Hi Everyone,
Those of you who have been following me for a while will be aware that I often write about ‘Game Theory’. Some of my posts are theoretical discussions and others venture into the application of game theory into the real world. Game theory can appear complicated at times but it is important that people at least understand the basics as well as be aware of the extent of the application of game theory in the world.
Today I would like to touch on one of the most commonly used and most effective strategies of winning. The strategy I want to discuss is the divide and conquer, also known as divide and rule strategy. I discuss in several posts such as Game Theory - Triple Threat and Game Theory #6 - Triple Threat (Work-in-Progress) Idea the strategy of cooperating to achieve better results for smaller or weaker parties/groups. In this post, I want to discuss the response to or the prevention of cooperation between players/parties.
Basic Theory
If your opponents are fighting amongst themselves, they cannot effectively fight against you. Divide and conquer strategy involves inducing disruption amongst your opponents without being clearly identified as the culprit or provocateur. Greater control or influence over information can greatly improve the divide and conquer strategy.
People will agree on some things and disagree on other things. For cooperation to exist, the things that people agree on need to be the most important as well as a shared focus. Often people share a particular vision but the smaller details get in the way of cooperation. These smaller things become the focus. The divide and conquer strategy brings the differences and disagreements to the forefront even if they are small.
Potential contentious issues can be introduced or emphasised as part of the divide and conquer strategy. For example, an organisation that has a history of greed could divide those opposing them by supporting a genuinely positive cause. Many will assume the genuine cause to be fake. Many others will see that it is real. Those that believe that it is fake will attack those that believe it is real or vice versa. The two groups that originally opposed the organisation are now instead opposing each other.
How to counter a divide and conquer strategy
A simple approach to countering a divide and conquer strategy is to remain focused on the bigger and more important shared objectives. If the bigger picture does not change, it is not worth focusing on new or introduced differences.
It is important to understand the intentions of those strongly supporting a particular objective. Is their behaviour and actions consistent? Could a particular line of actions be achieving less obvious objectives? What is the bigger picture? Does a particular action support, detract or appear indifferent to the bigger picture?
If in doubt, always do your own research. You should not blindly follow something even if it comes from a very reliable source. Likewise, you should not blindly dismiss something because it comes from a 'perceived' unreliable source or from those with agendas that you do not trust. Even if something sounds or seems ridiculous, it is still worth looking into; we live in a very strange world and sometimes the most bizarre things turn out to be true.
Examples of divide and conquer
Source: Global Research
There are many real life examples of the divide and conquer strategy. The British Empire has employed divide and conquer tactics many times throughout history. One such example of the British divide and conquer strategy was applied to India, where British forces played various groups off against each other, read Latasinha’s blog, for more information.
The US Government apply divide and conquer strategies to the Middle East by supporting various factions and groups. They have managed to increase tensions between religions, cultures, nationalities, and political beliefs, read this Global Research article for more information.
Brexit is another example of divide and conquer. The pro-Brexit supports are split between those that want to stop migration to Britain through Europe and those that want freedom from Europe Union rule. The British Government have decided to support the stop migration with little or no regard for the freedom movement, see Brexit framework. This has created tension amongst Brexiteers as well those supporting remaining in Europe.
The divide and conquer strategy has been used to divide truth-seeker and activist communities. Conspiracy theories are often supported or fabricated by the Government to divide activist and truth-seeker communities. Such dubious conspiracies include the flat earth movement, see Flat Earth Society as well as Vril and drone theories, see Donald-Marshall.com.
These theories should not be automatically dismissed because they sound illogical but instead investigated based on evidence or lack of evidence that is available; immediate rejection of any theory can quickly put you on the path to conflict. For example, I looked into the flat earth theory and the proposed flat earth map. I looked into flight times. The flight times only appeared logical if the earth was a sphere. I believe the Vril and drone theories, which lack evidence other than witness accounts, were constructed to divide followers of David Icke who has a theory that people are controlled by shapeshifting aliens, see this video of David Icke.
However, most of the theories mentioned above are inconsequential to the observable problems with world. Does it matter if evil Vril, Aliens, or people run the world? We are still faced with the same problems, which most people are able to agree on. It is more productive to work towards resolving these problems than fighting each over issues that are relatively insignificant to the big picture.
Controlled opposition
In my post ’Controlled Opposition Explained as a Game Theory Strategy’, I discussed the theory and logic supporting the strategy of controlled opposite. Controlled opposition is often used to complement the divide and conquer strategy. The creation of competitors controlled by one person or organisation can be very effective at splitting opinion and efforts.
In the USA, prior to the 2016 presidential election. Resistance to the ‘establishment’ political parties was growing. The alternative media was fuelling this resistance. The election of the presumed anti-establishment president (i.e. Donald Trump) has divided the anti-establishment supporters into the pro and anti-Trump camps.
Many of the pro-Trump anti-establishment supporters have thrown their support behind the Republican Party and many of the anti-Trump anti-establishment supporters are being grouped as pro-Democrat. Instead of the establishment vs. anti-establishment debate, we now have now reverted to Democrat vs. Republican debate. This shift has greatly reduced resistance to the two party system. The 2018 US midterm election had the highest turnout, see ’Time’ article for more information.
Conclusion
Divide and conquer is a very commonly used strategy and has been very effective. A unified resistance will always be stronger than a divided one or one that has turned on itself. Divide and conquer strategies can be used by those in power to keep resistance divided or used by those that oppose those in power to cause a rift and weaken their power. The divide and conquer strategy can be more effectively implemented by those that control or influence information. The strategy of controlled opposition can artificially put people on different sides thus can play an important supporting role to the divide and conquer strategy.
Divide and conquer strategies can be quite easy to detect if we are looking for them. For example, we could find ourselves in situations where we are arguing or disagreeing on the details rather than the bigger picture. Maybe an alternative idea that suits a particular story and/or conflicts with a popular story gains more exposure. Popular figures or celebrities start openly supporting previously considered anti-establishment positions, which have only gained partial traction.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post, I have several other posts relating to game theory such as:
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