Overwhelm

Disciplines > Warfare > Principles > Overwhelm

Principle | Effect | Invoking | Analogy | See also

Principle

Show and use far greater force than the enemy.

Effect

If you have greater strength than the other person, then by simple application of that strength, you can overwhelm them, as an avalanche overwhelms a forest in its path.

Strength can be held in several dimensions, so it is important to use your superiority directly against the opposing weakness.

If you have more troops, engage them in hand-to-hand combat. If you have greater firepower, fire upon their artillery. If you have superior technology, use this to attack them with great accuracy from afar.

Invoking

Overwhelm is the simplest and oldest approaches, where the pitched battle between troops of roughly equal ability and motivation is won by the largest army. Quite simply, the last man standing determines the victor, even though this may still be a Pyrrhic victory.

Sometimes the best way of using overwhelming power is in display. When your enemy hears the din of your shield-beating and sees the massing of your troops, they may well, quail in their boots and concede without fighting.

Analogy

One way of using overwhelm in argument is to demonstrate a high level of intellect, for example in a comprehensive dismemberment of their argument, showing in excruciating detail how they are intellectually inferior.

Another form of overwhelm is simply in energy. As you put forward your points with great enthusiasm and question every detail they portray, they may well give up in the realization that your terrier personality will exhaust them before they persuade you of their arguments.