Strategy and Tactics

The two terms  'strategy' and 'tactics' are mostly used in the military context. However,  they are an integral part of every life domain.  Strategy - plan,  tactics - the steps that lead us to the achievement of the plan, whatever that is.  The two are closely related, both are necessary to achieve one's goal.

Here's a trivial example. That's quite a common thing with shoppers to forget some already paid item at the store. It sometimes happens to me too.  The plan is to get the item (s)  back smoothly and quickly, yet, that's not always easy.  It depends on  circumstances, time of  shopping, the vendor, details of the item in the receipt, etc..  So, I have to choose carefully  the 'tactics' to achieve the above goal .

Usually, and based on my past experience, I won't call the store in question beforehand asking if they've seen, noticed or found the forgotten item.  I'll just go back to the store, and assertively say in a few words:  'I've  forgotten  the X item. Here's the receipt, please bring it back to me'. 

The assertive tone is crucial, if you don't want them to start asking questions such as: perhaps you forgot it in another store, or on the bus, perhaps it fell off  the shopping cart , etc..

Sometimes, the threat of sending a complaint to management  or a threat of never again buying there , shortens the process and make your tactics work in no time.

Strategy

 

Still on Lockdown. I don't know how long covid-19 will be with us. (A climate activist claims - for as long as Climate Change crisis will last).

However, I do know that a country needs the right strategy to handle it.  I'm not referring to a country  that belongs to the club of the big and rich  (USA, Germany, UK..) but to a country  of small to modest size and resources, like Israel where I live.

By 'right strategy' I mean one that would not be based on waiting for a vaccine (which may or may not be available ,  may or may not be effective), and, would not be based on borrowing heavy money to give its people the (false) feeling that life goes on as usual, and covid-19 is just a temporary inconvenience.

Perhaps, new drugs development (antivirals, steroids) will move faster than vaccine development, and help make real progress in the fight against the virus.

Perhaps, before  borrowing money to release 'loan programs' and 'rescue funds', the government could advise people to return to basics;  the decadent world of the pre-covid era,  might never come back.

The new world might be one of isolation, including touristic isolation. North Korea, a small, isolated country, has just made it known to the world that there has  been not even one single case of coronavirus infection there.

We don't know things for sure yet, but we have to be mentally prepared for the possible reality of no physical schools, restaurants, culture halls etc.. and reorganize our life the best  we can under the circumstances.

Sadly, it seems that politicians and vaccine developers will nevertheless be dragging us into the abyss, creating chaos on the way.