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PERSPECTIVE: Shifting Our Horizon: The Art of War versus Stewardship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2008

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What choice should we make? In The Art of War, Sun Tzu taught us to visualize war, to approach battle intelligently, to defend territory until you can advance, to see in your mind the enemy you plan to conquer, to focus on your opposition's weaknesses, and finally, to seize the moment of victory. In Stewardship, Peter Block taught us that stewardship is the willingness to be accountable for the well-being of others—your friends, your family, your community, our planet—by being in service, rather than by acting in control or out of self-interest. These are very interesting and diverse perspectives on human behavior and on how we should act and feel toward one another. In the “art of war,” we have the attitude of winning at all costs. In stewardship, we have the point of view of enriching all that is around us. In the following paragraphs, I discuss some of the aspects of the art of war currently ingrained in our culture and how shifting our horizon to a stewardship view could provide us, as environmental professionals, the opportunity to lead others toward a new way of being for the rest of the twenty-first century.

Type
POINTS OF VIEW
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2008

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References

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