Posted on 05/20/2019 1:38:40 AM PDT by Jacquerie
The typical characterization of Niccolo’ Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) today is that of a cold advocate of raw force from which his devious students, petty princes in small kingdoms, kept themselves in power through treachery and fear. These are not the positive lessons that carried over from the Renaissance and down through The Enlightenment to the American Revolution. If anything, The Prince illustrated the consequences of lost liberty, the final corruption of a people too ignorant or frightened to preserve themselves. Alternatively, in Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli studied the long-lived Roman Republic and how the people kept their freedom for so long in the face of always-encroaching corruption. He found that the form and composition of governing institutions and religion share a place in keeping liberty.
Since corruption of government by its members soon drifts downward to the people, Machiavelli surveyed society’s options. When should it peacefully reform its institutions? When must it rise up in revolution? Perhaps it can rely on a single man to dispatch the corruption and leave behind stronger foundations capable of better-resisting corruption.
Going further, the historian J.G.A. Pocock suggests that Machiavelli emphasized the moment when a republic confronts the problem of its instability and imminent dive into despotism.1 He calls this the "Machiavellian Moment." At a Machiavellian Moment the community is at a crossroads; what should it do?
[snip]
America was, without doubt, at a Machiavellian Moment on November 8th 2016. Enough people recognized the absence of all Constitutional restraint over the previous eight years and put their trust in a non-politician, a real-estate mogul and an unabashed patriot. Donald Trump recognized the US was at a dangerous corrupt phase and that the Deep State Swamp, rather than republican institutions, was on the verge of rule.
(Excerpt) Read more at articlevblog.com ...
Bump
Very good analysis.
Thanks for posting. This is excellent political analysis. And also why any thinking person should vote only for Republicans at any level of government and try to talk all their friends unto doing the same.
I used to think it went too far to call Democrats the party of evil but now, after what we’ve learned, I know it to be true. If someone is a Democrat they are one of two things: ignorant or corrupt.
In the dictionary, Democrat falls right between delusional and demonic.
“ignorant or corrupt”
Exactamundo
It’s ‘’exactamente’’.
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