Mocking Machiavelli

Okay, so maybe the title is a little misleading: We didn't mock Machiavelli. But it sounds cool, so I wrote it.

We did study some of The Prince in class today, and it's interesting reading it whilst under a state whose actions I tend to disagree with, instead of the opposite. For as long as I've been teaching, I've been able to study The Prince through the point of view of being in favor with most of the policies coming out of Washington. Under the Obama administration, there were a lot of areas in which Machiavelli and President Obama differed, and those areas where there were parallels were worth considering. Under President Trump, it's fascinating to see how much more is there.

For instance, we talked today about how a prince (or state) can get and maintain power. In Machiavelli's words, he says

[..I]t is necessary for [a leader of a state] to be sufficiently prudent that he may know how to avoid the reproach of those vices which would lose him his state; and also to keep himself, if it be possible, from those which would not lose him it; but this not being possible, he may with less hesitation abandon himself to them. And again, he need not make himself uneasy at incurring a reproach for those vices without which the state can only be saved with difficulty, for if everything is considered carefully, it will be found that something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin; whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity.

Much of the criticism against 45 comes, I think, from a disagreement about the morality of his choices. The current kerfuffle (to put it mildly) about the DREAM Act and the children of immigrants is often cast in the light of this administration's willingness to expel over 800,000 innocent people to countries which they do not know. When cast in this light, it doesn't seem very moral to do.

But Machiavelli says that's fine, because though it may "look like vice", so long as it brings "security and prosperity"--two cardinal promises of the Trump campaign--then these actions are beneficent. They are, in other words, justifiable.

The fact that I reject moral relativism should indicate that I'm not really down with this idea that something that looks bad is actually good, or vice versa. There's a biblical verse that talks about this somewhere...

So, yeah, I have some problems with Machiavelli. And I think that's why it's so good for me to teach it. It's less about agreeing with what he says and more trying to understand it, and to see how his philosophy affects the world. And since Machiavelli's ideas ebb and flow, it's good for me to keep his thinking handy, so I can better see where I agree--and disagree--with his concepts.