Come si dice "Realpolitik"?

The Prince and Selected Discourses by Niccolo Machiavelli; Philosophy; +5; The Prince at BrothersJudd

The Prince is a dense read.

The Discourses are a lot more fun. They're little fun-size candy bar versions of the same basic ideas expressed in The Prince. So, yes, they cover the same general territory, but they're fun-sized. Also, they resemble candy bars. Much more pleasant.

Machiavelli's repuation as a heartless arse is really so undeserved. It's not, however, surprising. He's relentlessly blunt. He doesn't mince words, he doesn't pretend that politics is idealistic, or that politicians (statesmen, princes, whatever tickles your pickle) are altruistic. Even in an age when we are constantly reminded that these are basic facts of life, his writing is like a series of slaps to the face.

Both The Prince and The Discourses are written as advice to statesmen, but they read as explicit warnings to the people. Do not trust your government. The state does not care about you. You are a pawn. The object of the statesmen is to protect himself; the object of the state is to perpetuate itself. All things we pretty much know, but to be reminded of them in the blunt, realistic terms of a man telling the rulers how to defend themselves, enrich their states, and manipulate their people, they sound particularly chilling.

It's not shocking that he's been vilified as the originator of underhanded, manipulative politics; a sort of demonic precursor to Ludwig August von Rochau and his realpolitik. But that's not really fair. The real villains are... well... us. Humans in general; the politicians who behave so badly, and the people who have spent millenia studiously allowing them to do so. All Niccolo, and later Ludwig, did was to record faithfully the modes and functions of the real world.

But, in another lesson from Niccolo: tough titties. Them's the breaks. It sucks. Get over it, get with it, and get ahead of it.