Being Carl von Clausewitz

There was an odd scene in the odd 1999 film Being John Malkovich which comes to mind everytime I see some white paper or defense journal reference to Some interpretation of Clausewitzian theory…

In this scene, a portal to John Malkovich’s mind has been discovered by John Cusack and, in an odd turn of events, the actual Malkovich discovers this and angrily insists on having the same experience Cusack has been charging people for (before they materialize in free-fall on the shoulder of the New Jersey Turnpike… yes, it’s a weird movie).

Upon entry, he finds himself surrounded by… himself… him/herselves… as everyone looks like him and their language is nothing but strings of the word “Malkovich.”

Better yet, just see for yourself:

So.

This is what goes through my mind every single time I read anyone citing Clausewitz.

It drives me crazy:

“Clausewitz?”

“Clausewitzian Clausewitz.”

“… CLAUSEWITZ!”

The same could said for Sun Tzu… but I digress…

The issue I have with this has been emphasized previously my when I have cited by favorite Ellsberg quote on experts:

“Experts” are people who know so much about how things have been done in the past that they are usually blind to how things can be done in the future.

We tend to focus on what we know rather that what might be because there are too many intangibles in the intangibles of the near future… but isn’t that what military theory is all about, in essence?

For example: I was on a rant about how little theory has been floated around the modern equivalent of military game-changers. Where the machine gun, tank, radio, airplane, and submarine were Nobel ideas which dictated (and necessitated) chance on the battlefields a century ago, the drone, Go Pro cameras, and cyber warfare stand as cost-effective tools in the new concept of “total digital war” which will impact ALL aspects of society in a manner which Clausewitz, Mahan, Jomini, Skobelev, Suvorov, or Sun Tzu never could have imagined.

It will be interesting to see how this thread pans out as it develops…