In his prolifically and ridiculously quoted “The Art of War,” Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu is alleged to have said (some disagree) that “to know your enemy, you must become your enemy.”

In my reclining years, I must admit that I seldom muse over the Chinese philosophers. But I was forced into that venue during my traditional evening viewing of “Around the Horn,” which is the ESPN warm-up to my show of shows, “Pardon the Interruption,” starring my hero Tony Kornheiser and some unnamed accomplice.

In this presentation, someone – it could have been Woody Paige of the Denver Post – attacked our friend Jackie MacMullan of the Boston Globe in particular and Boston sports fans in general for being “arrogant.”

As my pal Bobby Burns would say, “O wad some Power the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us!”

We have been raised from short pants to recognize and despise all New York Yankee fans for their traditional “arrogance.” Now that the Red Sox, Patriots, even the Celtics and yes, the Revolution (soccer team) are tearing their leagues apart, what have we become?

I, for one, expect to sit by my Sharp 32-inch Aquos for the rest of the winter and watch the Patriots walk through an undefeated regular season, then dispatch all comers in the playoffs for another Super Bowl championship.

After that, I expect to head for the welcoming climes of Florida right after the Super Bowl and sit behind third base for spring training games that will form another World Series Red Sox team.

Why not? Who is better? This, from a team which once lost all-stars Carlton Fisk, Freddie Lynn and Rick Burleson to contract disputes and actually paid Dick Stuart to play first base. Now they are loaded with miraculous rookies like Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury, with no end in sight.

This is too good to be true. Is this the Apocalypse?

I must admit a level of discomfort over all these successes after decades of sorrow from all of these teams. We became lovable (some of us) losers, kind of like the Chicago Cubs fans are now.

When the San Diego Chargers blasted our Patriots in the 1963 AFL title game (54-10) and the big, bad Chicago Bears trounced the Pats (a mere 46-10) in the 1986 Super Bowl, we took it as our lot.

We are Calvinist New Englanders. We welcome suffering like we welcome our long winters.

After all the Patriots were run on a shoestring by an Irishman with one shoe. The team never had a real home and played their games in Fenway Park, Harvard Stadium, even the Boston University Field. They once hauled a beer-swilling fan out of the stands and put him in the game. Their draft choices centered around Boston College and New England schools to keep the price down.

Now look. They have a model stadium and have to be the best drafting team in football. Sunday night’s trouncing of the Buffalo Bills was actually boring; I fell asleep at halftime. Adding wide receiver Randy Moss to an already good team was like adding Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees. Overkill.

Where is the drama? The only question is the point spread in the Super Bowl.

And now even the doormat Celtics were flirting with an undefeated season themselves for a few weeks. I must admit my viewing has been limited to the ESPN highlights, but I may catch a few games once the Patriots are done and crowned. We expect the Celtics to be in the NBA finals and possibly win it all.

Of course, I have never watched a soccer game and never will, unless Mia Hamm comes back. But they tell me that the New England Revolution has reached the championship game four times and lost every one.

Now, that’s more like it.

Like our man Sun Tzu warned us, if this unprecedented success keeps up, we could become as obnoxious and arrogant as our old (and fading) enemies, those Yankee fans.

Nah. Never.

Not while we have the Revolution around – and Maine winters.

Send complaints and compliments to Emmet Meara at emmetmeara@msn.com.