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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.

See also

Amplification principle, Threat principle

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

| Home | Top | Menu | Quick Links |

© Changing Works 2002-
Massive Content — Maximum Speed