A Curator of Strategy, Leadership, Spirituality, and Rock and Roll…. "Changing the world…one "contact" at a time…."
“We’re playing 2-D chess while Beijing is playing 4-D chess.” — Former National Security Council China Director I’ve been thinking about strategy for most of my life — as a student of history, a practitioner of leadership, and a citizen watching the world shift around us. What makes strategy truly strategic? What separates deliberate, long-range action …
Continue reading "Chessboards and Sandcastles: The Quiet Power of Long-Term Strategy–DeMarco Banter"
The Comfort of “Good Enough” There’s a peculiar danger that stalks successful organizations, leaders, and even artists: the trap of “good enough.” When the metrics look solid, when the crowd is clapping, when the machine is humming along smoothly, the temptation is to keep things as they are. Why rock the boat? Why introduce turbulence …
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a speculative concept but a defining condition of our era. Leaders across sectors have grown comfortable describing AI as a “tool,” yet this framing is already outdated. A tool waits passively to be used; a condition saturates the environment whether we engage it or not. Just as weather, markets, and …
1. Nietzsche’s Enduring Challenge to Conventional Leadership Paradigms Few thinkers unsettle as profoundly as Friedrich Nietzsche. His writings on morality, truth, and meaning strike at the roots of Western culture, exposing what he saw as its life-denying foundations. He argued that conventional values—humility, obedience, piety—emerged not from vitality or strength but from what he called slave morality: the …
What NATO calls “cognitive warfare” is not simply information operations rebranded. It transcends land, sea, air, space, and even cyberspace. Its purpose is not to control what people know, but to shape how they know it, altering the orientation process that underpins judgment and action. Russia and China treat this as a primary instrument of power: a way to fragment societies and achieve …
Continue reading "The Dialectic of Deception: John Boyd and the Cognitive Battlefield: WOTR"
The Obsolescence of Decisive Battle The strategic logic of the 20th century rested on a singular premise: wars are decided on the battlefield. The state that destroyed its opponent’s armed forces dictated political outcomes. Clausewitz’s dictum—that war is “an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will”—framed the entire modern era of …
Continue reading "Paralysis as Victory: The Architecture of 21st Century Conflict: DeMarco Banter"
I have to admit, I’m old—but not that old. Led Zeppelin was already well established by the time I started listening to rock music. Still, I vividly remember when In Through the Out Door came out while I was in junior high—just before John Bonham’s tragic death in 1980. That moment marked the end of …
This is not a political piece....just saying... I know everything quickly becomes that... This is a strategic reflection—a thought experiment grounded in humility and foresight. It’s not about parties or administrations. It’s about possibility. About asking a question many don’t want to touch: What happens if America loses the AI race? It sounds dramatic. Maybe …
Part I: The Metaphysics of the Force: A Syncretic Foundation The enduring cultural resonance of the Star Wars saga is inextricably linked to its central metaphysical concept: the Force. More than a mere plot device, the Force serves as the philosophical and spiritual bedrock of its universe, a complex tapestry woven from the threads of …
The Hype Cycle: A Mirror for Institutional Behavior In the world of technological forecasting and organizational transformation, few conceptual tools have had the lasting impact of the Gartner Hype Cycle. Introduced in the mid-1990s by the research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc., the Hype Cycle sought to explain a recurring pattern: how emerging technologies rise …
Continue reading "The Innovation Trap: How the USAF Gets Stuck in the Hype Cycle: DeMarco Banter"
Mastermind Century Group 