The Wind chapter in the Book of Five Rings may seem like a useless compilation of why styles other than Musashi’s are useless and irrelevant and in many ways, this is the case. Musashi fails to properly assess the issues with his own style and spends the entirety of the chapter explaining why his style is the best and the others are not and although he does give some styles benefits over others, they all are not as good as his. However, Musashi’s assessment at the beginning of the chapter that “it would be quite difficult to understand the Way of [his] style without knowing the Way of [other styles]” is entirely correct in that you cannot go about life without seeking to understand others (Musashi, p. 88). Subtlety #3 of not giving a f*ck in Manson’s writing reinforces this concept. Manson assess that as we grow older and mature, “we become more selective about the f*cks were willing to give” and as such we must understand what these different situations and perspective entail so that we may choose what f*cks to give over others (Manson, p. 19).

It would be relevant to assess both Manson and Musashi in that they do not seek to find the negative consequences of which styles (or decisions you make in our context) and simply focus on the positive consequences. It is also important on top of understanding the positives and negatives of other options and opinions to understand our own flaws and positive attributes so that we can properly decide what to give a f*ck about. Additionally, it is ignorant of Musashi to assume that his style will always succeed over others in that everything is fluid, meaning it is in a state of constant change. It is possible that today we might choose to give a f*ck about one thing and tomorrow we might find that our evaluation may have been flawed and it might be more beneficial to realign our values, actions, or opinions (see the chapter on Emptiness for more on values). Musashi also asserts throughout the Book of Five Rings “you should investigate this thoroughly” in essence meaning that you will learn through experience and experiences lead us to different conclusions and this is very important to deciding what you give a f*ck about (Musashi, p. 98).

In application to universities this may be the most important concept. As students we deal with an overwhelming amount of diversity on many college campuses. There are students of varying political and social views and we all choose a side at some point. For example, if you are taking a political science class on international relations, you might encounter a situation that forces you to choose between a classmate that believes in arms control and another that believe in nuclear deterrence. Because we are becoming more mature and we are more selective with what we give a f*ck about it is important to be cautious in your choice. But to choose you need to be aware of both sides of the argument, what are the downfalls of arms control? Cheating for one could be problematic, but on the other hand less weapons means a smaller capacity for violence and more safety for the international community. On the complete opposite spectrum nuclear deterrence believes that more capacity for violence means that people are less likely to go to war. But that could be problematic in that it assumes states are rational, so what about irrational states? Now that you know the ups and downs of both sides you can more accurately choose what to give a f*ck about whereas if you only knew one then it would be hard to support your side. But there is one massive factor that this evaluation misses and that is what values do we give a f*ck about? More on that in the section on Emptiness.

More on the Wind Chapter

Aside from the importance of understanding others the Wind chapter speaks to Musashi’s recipe for success, if you will. He frequently speaks of cutting down his opponents, a situation that is not applicable to our lives but he does give explanations that can help us in debate. Musashi assesses that his style is straightforward and to be victorious one must “bend and warp [their] opponent… by twisting and distorting [their] opponent’s mind” (Musashi, p. 98). Brutal? A little bit. Musashi also says that you need to have situational awareness and understand the capacities of your opponents and to always take initiative. What a coach of mine used to say was “don’t wait to get punched in the face to find out that you’re in a street fight” which is reminiscent of Musashi’s ideas about taking the initiative.

Taking initiative in life can change your experience. Don’t wait for your professor to tell you what to study, start studying now. Don’t wait for the girl in your chemistry class to come talk to you, go talk to her. Don’t wait for life to pick you up and get better, pick yourself up, or if you can’t seek help from a friend, family, or resources on campus, and make your life better. As Manson’s says, “problems never stop; they merely get exchanged and/or upgraded” (Manson, p. 31). So upgrade your problems, don’t wait for them to change on their own because they won’t.

Nolan Harris