On the other hand, the ‘scientific’ school sought to organize order out of apparent chaos by agency of the Book (or, rather, a plethora of Books). This was, writ large, the old military preoccupation with ensuring an acceptable minimum level of performance by enforcing procedures which unavoidably suppress the maximum level. It militated towards the adoption of one-dimensional ‘material’ evaluations of tactical problems, and tended to overrate the enemy’s strength, for, while he would be credited with his full ‘on-paper’ assets, one’s own circumstantial handicaps were usually too obvious to
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