Niccolo Machiavelli is rightly held by most to be he father of modernity. He said, "I depart from the orders of others", meaning that he was going to gvie the world something worse. Machiavelli was a political philosopher and his view of human nature applied to his prescription in his politicl philosophy.
Machiavelli's name became synonymous with duplicity and ruthlessness. He took his intellectual lights from the ancients in philosophy. His most famous influence was Polybius who argued that Rome had defeated Greece because it had the intelligence to usereligion "for the sake of the many", that is, to control the foolish masses. " Since the masses of people are not wise, but instead trivial "full of unreasoned passion, irrational desire, and violent spirit," the Roman elite realized that the only way to control themwas by 'invisible terrors".
Machiavelli wrote his book The Prince advised, "A Prince, if he is to be an effective ruler, must learn the art of duplicity, presenting a moral and religious exterior, but, in regard to his true beliefs and actions, must do whatever is necessary for him to conquer and maintain power, once they are his. He must not shy away from doing actions and contrary to accepted morality for "it is necessary to a prince, if he wants to maintain himself, to learn .....not to be good, and to use this and not use it according to necessity." Rather than refraining from actions out of fear of being caught, an effective prince must "know well how....to be a great pretender and dissembler." And so it is NOT necessary for a prince to have the qualities of being merciful, faithful, humane, honest, and religious, but it is indeed necessary to APPEAR to have them.
He counceled duplicity was a political necessity.
I will stop here, except to say.....
Think Obama.
Think the democrats,
Think how our government is run.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Saul Alinsky wrote his books essentially updating Machiavelli’s “The Prince” for a modern audience.
The Rubicon has been crossed.