Strategy-Tactics as an Opposition between Symbol and Ornament
STRATEGY
A distinctive feature of the strategic pole is the presence in the subject’s life of a single drive that dominates everything else, a single main goal whose alluring and desired image is stripped of extraneous details and takes on the simple and concise form of a SYMBOL. This symbol contains the subject’s entire life, their entire essence; it contains what they passionately wish to obtain and realize.
If the person before us is an irrational sensing type, their drive takes on a distinctly hedonistic form, and the ultimate image lies in the realm of bodily pleasures. If, however, this is a rational intuitive type, the image takes the form of an idea of the desired arrangement of the future; the path to such an image lies through asceticism and self-restraint, through avoiding the consumption of what has been set aside for the future.
If the strategist is a decisive extravert, the symbol of their life is a symbol of struggle, overcoming, and final victory, of triumph over rivals. If, however, the strategist is a judicious introvert, the image that warms their soul is a symbol of peace, not war, an image of an ideal world (large or small - it does not really matter) where they will be able to assuage their sorrows without thinking any more about the need to fight with competitors over their piece of bread.
TACTICS
In contrast to strategists, tacticians do not focus on a single goal but distribute their attention across an ever-increasing number of different goals. Combining elements of play and everyday life, tactics turns life into a decorative ORNAMENT in which the essence and meaning of what is happening are completely concealed behind a succession of ever-new details. Outlandish attire (instead of bodily simplicity), complex dances (sublimating sexual desire and aggression), painted patterns in church decoration and architectural stylization in general (instead of functionalism), calligraphy and the art of postcards, the creative design of interiors and urban landscapes, and so on - in all of this, the unbridled imagination of those with intuition as their leading function intertwines with the tendency toward meticulous, detailed working of the material among those with intuition as their vulnerable function.
On the other hand, ornamentality is characteristic both of decisive introverts (in whom it carries an element of camouflage, of concealing their true intentions from a hostile world) and of judicious extraverts (in whom it is a consequence of disclosing in full detail the intentions of all those involved, which promotes trust within groups of friends).