The Fine Art Of Decision Making

Written by Ben Klassen

When I was 20 years old (way, way back in 1938) I was first exposed to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. I was fortunate enough to be able to read that great book in the original German, and reading it had a strong impact on me that has lasted throughout the rest of my life. In fact, it did much to change and crystallize my then naive and unsettled view of the world and from it I learned much to help develop and strengthen my character. One of the things that Hitler strongly impressed upon me was the importance of making decisions. As we go through life, one of its basic realities is that we are continually faced with making decisions, decisions, decisions. Hitler points out in his book that the ability to make decisions and take the responsibility therefore is the mark of a great general, a great leader, or in general, a man of outstanding caliber. So impressed was I at that age that I started making snap decisions on many things. Whereas I also made a number of wrong decisions, to my surprise my batting average was about as good as when I had procrastinated. There was this difference, however : I got a lot more things decided, and I got a lot more accomplished. It has been my habit ever since to make decisions as quickly as possible, though with less deliberate speed.

Of course, speed is not the only criteria. The important thing is to make a good, sound decision. Anyone who can consistently make good, sound decisions and make them quickly is not only a genius, but also a leader of men. Hitler was one who qualified on both counts. In analyzing the breakdown of the German Reich during and after WWI, Hitler points out the inherent weakness of the whole “Parliamentarian” system, which he rightly points out is really Jewish democracy, a swindle designed by the Jew to divide, conquer and rule their goyim victims. He vigorously denounces democracy as a rule by committee where everybody and nobody really are responsible for anything. Where a committee supposedly makes a decision by counting votes, usually the most cowardly and atrocious decisions are made. Furthermore, in such cases, no one personally takes the blame or the responsibility. It is synthetically shunted off to a passive non-entity — a committee that is here today and gone tomorrow.

Carl von Clausewitz, probably the greatest military writer and strategist over the last several centuries, also has much to say about facing realities and making decisions. In his famous classic On War he says, in effect, that there are certain battles that have to be fought (he is referring to nations), and there are certain times when it is most propitious to do so (the golden opportunity.) When such battles are avoided or procrastinated due to lack of decisiveness, lack of preparation or lack of courage, such default usually exacts a heavy price from the cowardly defaulter. That price is often complete annihilation at the hands of the enemy at a later date. Whereas von Clausewitz was referring to the struggles between nations and governments, the lesson applies just as succinctly to individuals in their battles, or decisions, or their neglect to face them. Even more important it also applies to the predicament of the White Race in extricating Itself from the dilemma in which it is now embroiled. The White Race is far past its “golden opportunity”, but believe me, the time will never be better than it is now.

Shakespeare points out a similar conclusion. In his great play, Julius Caesar, he quotes Brutus as philosophizing to Cassius the following lines of wisdom :

“There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and miseries.”

On the humorous side, of course, there are those who would rather flip a coin and trust to blind luck rather than use their mental faculties. In fact, the Romans had their “auguries” where they poked around in the entrails of slain animals and birds to give them a clue as to which way to go on important decisions, and the Greeks had their oracles at Delphi to help them make up their minds. In the latter case they had virgin maidens sniffing toxic gases coming out of a crack in the ground until they were thoroughly intoxicated. The priesthood would then listen to their incoherent mumblings and interpret these as oracles of wisdom from the gods. Such procedures in different ways are still in practice to this day. In astrology, the infallible stars are supposedly helping the believers to direct their affairs as they have from time immemorial. Recently, in the same vein, on the counter of a Dentist’s Clinic, I saw a sign displayed saying “No amount of planning can replace dumb luck.” And there is some truth to it, too. I can relate an important experience I had.

A few years ago I had a mortgage due me that ran into six figures, which was to be paid off over a period of several years. One day the president of the corporation that was paying on the mortgage called and offered to pay up in full now if I would take a 10 percent discount. I said I would think about a 5 percent discount. (No snap judgment.) I did think about it and reasoned that maybe he would pay up if I counter offered only a 3 percent discount, but, in any case, I just let it ride. Two months later he called me again and I said I was still thinking about it. A month after that he called me again, saying they had negotiated a government loan, were going to build on the property, were paying up in full, no discount. Dumb luck and procrastination paid off in this case. But I wouldn’t bet on it. Nine times out of ten procrastination and lack of decision will cost dearly.

Like it or not, we are continuously faced with minor decisions, important decisions, and in any number of occasions, some of such major import that they shape the rest of our lives. Like it or not, we are pressed into decisions, and if we don’t quickly come to grips with making those decisions when the time to do so is most propitious, those decisions will be made for us either by other people or by the rush of events. An evaded decision is usually an act of cowardice and is really a decision by default in itself. In short, not being able to reach a decision when events call for such, is a decision in itself, and it will be made elsewhere, usually to the detriment of those who cannot make up their mind. Since I have been keenly aware of the importance of making decisions since early adulthood, I have also become an observer of how other people make decisions. I have especially become aware of how many people there are that either can’t make decisions, or won’t make decisions when they should, of how some people avoid making decisions as they would the plague. It is amazing how many other people some individuals can find to blame for their own mistakes and inadequacies. They will blame their wife (or wives), their mother, their father, their boss, or just bad luck, they “never get a break,” or if they only had the money what they couldn’t have done, much better than the fellow who does have it.

In this respect a number of trite sayings are appropriate. One that comes to mind is “He took his failures like a man, and blamed it on his wife.” Another one I saw on the wall of a friend’s office was “If your boss was any smarter, you would probably be out looking for a job.” And the clincher that stumps the “If only I had the money” alibi is, “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich ?” No answer. For this, too, however, Shakespeare has an answer. Again (from Julius Caesar) Cassius says, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings.” I find these kind of people hardest of all to deal with, even more so than those who are dishonest and/or cunning. The latter, although you cannot trust them, you can at least divine their intentions, what it is they want, what their price is. You can then bargain on that basis, meet their price and they yours, or you can break off all negotiations and not deal with them at all.

Not so with the many unfortunate individuals who can’t make up their minds. It is extremely hard to bargain with someone who doesn’t know what they want, who can’t make up their fractured mind. They will stall you, they will procrastinate, they will leave you hanging in animated suspension, even feeling a certain childish importance that they have managed to keep someone waiting on their no-decision. Such people, I have found, prefer not to ever make up their minds, but would rather have someone push them into “their” decision, which is not theirs at all. Why do they adopt such a circuitous and disastrous course ? Mainly, because making a decision carries with it responsibility and consciously or subconsciously they want to avoid responsibility. Let the other person take the responsibility for the decision, and should things turn out badly, let the other person take the blame. Everybody has to make decisions. Some make them poorly, some are fairly good at it, some can make good sound decisions most of the time and make them rapidly. It is somewhat like the act of spelling.

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Some people are poor at it, some are mediocre, some are good and some are excellent. Nobody is perfect, and nobody expects to be. It is rather how you rate on a scale of 1 to 10 that counts. For believe me, success in life is largely dependent upon how quickly you can make decisions, how sound those decisions are and taking the responsibility to back those decisions once they have been made. Decision making, like the thinking process, is a complex and little understood process. Nevertheless, everyone can do it and everyone has to do it. Like breathing, you cannot go through life without it. (This reminds me of a sign I once saw in a locksmith shop that made a claim to the contrary. It said “People can live without air for two minutes, without water for a week, without food for a month, and without brains all their life.”) Be that as it may, I repeat, everyone has to make decisions and everyone can, much as some work hard at avoiding it. Even birds and animals are constantly faced with decisions. They, too, have a constant and wide variety of decisions to make and they make them. One basic decision many animals have to make is the one of fight or flight. Another is the mating decision and whom to choose as their partner. Another decision birds have to make is where to build their nest, when to start, how to build it, where to gather twigs, how to arrange them and a variety of other major and minor decisions. They have to make them, and they do make them. Usually it is timely and their judgment is excellent.

Getting back to people, whose decisions may or may not be more complex than those of the birds, the bees, and the animals, they supposedly have an advantage in having a better thinking apparatus to help them make decisions and solve their problems. Although it may be complex and not thoroughly understood, there are a number of guidelines I would like to offer that can be of tremendous help in the complex process of making decisions.

1] The first thing you have to decide is that you are faced with a decision, that yon have to decide one way or another, and that the sooner you do so, the better off you are. It is amazing how many people cop out on this first important step and will not admit even to themselves that they are faced with a decision even when they should know better.

2] In making a decision, gather all the information yon can that pertains to the problem. In so doing it is not necessary to exhaust the relevant information, but merely an adequate amount to make that particular decision. Too often some people will keep procrastinating in coming to a conclusion, and waste so much time waiting for more information that by the time they have “enough information”, the boat has long sailed and they were left standing at the dock. If there seems to be a contradiction here, the key word is “adequate” and the trick is to have the good judgment to know when enough is enough.

3] The next step is a matter of weighing and evaluating the information you have. Again, this is where good judgment and common sense come into play, and “common sense”, I have found, is not common at all, but a rare and precious commodity. Questions arise : How reliable is the information ? When contradictory reports come in as they always do, the questions that must be answered are : Whom can you believe ? What, in the light of your previous experiences, is reasonable, and what is unreal ? These, too, are subsidiary decisions that have to be made and dovetailed in the major decision that you are trying to resolve.

4] Having gathered your information, having weighed and evaluated it, next consider your options. Perhaps the options are a simple yes or no, or there may be half a dozen options as to what you can do about a particular problem. Consider all the options and list them in writing.

5] Having done this, next consider the consequences of each, both short term and long term.

6] Next comes the hard and important step : make your choice. Here is where most people flounder.

7] Having made your choice, then stick with it and back it up with vigorous and aggressive action to make that choice a success. It does no good for a young man to say, “I have made my choice. I am going to be an engineer”, and then do nothing about fulfilling the long and arduous efforts necessary to carry out that decision. In short — choose your dream — then pursue it to its logical conclusion.

Here are some further observations about decision making.

1] Making decisions requires courage: Avoiding such is a cop-out, an act of cowardice. The key word is responsibility. A person must have the courage to take responsibility for his/her decisions.

2] Decision making also requires a sorting out of priorities. No one has time to make decisions about everything. Some decisions are important, some are trivial. Some are urgent and must be made in the next week, some in the next day, some in the next hour, some in a split second. Again it is a matter of selection, a matter of propitious timing, a matter of good judgment.

3] There are some matters that may be tremendously important, but we can do nothing about it anyway. For instance, it may be terribly important that the sun rise tomorrow morning, but since I have absolutely no say in the matter, there is nothing for me to concern myself about. A good philosophy in this respect is one that is spelled out in the prayer of the Alcoholics Anonymous people. It goes like this : “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change : the courage to change those things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” An excellent philosophy. I subscribe to that. Now we come to the crux of this article as to how all the foregoing relates to Creativity, the survival of the White Race, and the building of our racial movement. Having stressed the importance of
[a] Decision making
[b] Sorting out what is important and what is trivial, let us now come to some major conclusions about some things that are of utmost importance to your own life, to your race, to your children and to future generations yet unborn.

1] The most important issue facing you today as a member of the White Race is survival of your own kind. This is a fact and no decision needs to be made about an established fact. The decision you do have to make is whether you will face this fact and do something about it. Make up your mind, yes or no.

2] If no, join the negroe “community” and crawl into a rat hole and die. I never want to hear from you again.

3] If yes, make up your mind as to what organization has the best creed, program and solution for the survival, expansion and advancement of the White Race. I am fully convinced that the Church of Creativity has not only the best creed, program and solution for the problem, but the only solution. However, you have to decide that for yourself. Decide what program you want to pursue, then do something meaningful about it.

4] If you decide The Church Of Creativity is it, then drop all the other polyglot causes, and devote your full time and energy supporting our cause with donations, with distributing our literature and many other activities. In feet, why not become an ordained Minister of the Church and form your own activist Church group. (See Racial Loyalty No. 10 for guidelines.)

These are tremendously important issues. Again I ask you, make your decision. There is a tide in the affairs of men and races. Time is of the essence.

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