Posted on 08/04/2007 3:03:50 PM PDT by jongaltsr
Everyone who has seriously studied the works of Machiavelli agrees that he believed in the superiority of a Republican form of government, defined as a mixed constitution with elements of monarchy (President), aristocracy (Senate, Congress plus others), and notably democracy for the common man.
After purchasing this program to study I have a better understanding of what is working right and what is going wrong in our country.
Some of the major points are that any successful Republics must control taxes as people who are over taxed are not easy to control. A well-governed people pay little in the way of taxes. They must also be safe on the streets and home. Bad people have to be dealt with in the harshest manner or people do not have faith in their leaders. Treat your enemies in the cruelest ways. The most stable countries are those that treat their enemies in this manner, yet treat their citizens with strict but fair and evenhanded rights and freedoms. Let people vent their anger in public.
I have always felt the Maciaveli was misunderstood but I never completely understood to what degree until getting this program course. Open your mind and set yourself free. Maciaveli had it right. Learned minds fear his ideas because they have agendas, which are counter productive to our freedoms and liberties.
One statement which says it all is this - Religion is useful for what methods are available to keep people focused, secure, organized? Religion provides structure to mens lives beyond laws and politics. Religion gives people a moral basis to live happy and procuctive lives. It controls peoples excesses and prevents mob mentality. Also leaders should be Religious as that guides the masses in proper conduct.
- AND HERE IS THE MAIN Point - If you have morals and religion you can get the guns and materials to defend yourself. Where this religion and arms are needed they can be introduced. If, on the other hand you have no religion it is with great dificulty that guns can be introduced.
Remember this - Corrupted people can not live free. A free state creates enemies. It threatens those that are not free thusly reation of a free state could greatly threaten security.
So if you are a Prince, is it better to be loved or hated?
The great defect in our representative government is the committee system. Congressmen are elected to represent the people, but in order to gain the ability to get anything done, they have to, instead, represent committee chairs. There must be better way to manage legislative branches.
Hated you damn fool!
(if you know what I mean).
0f course it is best to be very stict but fair.
0f course it is best to be very stict but fair.
Neither. As a Prince, it is best to be feared; which in the cultured sense, meant to be respected.
“love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”
Not hate, but fear....pretty close to the same.
Thanks for thread. We can learn a lot from Nicollo, we need more Machiavellis and fewer Dick Morrises who is a False Prince (or Faux Prince).
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1840386/posts?page=24#24
“Princely advice”
“Lessons in Life and Leadership from Machiavelli” ( Yes, Machiavelli ! )
A well-governed people pay little in the way of taxes. They must also be safe on the streets and home. Bad people have to be dealt with in the harshest manner or people do not have faith in their leaders.
Is this Machiavelli guy running for public office ???
you did not give me the option to be feared.
but your question was - to be loved or feared
- not hated for feared
One of his odder books is The Art Of War (no, not the one written by Sun Tzu). This is one of those dialogue-form treatments popular at the time that require a certain patience for the modern reader, but what one learns from it is how the military of the time functioned - Machiavelli was, at one point, Florence's minister of defense.
There was a reason they marched in the order that they did, for example, actually, a number of them, and that order differed depending on some distinct circumstances such as terrain and lines of communication, threat axis, and the commander's estimate of those balanced against his necessity to move. Any serious student of military science should read it and reflect at precisely what has changed...and what hasn't.
The Prince was a weird little volume, actually - certain commentators have gone so far as to suggest it was a satire on Machiavelli's part. It was written simultaneously with the Discourses - read together you get the sense that Machiavelli was lamenting the decadence of his own time in comparison to the ostensible virtu of the Roman Republic. Much of that applies to our own time as well.
There is a better way. Give the federal government as little to do as possible. Hand everything else over to the state and local governments and to private enterprise. Yeah, state governments are run by committee but when they screw up, they only mess up a state and not the whole country. And when they get something right, then the other states can emulate them.
They say “Camel is a horse created by a committee”.
These books are among the best ever written. All educated men should read them. I used to buy them and give copies away for select persons to read.
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