May 17, 2008
More on Machiavelli
[Update1 - Lawrence Ludlow also reminded me of his informative piece on Machiavelli at the FFF site.]
While I was only pointing out a wine that I thought was both charming and marginally related to the topics discussed on this blog, a reader has taken things up a notch: Thanks to reader KT for pointing out this interesting article on Machiavelli. Garrett Mattingly makes the case that The Prince is really a subtle satire on the rulers of the day. Thus, Machiavelli is really a sympathetic partisan of liberty rather than an opportunistic cynic.
This could very well be. I must admit I've never been quite comfortable with the fact that The Prince is so totally opposed to Machiavelli's principles as put forward by the Discourses. According to Mattingly, The Prince is also pretty much the antithesis of everything else Machiavelli had written.
So then, it may be that Machiavelli gets a bad rap and that he's actually a master of irony. I'm not a Machiavelli expert, so I've just always uncritically accepted the predominant orthodox view (number 1 below), but Mattingly makes a compelling case.
The problem is to explain why The Prince is so unlike the Discourses (and apprently everything else M. wrote). The only explanations possible that come to mind at the moment are:
1. Machiavelli really believed what he wrote in The Prince and this was because he was disenchanted by the violence he had seen in Italy since he wrote the Discourses. He therefore abandoned the Discourses and made The Prince his new orthodoxy. (This is the version of events put forward by every introduction to The Prince I've read.)This theory, if correct, would make Machiavelli honest and brilliant, but deeply in error about what constitutes good government.
2. Machiavelli did not believe what he wrote in The Prince but was trying to ingratiate himself with certain ruling parties within Florence. This theory, if true would make Machiavelli a dishonest and opportunistic cynic.
3. Machiavelli intended The Prince as an extremely subtle indictment of the rulers of his time. Specifically, he is subtly excoriating the Borgias in the subtext, while he is praising them in the text.
If Mattingly's article is true, it wouldn't be the first time that we've all missed the irony of something. Amazingly, there is still a debate over whether or not Thomas More's Utopia is meant ironically or not, although the irony seems pretty obvious to me.
Nevertheless, some people still make the case that More was really a secret communist. I'm not sure about that, but it could certainly be that the official political science texts are all wrong about Machiavelli.
Obama is a nutcase!
He just said:
*If India and China's "carbon footprint gets as big as ours, we're gone."
*He derisively referred to "eating as much as we want" as if he will put a stop to this liberty! Scary man!
*Then he referred to our consumption of the 25% of the "world's energy" like a good socialist would.
I think we're beginning to hear what a loon he is now that the media has told him he owns the nomination.
Obama is the not so great unknown the media is foisting upon us by their total lack of scrutiny of the man and his wacky platform.
Did you know he tried to funnel one million in tax money to his wife’s employer?
Billboards and Highway Safety
Lew: The double-standard exhibited by the highway-beautification censors was evident from the start. No information promoting private businesses was allowed - information that would have been useful to both the driving public and business firms - but plenty of information promoting the state was (e.g., "this highway constructed during the administration of Governor Blotto" or "buckle up: it's the law"). But what has generally been overlooked in all of this is the role that billboards have played in fostering highway safety. Billboards are designed to attract the attention of motorists, a quality that encourages alertness. In my youth, there were few driving experiences as entertaining as awaiting the next batch of Burma-Shave signs (for those who have not seen them, these have long been regarded as the most imaginative form of advertising). By having their minds focused on one sign after another, drivers' minds remained attentive. Contrast this with the mile after mile of seemingly endless monotony on the Interstate. The drive from Atlanta to Auburn is unbearably boring, with nothing but a continuous pattern of uniform trees to break the tedium. A highway with no unique forms of visual stimulation is enough to put any motorist to sleep!
Take That, Lady Bird
Every "First Lady" has to have a statist cause. In the case of the wife of the murdering, thieving LBJ, it was a campaign to "beautify" American by demolishing billboards. Forgive me, but business ads are far more interesting and useful to the driver than endless trees. Tragically, she largely succeeded. So I am doubly honored by this:
Writes Chip Gracey: "I thought you might like to see this billboard on Highway 99 just south of Los Molinos, California.
"I thought for a long time about a message that could help our country. I came to the conclusion that what is really needed is education, and almost nothing educates as well as your site does. So, I made an ad for it. The billboard is located in a very conservative, albeit modest, area. Thanks for running a great site. It is my favorite place on the internet." Chris, thank you!
'We've Been Neoconned'
This classic speech by Ron Paul explains the most fanatical and dangerous ideological groupling in the US foreign policy "community." Interested in the bloodthirsty bunch that agitated for war in Irag, and now wants war in Iran, Syria, and many other poor, third-world nations? Watch it. (Thanks to Anthony Ajamian.)
Dub-Yuh Grovels Before Arab Dictator
The Decider-in-Chief was in Saudi Arabia yesterday grovelling and begging the country's dictator to produce more oil. The word on the street is that Dub-Yuh will never work up the courage to pay a similar visit to the Washington, D.C. lobbying offices of the Sierra Club to ask it to stop its opposition to oil drilling in the outercontinental shelf and Alaska. That would be expecting way too much testosterone, even for a swashbuckling "Texan".
"Bring 'em on," he said to the terrists. "Please don't criticize me; waaaaaaaaah," he says to the environmentalists.
Is Ron Paul a Blue Meanie?
Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times political blog thinks Ron has a "mean, vicious, cruel, and uncaring" side for being the only congressman to vote no on a resolution telling Myranmar what to do, but yes on resolutions congratulating US football teams. Now, as an anarchist, I think all this is silly or evil or both, but constitutionally, the internal affairs of Myranmar are none of the congress's business, while American goings-on are. BTW, notice how almost everyone seems to think the US state -- that humanitarian with WMD -- is some sort of charitable enterprise, rather than an imperial regime scheming for global and domestic power. All hail Ron Paul for being the one member of congress to understand this, and to have the courage to do the right thing on these seemingly harmless -- to the LA Times, anyway -- resolutions of potential armed meddling.
One good thing about Machiavelli...
Is the wine named after him.
Otherwise, Niccoló was pretty much a hypocrite, an opportunist, and a scumbag who has inspired petty tyrants for generations.
This wine however, is obviously a must drink for any political scientist. Like many Americans, I know nothing about wine, so I buy it based on the novelty or charm of the label. This was no exception, although I was pleased with the result.
I'm not a foodie or a wine enthusiast, but I was able to figure out that this is basically a cabernet that certainly was better than the swill wine I usually drink.
I bought this in Machiavelli's sometime home town of Florence where they apparenly have a higher opinion of him than I do.
