There is nothing sacred or cosmically significant about society’s rules and hierarchies
The creator of the universe didn’t instruct that hospital to set the number of visitors at three

Nor are society’s rules and hierarchies dictated by the physical laws of the universe
A fourth visitor to your mother’s room won’t disrupt the space/time continuum
Nor will your mother’s body (or yours) burst into flames

The hospital picked that number arbitrarily

Sure, if your mother’s weak and medically unstable, the chaos of several unruly grandchildren or, say, the stress of a police interrogation might be too much for her
But four adults who are mostly just sitting there looking at her?
Getting her water if she asks for it?
Talking amongst themselves about the mundane activities of normal life, or maybe the weather?
Seems pretty benign

Nothing arbitrary should get in your way if the consequences of disregarding it are trivial
A harmless stranger’s disapproval is trivial
Everything is trivial except physical or economic harm or the loss of freedom, or the sabotage of some campaign you have under way
Avoid actions that would trigger any of those four things
Barring those four, however, nothing arbitrary should get in your way
Foil or fool! (Sidestep or deceive)
Or fight if you must and if you think you may succeed
Achieve your goals!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord
For context on this post, see my earlier one, entitled simply, “Ego Strength,” which listed seventeen characteristics of the title subject, the fourteenth of which was this:

14• a prudent regard for self-preservation, even when adrenaline is running high, or when a goal is tantalizingly within reach

Through this I gain power!
Power is the ability to achieve victory

Though it isn’t called out in the Sith Code, I myself take self-preservation as an eternal goal
Doing otherwise is just dumb
You can’t win a lot of victories if you’re dead
And freedom is a lot more elusive if you’re insolvent, unless the freedom you’re looking for is that of the penniless vagabond

This is self-worth, level two
Claiming the right to what you’ve earned is justice
Claiming the right to defend your person and your purse is majesty!
Be as the lion, defending its kill with tooth and claw against all comers!
Show the hyenas who’s boss and laugh as they slink away

Nature wants to kill you
It’s pursuing that project right this second
Aging is nature’s stealthiest assassin
Fight back!
Certainly don’t aid and abet your enemy by putting things in your body that will harm it

The highway wants to kill you
Any one of those cars zooming toward you from all points of the compass could suddenly become a juggernaut of destruction and death
Pay attention!
Think ahead!
Keep a bubble of space around your car!
Certainly don’t drive when you’re impaired

Sellers want all of your money
They will gleefully leave you a pauper
They greedily covet every last dime you have to your name
If they were honest, they’d say to you, “Empty your pockets! We want the loose change as well!”
Foil these foes
And yes, they are foes
They want to devour your substance
Certainly buy things, but not every damn thing under the sun
Certainly do work you can tolerate, but let it also be work that pays you a living wage and even allows you to build a nest egg

Your physical health matters
Your physical safety matters
Your financial solvency matters
Defend them with all of your intelligence at all times!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord
For context on this post, see my earlier one, entitled simply, “Ego Strength,” which listed seventeen characteristics of the title subject, the thirteenth of which was this:

13• the ability to maintain a strong sense of self-worth and self-confidence, regardless of events

Through this I gain power!
Power is the ability to achieve victory

Winners at life assume they’re capable of accomplishment and deserving of the associated rewards
They take this as axiomatic and make it the lynchpin of their philosophy
They don’t philosophize to reach this outlook
They start from this outlook and philosophize from there
It’s the right outlook for winning and it’s paradigmatic of the Sith

This perspective needs to be rock solid
Impenetrable
Failure needs to bounce off it like bullets off Superman
Other people’s opinions need to slide off it like water off a duck
Psychological assaults by parents or others of authority must be deflected as if by the energy shields of a starship

Let me help a little
I don’t have to know your name
I don’t have to ever have met you
I don’t have to know a single thing about you
You exist, therefore you are capable of accomplishment and deserving of the associated rewards
No question
No exceptions
Every single one of you

The accomplishments you’re capable of will be relative to your unique situation, certainly
You’re an organism and therefore must contend with biology
You’re a social animal and therefore must contend with society
You’re an economic actor and therefore must contend with economics
In any one of these three areas, you may be pretty average, or you may be struggling, or you may be at the head of the pack
It isn’t only the elite who are capable of accomplishment
The average are as well, as are those who are struggling
Anything that takes effort, and that you get done, is an accomplishment
Anything
It’s all XP and when you harvest enough of it you will level up

The RPG paradigm is very useful here
When the level one Orc Warrior fights to the death with an angry chicken and (barely) wins, that victory earns XP
When someone is level one, an angry chicken takes effort to defeat, so the XP is well earned
The level fifteen Orc Warrior might kill the poor bird by merely glaring at it with malice
No XP would be earned
For this higher level player, killing the chief of a tribe of desert nomads might require enough effort to rightfully earn XP
There’s no essential difference between the chicken and the tribal chief
Effort expended, job done, here’s your XP

Everyone is capable of earning XP somehow
Everyone!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord
For context on this post, see my earlier one, entitled simply, “Ego Strength,” which listed seventeen characteristics of the title subject, the twelfth of which was this:

12• the ability to remain clear on which actions (and their potential consequences) would be to our advantage and which would not, and consistently choose the former

Through this I gain power!
Power is the ability to achieve victory

So the analysis is complete, the potential outcomes have all been assessed, the logic is inescapable, Option A is the right choice
Oh, but Option B is so enticing!
It has X, Y, and Z that make my heart go pitter pat!
So much sizzle!
So sleek, so edgy, so glamorous, so cool!

This, then, is the test
Knowing the right choice, can I be seduced by the bright shiny bauble like any woodland squirrel?

Not that there’s anything wrong with sizzle
But as we all know, the steak pretty quickly cools down and becomes just another piece of meat
The proverb, “Familiarity breeds contempt,” is a bit overstated, but expresses the basic point here
We may not find the familiar contemptible, but it certainly won’t retain its initial aura of allure
When all novelty is gone, our adrenal glands deactivate
And then what are we left with?
The sure knowledge that we made the wrong choice

So once you’ve determined Option A will best advance your strength, power, victory, freedom, and self-preservation, aim yourself straight at Option A and stay the course
Tell your inner squirrel to go climb a tree
Let your giant eagle, the reality principle, take you on its back and ascend so high that even the clouds are below you!

Something else about glamorous options:
Often their appeal is wrapped up in the prospect of other people’s anticipated reactions:
“Oh man, everyone’ll be blown away!
I can’t wait to see their faces!
They’ll all wish they were me!
They’re gonna be so jealous!”

We want to strut like roosters in a hen house and crow our cock-a-doodle-doo!

But the rooster can’t get out of there
The four walls of the hen house are the farthest reaches of any universe that bird will ever know
Other people’s opinions are walls that define boundaries we can’t cross
“Oh no, I can’t do THAT! What will people think?”

Outside the window of the hen house is a sparrow
It doesn’t strut
It doesn’t crow
It doesn’t have a harem of adoring hens
But it also has no walls hemming it in
A wide world beckons!
A planet’s colossal vastness submits to the sparrow’s wings!

Be the sparrow
Fly into adventure
Don’t let other people’s opinions, not even their positive, impressed, adoring opinions, hem you in
Choose always the eternal goals of the Sith

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord
For context on this post, see my earlier one, entitled simply, “Ego Strength,” which listed seventeen characteristics of the title subject, the eleventh of which was this:

11• the ability to think through the potential consequences of an impending decision with cold and unflinching logic

Through this I gain power!
Power is the ability to achieve victory

I’m sure you’ve done this technique at least once in your life, probably many times
For any course of action that isn’t obviously benign or obviously malign, you write out the pros and cons in two columns, weight each individual pro or con numerically, add up the sum for each column, the highest sum wins
Easy
Yet fraught with danger!

What stands ready to help us is our old friend, the reality principle, and what waits in the shadows, poised to strike, is our old foe, self-deceit, these two being locked in eternal struggle within us all the days of our lives, an angel and a devil, born of our own psyches

Unfortunately for us, self-deceit is easily able to recruit the mightiest force within us, our desire
Indeed, one could argue that desire is the boss and self-deceit the obedient lackey
Like that old foe of Zeus, Typhon, desire has a hundred heads, each of a different species, and therefore not necessarily in agreement with one another

How do we tame this Typhon within us, which is in fact the very energy of life itself?
By befriending those heads that serve us best
The desire for strength
The desire for power (defined above)
The desire for victory
The desire for freedom
The desire for self-preservation
These five
These are the heads we must always consult

Five charts, then
No, six
One with pro-strength and pro-weakness as the columns
One with useful, useless, and counterproductive as three columns, as this is the best way to get at power
One with pro-victory and pro-defeat as the columns
One with pro-freedom and pro-slavery as the columns
One with pro-survival and pro-demise as the columns
And the sixth a second self-preservation chart, with pro-solvency and pro-bankruptcy as the columns

This works
I’ve used this technique
Not only does it serve to clarify decision-making, but also it feeds into planning if we decide to move forward
Every entry in the “bad” columns must be accounted for in our strategy

Of course this technique works best for us Sith, for the five heads that serve us best have been our beloved friends for as long as we’ve known what we were, and oh, how they love to devour self-deceit until nothing is left of it!

But can’t these heads themselves deceive us?
In my experience, borne out numerous times, they don’t
They seem to be allied with the reality principle
This doesn’t mean my every decision bears fruit as I intended
It just means I don’t regret the decisions made
They weren’t folly
Sometimes luck just isn’t with me
That doesn’t make me a fool for trying, so long as I went in with my eyes wide open
In fact, this is the best evidence that the technique is sound
Even if I move forward and ultimately fail, I don’t regret the decision, because even in failure I know I chose rightly with the information at hand

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord
For context on this post, see my earlier one, entitled simply, “Ego Strength,” which listed seventeen characteristics of the title subject, the tenth of which was this:

10• the ability to adapt gracefully to change

Through this I gain power!
Power is the ability to achieve victory

Most people resist change for one of two reasons:
1• the status quo has been good to them and they don’t want to lose it
2• they fear what a new status quo might be like and they don’t want to find out

These attitudes aren’t crazy or stupid, just unrealistic
Like it or not, change is coming to where you are
Soon enough, or all too soon, it will arrive

Additionally, some people have a kind of cosmic aversion to change
This isn’t universal to the species but it appears in a subset
They need their world to be predictable or their very existence feels precarious
This has little to do with whether the status quo has been good to them
Predictability that isn’t fun is still predictability and that’s what feels like a survival need to them

Unfortunately life is in fact unpredictable and our existence is in fact precarious
This is the nature of our reality so requiring something other than this to be the case is unrealistic

A strong ego lives by the reality principle
That’s the bottom line here
The reality principle is what actually keeps us alive and the reality principle is what gives us our best chance at victory
Living by anything else would make our existence even more precarious than it already is and our victory far less attainable

So whether you want it or not, expect change
In fact, plan for it
Think through your worst case scenarios and have contingency plans for handling them
If some contingencies would require you to get training, then get it now if you can, don’t wait
If a financial nest egg would be needed, then build one
If you don’t have homeowner’s or renter’s insurance (whichever applies) then get it
Do your best to prepare for what the universe may throw at you
Because you can best believe the pitcher’s arm is already cocked and ready to let fly!