Machiavelli and the Mullahs

American Thinker ^ | March 01, 2007 | David J. Rusin

[Tolik]

Very Interesting!

This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for the perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author all 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention. You can see the list of articles I pinged to lately  on  my page.
You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about). Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.  

[elfman2]

bookmark for later...

[Edgerunner]

good read

[dennisw]

The author is obviously very high IQ. The internet now allows such people to disseminate powerful essays that dwarf what comes from the punditocracy, TV talking heads, the mediocre minds on your typical newspaper editorial/op-ed page. This man should be advising George Bush

[Tolik]

Yes, he should. I might be wrong, but I have an impression that a choice of advisers for Bush is very accidental: whoever he happened to like. We were lucky with some, and unlucky with others (especially with his dad's old guard creeping in lately).

Correct me if I am wrong, the word "machiavellian" became so negative, that it probably a taboo to admit using any of his wisdom at all.

[sheik yerbouty]

You are dead on..

[dagogo redux]

A great mind, and very pertinent writings. Thanks for posting.

[gonzo]

"...The day is fast approaching when the use of force against Tehran's nuclear infrastructure may be the lesser of two remaining evils..."

That day is upon the USA now! To delay only allows the enemy to grow stronger.

David Rusin really nailed it with his observations. Let us pray that President Bush is aware, and is strong enough to act decisively! Thanks ........... FRegards

[Blind Eye Jones]

The closest thing Bush has done in accordance with Machiavelli, who respected the Romans, was to appoint General Patraeus in charge of the army in Iraq -- the general does have a Roman sounding name.

[rogue yam]

Ping to read later.

[Billthedrill]

It should be remembered that Machiavelli was a fierce defender of the Florentine republic, which is what got him in trouble with the Medici to begin with. I think it is even more illustrative to examine the nascent Iraqi government with regard to the principles set forth in the Discourses if you really want to know what Machiavelli thought about the formation, maintenance, and defense of representative governments in general.

I'll bring up only one example to keep this post from being unreadable, because this is a huge study of practical politics whose outcome is very much in doubt at the moment. Machiavelli was a defender of faction as a source of strength of such government, which is contrary to nearly all contemporary political theorists and most of them since his day. Gibbon, for one, felt that it caused the downfall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Caesars. Machiavelli did not. And what we hear mostly these days with respect to U.S. domestic politics as well is a plea for bipartisamship, for unity, for solidarity, for everyone on the same page. In the Discourses Machiavelli was very blunt that not only was this unattainable in a practical representative government, it was undesirable, an opinion as controversial in his day as it is now. One is tempted to dismiss this as impossibly fissiparous until one recognizes that the fellow was speaking from experience and not merely from theory.

These are deep waters - there does not appear to be any particular benchmark, to use modern terminology, that dictates the limits of faction as a positive force because so few people tend to think of it that way.

[livius]

faction as a positive force

Interesting thought, thank you.

[Pietro]

ping

[Jacquerie]

I only recently read "The Prince". Unlike Hayek and so many other great intellectual authors, Machiavelli in The Prince reads something like Hemmingway in that the prose is simple yet very powerful. Every executive, especially Presidents should know its principles.

Off topic opinion, the Hildebeast has memorized The Prince.

[AZLiberty]

7-day program to encourage Iranian cooperation:

• Day 1: Send an unarmed ICBM from North Dakota to Iran, splashing into this pretty little lake in downtown Tehran.
• Day 2: Explain what happened, warn that the next one won't be unarmed, and explain what Tehran must do to prevent the next one.
• Day 7: If necessary, send the next one.

[Tolik]

The book is free online, btw: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1232

[GOPJ]

Please add me to your ping list. Thanks.

[happygrl]

Delaying war is immoral if doing so ensures greater suffering and peril down the line.

This has been my credo since 9-11.

No war is predictable or controllable, but better to have a smaller war now than a Nuclear Exchange later.

While I'm at it, Pakistan is going to have to be severely slammed, to the point of not functioning, before this is over.

They are on the top of the list of dangerous nations.

[neverdem]

The ayatollahs, imams and mullahs could use the tender mercies of Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin as the attending physician, IMHO. Thanks for posting. I was ready to post it.