Time for Obama to Study Machiavelli and Learn to Fight (let the unrecs begin)

[depakid]

I cited Machiavelli in a post over last summer, positing that a major problem for the administration is that it's not feared- as its reticent to hold individuals and corporate entities accountable when they cross Obama (or the well established law).

I think we've seen the results of that.

Steven Pizzo now expands on this a bit:

It may have come as a shock to my "Flower Power" generation, but human nature has changed very little since the beginning of recorded history. This is especially so when it comes to war and politics. That's why Tzu Sun's 6th-century text, The Art of War is still required reading for military brass, and why Niccolo Machiavelli's 14th-century leadership handbook, The Prince is as informative today to those who wish to govern as it was five centuries ago.

Now don't get me wrong. Both these guys were about as amoral as it gets. Neither was a fan of taking prisoners, either on the physical or political fields of battle. Still each man knew his enemies. They each understood something my Marine Corps drill instructor pounded into my head way back in 1965: "If you find yourself in a fight, remember this...there's no such thing as a fair fight. There's only the fight you win or the fight you lose."

I only mention this because I'd like to suggest that President Obama, who I assume has read The Prince at some point in his academic life, curl up with the book at Camp David for a brush-up. He's in the hole he's in right now because he violated some of Machiavelli's prime-est of prime directives.

...Obama came to us preaching a "new era of bipartisanship." And, we the people, exhausted and disgusted by more than three decades of virtual political and social gridlock, longed for the same. But simply singing "Give Peace a Chance," while the enemy gins up another rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," is something Mac the Knife would find absurdly naive:

It is necessary, therefore, if we desire to discuss this matter thoroughly, to inquire whether the innovator can rely on himself or have to depend on others: that is to say, whether, to consummate their enterprise, have they to use prayers (read "hope") or they use force? In the first instance they always succeed badly, and never accomplish anything; but when they can rely on themselves and use force, then they are rarely endangered. Hence it is that all armed prophets have conquered, and the unarmed ones have been destroyed.

The Knife understood people like Obama, who come to high office with highfalutin' notions of reforming, not just government, but human nature itself. And, need I tell you, Mac had little patience for it...

...Barack Obama is not a likable guy by accident. He's gotten where he is today through a combination of awesome brain-power and a sparkling personality. As such he values likability over causing offense. Yet, at the same time, he wants to do good while in office. But, if he takes my advice and re-reads Mac's book, he'll understand that eventually he's going to have to give up one or the other:

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil...The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

Finally, there's the machinations of the enemy forces. Republicans and those invested in the status quo are not interested in being liked, or even respected. Instead they are interested in being sure nothing restricts their looting and pillaging as usual. As such they will fight dirty...oops...wait, there's no such thing as a fair fight. I almost forgot. Which explains the so-called "Tea Party" folk.

Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that deceivers will never lack victims for their deceptions.

And so there you have it. We are still, at the core, a vicious, deceitful and conniving species. And nowhere more than in the political arena. I wish it were otherwise. I wish we'd evolved beyond all this. I am sure Barack Obama wishes so as well. But if wishes came true, 50 million Americans would not be without health insurance, and bankers and Wall Streeters would be satisfied to earn millions while staying within the law and bounds of good taste.

But none of that is so. When I testified before Congress... I warned they should not repeal Glass-Steagall until someone could assure them that the laws of human nature had been repealed first. They did it anyway and, well, you know the rest of that story.

All I'm saying here is not that Obama can learn anything uplifting from Machiavelli's open-eyed advice about ruling; just that most of it still applies. He is in the hole he's in right now because he decided to pretend it didn't.

More: http://www.alternet.org/news/145753/it%27s_time_for_obama_to_study_machiavelli_and_learn_to_fight_?page=entire

[msongs]

1. to his credit he did submit his own health plan....after waiting an entire year lol. nt

[boppers]

12. Your spin has much fail.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=Obama+health+care+plan&as_ldate=2009&as_hdate=2009&ldrange=2007,2008&hdrange=2010,2010

[phleshdef]

2. Someone telling a politician that has yet to lose one political battle how they should fight...

...makes the one giving the bullshit advice sound fairly full of themselves at best.

[depakid]

3. Denial of that magnitude is of course intractable

Though one might have still expected some response based on the substance of the piece.

[sandnsea]

4. People who can't win a campaign for dogcatcher

want to tell Barack Obama how it's done.

Whatthefuckever. Some people need to learn to live.

[depakid]

5. Pizzo's one of those who got it right- repeatedly, while Democrats failed- and Machiavelli's

stood the test of time.

Guess those sorts of folks don't know much of anything- like Lakoff and Westen, and aren't to be taken seriously.

[sandnsea]

6. Win an election

Then get back to me. If these people have all the answers, why can't they get a progressive elected to anything?

Machiavelli is not just deviousness and duplicity, he preferred a mixture of reverence and adoration and the reliance on fear as a last resort.

[depakid]

7. You've forgotten Merkley already?

Here's another principle- which if applied, would have prevented current mess early on last summer.

"One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage."

[ProSense]

8. "prevented current mess early on last summer"

You mean part of the year-long process that for the first time in history produced a health care bill out of five committees and both chambers of Congress?

Things may have been messy, but compared to what? In the end, we are on the verge of historic reform.

[depakid]

9. "You mean a year long process" -yep, that and much more

that has sucked the momentum and political capital out of the administration and Congress' efforts.

See, e.g. the principle re: chaos & delay set out above.

[ProSense]

10. Ludicrous. n/t

[depakid]

13. It was ludicrous- which is ironically a sensible admission on your part

[PVnRT]

21. If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?

[boppers]

11. Fuck Gandhi and MLK, what did they ever accomplish?

:sarcasm:

[Alcibiades]

14. This article is full of FAIL

Pizzo should leave political theory to political theorists: he sucks at it.

[depakid]

15. Fail is as fail does- and this isn't a scholarly piece on political theory

Some of the comparisons do hit home though, and many of the points are undeniably salient to the processes we've seen going on.

Doesn't take a political theorist to see that-any more than it takes a lit crit type to publish new comments on previous comments criticizing or analyzing ___________ (pick a significant or academically topical original work).

[Alcibiades]

20. Sometimes you have to play the fox

"Everyone understands how praiseworthy it is for a prince to remain true to his word and to live with complete integrity without any scheming. However, we've seen through experience how many princes in our time have achieved great things who have little cared about keeping their word and have shrewdly known the skill of tricking the minds of men; these princes have overcome those whose actions were founded on honesty and integrity.

It should be understood that there are two types of fighting: one with laws and the other with force. The first is most suitable for men, the second is most suitable for beasts, but it often happens that the first is not enough, which requires that we have recourse to the second. Therefore, it is necessary for a prince to know how to act both as a man and as a beast. This was signified allegorically to princes by the ancient writers: they wrote that Achilles and many other ancient princes were given to be raised and tutored by the centaur Chiron, who took custody of them and disciplined them. This can only mean, this trainer who was half beast and half man, that a prince needs to know how to use either one or the other nature, and the one without the other will never last.

Since it is necessary for the prince to use the ways of beasts, he should imitate the fox and the lion, because the lion cannot defend himself from snares and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. Therefore, it is important to be a fox in order to understand the snares and a lion in order to terrify the wolves. Those who choose only to be a lion do not really understand. Therefore, a prudent leader will not and should not observe his promises, when such observance will work against him and when the reasons for making the promise are no longer valid. If all men were good, this precept would not be good; but since men are evil and will not keep their word with you, you shouldn't keep yours to them. Never has a prince lacked legitimate reasons to break faith. I could give you an infinite number of examples from modern times, and show you numerous peace treaties and promises that have been broken and made completely empty by the faithlessness of princes: these knew well how to use the ways of the fox, and they are the ones who succeed. But it is necessary to know how to hide this nature and to simulate a good character and to dissimulate: for the majority of men are simple and will only follow the needs of the present, so that the deceiver can always find someone he can deceive.

I'm not going to pass up a specific example from recent history. Alexander VI (1) never did or thought about anything else except deceiving people and always found some reason or other to do it. There was never a man who was better at making assurances, or more eager to offer solemn promises, or who kept them less; yet he always succeeded in his deceptions beyond his wildest dreams, because he played his role in the world so well.

Therefore, a prince doesn't need to have all the qualities mentioned earlier, but it is necessary that he appear to have them. I'll even add to this: having good qualities and always practicing them is harmful, while appearing to practice them is useful. It's good to appear to be pious, faithful, humane, honest, and religious, and it's good to be all those things; but as long as one keeps in mind that when the need arises you can and will change into the opposite. It needs to be understood that a prince, and especially a prince recently installed, cannot observe all those qualities which make men good, and it is often necessary in order to preserve the state to act contrary to faity, contrary to mercy, contrary to humaneness, and contrary to religion. And therefore he needs a spririt disposed to follow wherever the winds of fortune and the variability of affairs leads him. As I said above, it's necessary that he not depart from right but that he follow evil.

A prince must take great care never to let anything come from his mouth that is not full of the above-mentioned five qualities, and he must appear to all who see and hear him to be completely pious, completely faithful, completely honest, completely humane, and completely religious. And nothing is more important than to appear to have that last quality. Men judge more by their eyes than by their hands, because everyone can see but few can feel. Everyone can see how you appear, few can feel what you are, and these few will not dare to oppose the opinion of the multitude when it is defended by the majesty of the state. In actions of all men, especially princes, where there is no recourse to justice, the end is all that counts. A prince should only be concerned with conquering or maintaining a state, for the means will always be judged to be honorable and praiseworthy by each and every person, because the masses always follow appearances and the outcomes of affairs, and the world is nothing other than the masses. The few do not find a place wherever the masses are supported. There is a certain prince of our own time, whom it would not be wise to name, who preaches nothing except peace and faith, and yet is the greatest enemy of both; and if he had observed one or the other, he already would have lost both his reputation and his state many times over."

Understanding the Prince is the work of a lifetime and, though Machiavelli's style is aphoristic, cherrypicking a few quotes is not sufficient. The author shows himself to be beyond his depth when he urges the President, on the one hand, to make a study of Machiavelli, while cutely calling him "Mac the knife" on the other.

Barack Obama is the most naturally gifted politician the Democratic Party has seen in a generation. He understands the limits of politics in our time, and I think he will succeed in pushing them back.

[Jennicut]

16. That is great and all but shouldn't we at least try to stop being about fear?

Fear can lead to oppression and that is what Bush accomplished.

[jeanpalmer]

17. This assumes of course he's not getting

what he wants. On the contrary, he's getting just about everything he wants. He got the troops for his war. He got his deficit commission. He has derailed any prosecution of torturers, Wall Street scammers, and war criminals. He has funneled huge sums of money to Wall Street. He's close to getting what he has wanted in terms of health insurance expansion. What hasn't he gotten?

[impik]

18. This bullshit not even deserve unrec

[treestar]

19. Machiavelli was evil

Or so I thought. That he is not a model to follow.