In These Times of "Chaos Under Heaven",

Cao Cao (courtesy name Cao Mengde) 曹操 played by actor Chen Jianbin in the 2010 adaptation of Three Kingdoms, was one of the defining generals and statesmen of 3rd century AD China.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk9MzFD9T-Q

Cao Cao (Chen Jianbin) and Liu Bei (Hewei Yu) discuss political philosophy in 3rd century AD China (as depicted in 2010's War of the Three Kingdoms mini-series on Chinese TV)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the most famous Chinese historic novel and was one our guide recommended to us when we visited China for the first time in 2019.

Compiled during the Ming Dynasty era of the 14th century as Han Chinese emerged from Mongol rule, the novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong exaggerates or allegorizes many historic events of the Three Kingdoms era that took place 1,200 years before, when China's previous Golden Age of the Han Dynasty collapsed into chaos. In the 3rd century AD, China suffered over sixty years of 中国人杀中国人 civil war. Not unlike the Crisis of the Third Century in the contemporary Roman Empire on the other side of the Eurasian landmass, the Han imperial succession was ended by generals holding the emperor hostage as their puppet and later, consolidating into the eponymous three rival kingdoms.

According to traditional Confucian historians, the principal antagonist of the novel is Cao Cao. The Chinese general and statesman notorious for his ruthlessness became a bogeyman that Chinese mothers would scare their little boys with down through the ages, "If you don't behave, Cao Cao will get you!" But in modern China, especially the 95-episode television miniseries of 2010, Cao Cao has emerged as a kind of anti-hero, as a hard man for hard times. "I would rather betray the whole world, than be betrayed" is Cao Cao's society-shocking motto when he bursts onto the scene. And through flattery, shrewdness, and constant strategizing, Cao Cao begins to gather a powerful coalition around himself.

By the time Cao Cao meets Liu Bei 劉備 (courtesy name: Xuande) in the scene embedded above, several rival warlords have gathered together for the popular cause of overthrowing the traitorous warlord Dong Zhuo 董卓, who has been holding the Han emperor hostage. But the scene sets the tone for the fundamentally tragic series by Liu Bei lamenting to Cao Cao that he, as a descendant of the Han Dynasty's founder, cannot imagine facing his ancestors in the afterlife, if he fails to restore the greatness of the Han.

Cao Cao says Liu Bei's aspirations are noble, but asks him the basic questions of politics: what is to be done? And how? Liu Bei says the chaos of the Yellow Turban Rebellion followed by usurpation in the capital and warlordism have arisen because the people have lost faith and proper Confucian principles. Only by restoring that faith among the people can order be restored "under heaven" (a key Chinese concept still in use today).

Cao Cao responds that dynasties have risen and fallen in the centuries since the legendary Shang Dynasty, and that from these recorded tumults everyone can recognize that a dynasty's fortunes are determined by heaven. And during past times of chaos, such as the Warring States period (during which Sun Tzu's precepts compiled in The Art of War arose), heroes rose up to lead the Chinese people to stability. If it weren't for the present chaos, Cao Cao reminds Liu Bei, both of them would be destined for obscurity. But thanks to the chaotic times in which they are living, they have an opportunity to earn lasting fame. This is a Chinese analogue to the Greek Bronze Age concept of kleos, or eternal fame, seen in The Iliad.

In Cao Cao's opinion, order can no longer be restored by the Han Empire subduing warlordism through means of what might be called conventional warfare. He tells his new friend and future adversary Liu Bei, that there is no going back to the old ways of doing things. The only way forward Cao Cao says, is through strategy. Superior strategizing can help a leader draw talented men to himself, and through their talents as able ministers, create a lasting peace.

The Chinese audience watching this dialogue knows that Cao Cao and Liu Bei are destined to become deadly rivals, so that adds to the drama of the scene. The two characters agree that the warlords are not acting with noble motives to free the emperor from Dong Zhuo, but because they secretly envy Dong Zhuo and want to grab as much territory for themselves as the once vast Han realm continues to disintegrate into petty fiefdoms.

Like the late Roman Empire and dying Han Dynasty of the 3rd century AD, the Globalist American Empire (GAE--pronounced "gay") is in a profound crisis. Still touting itself as the world's dominant military superpower, it can't manufacture enough artillery shells for its expendable Ukrainian vassals, much less supply both the Ukrainian Army and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) whose two-front war with Hamas and Hezbollah has drawn priority. Instead of a boy emperor held hostage by a nominal regent warlord in the capital, the GAE is nominally led by a doddering senile emperor being dragged along by very visible puppet strings. And those puppetmasters, seeing undeniable inflation and widespread suspicions that Biden's 2020 election was not on the up and up, are positioning Biden or the handpicked successor they will hastily install on the Democratic Party ticket as a wartime President.

Naked warlordism may not be evident in the United States, but pockets of lawlessness are growing across the country. In these places not only Wal-Marts, but freight trains, and even Beverly Hills Gucci shopping districts can be looted by criminals who fear neither the pieties of the Empire, nor the law. While Liu Bei would agree with modern Chinese ideologist Wang Huning in saying today that the roots of the chaos are that the American people have lost their faith and principles, deep religious faith often didn't spare our grandparents and great grandparents from the previous depredations of the Fed and the City of London bankers during the Great Depression. Ordinary people, sometimes ridiculed on Twitter/X as normies, have been living their lives, and increasingly, been so busy surviving that they haven't noticed until the post-pandemic inflationary pips squeaked and houses became unaffordable just how badly they've been screwed. The same goes for the younger Generation Z now emerging from college or graduate school only to wind up in their parents' basements.

By all means, say your prayers like Liu Bei and give Confucian filial piety to the parents and ancestors. But the most urgent answer to the present global chaos, as Cao Cao said in the series, is strategizing. Find ways to draw men and women of talent to your side, and together create a new order. Here at ExitStrategy.World, we say: rise up and create your own free world.