1. cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, esp. in politics or in advancing one's career.
2. of or relating to Niccolò Machiavelli.
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Machiavelli is known as the father of modern politics and even, by extent, the father of modernism.
In his most famous book, The Prince, Machiavelli argues that in order to be successful as a ruler, one must posses the ability to be both good and evil. A prince has to be able to do what his subjects will consider evil in order to not only maintain order, but to gain further power.
What was so revolutional about this doctrine was that, prior to its wide-spread publishing, the main political doctrines at the time were either based off the ideals of the classical philosophers or of Christian thinkers. Although the two had their substantial differences, both had a focus not on the temporal world, but on an eternal world beyond this one.
Socrates in Plato's Republic taught to look for the good, true and beautiful which rested in an eternal realm outside of this Earth. Jesus, his apostles and famous church leaders such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas focused on the Kingdom of God, a perfect city that has not yet fully come into this world, but by Jesus' death, resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit a connection has been made between Earth and Heaven. In this way, humanity can be redeemed and restored from its fallen state in a fallen world.
All western politics in Machiavelli's day had been influenced by the focal point of the eternal, but Machiavelli urged princes to ignore this doctrine and instead focus on the factual and the things that we can perceive. It was this idea that exploded in the western world and led to the culture we live in today. He started a way of thinking that influenced a wave of philosophy and political ideologies that have defined and shaped our modern way of life.
Our society is so focused on this world and using what we can find and utilize in order to accomplish our own goals. We live in a rights-focused culture that instead of asking how we can live for the benefit of our communities or of the world as a whole, we instead focus on how we can get what is owed to us and how we can benefit ourselves.
Machiavelli's doctrine also instructed how princes and rulers can be evil and get away with it. Basically, he encouraged a prince to look virtuous so that he would be supported by his people, all the while maintaining the ability to to be wicked. In this way, a prince can achieve power, hold onto it and be able to gain even more power, all the while appearing as an upstanding, righteous ruler who only wants to benefit his principality. In this way, Machiavellianism is almost the opposite of an aristeia as it is not a character's one moment to stand out, but a lifetime of conniving and manipulating which is intended for no one to ever see.
Thus, I can't list any machiavellians because the best machiavellians were never found out! I can only list the ones who failed to hide their fiendish nature and thus revealed their devious plans.
Hitler was a Machiavellian in that he convinced the general German population that he was making them a stronger and more advanced nation, all the while brutally killing a vast number of its population. He tired to pass himself off as a virtuous German who only wanted the best for his country, which worked for a little while as he was able to keep most of his regime convinced that what he was doing was just and right.
There are also a great many Machiavellians in literature and movies as well.
The Prince in Romeo and Juliet is a Machiavellian. He acts very virtuous and noble, adhering to Christian principals, yet he still sends our death warrants and threatens to execute his citizens for the sake of maintaining order.
And of course I can't forget Emperor Palpatine. He manipulates both a Republic and a separated faction to war against one another, all the while gaining more and more power and all the while appearing virtuous to the republic and trustworthy to the Separatists.
However, in each of these instances, the "prince" fails and either he or some innocent subjects are killed and the reality of his character is brought to light.
The only thing I have left to say is that obviously being a Machiavellian is bad, but I know that I too am guilty of trying to manipulate circumstances for my own benefit. And I've tried to appear good at times where I've had very conceited ideas in mind. As followers of Christ, we need to imitate him and live our lives for the benefit of others and of God. And, in contrast to all these evil dudes above, that seems like kind of a given, but it's not easy and we need to be mindful of easy it is to lose sight of what is important in the world. We also need to be aware of how much the machiavellian ideal has influenced modern society and how, in many universities today, business and political studies majors use The Prince as their Bible, aiming to imitate Machiavelli and follow his doctrine of self-serving power-grabbing.
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Hey Tim! I'm REALLY SORRY about missing Tuesday (again!) My youth ministry actually started with actual kids there, so I was simultaneously excitedly distracted and distractedly excited. Anyway, I can do another post this weekend to make up for it if you like or something to that effect.
I only have one more midterm this Saturday (it's online, which means open-book (yes!) which also means it's way harder (oh...)). This week has been going pretty well. I have some projects coming up, but there far enough away that I can keep pretending they aren't barreling towards me like a Steve rolling down a hill.
Everyday I wake up and see your happy picture of amazing biology stuff I don't understand and I become very happy! (GAMETANGIA TOUCHING!!!1 YAY!1!11)
I hope you have an amazing halloween with great costumes, lots of laughs and an obscene amount of candy (as always). I'm sorry I can't make it out, but I promise that I will post photos of my and B's costumes (which will be hilarious/amazing) and I want to see all of y'alls fantabulescent costumes!
Keep on flailing, friend and keep on being, brother.
-Clayton
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