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July 06, 2003HORSEFEATHERS DOCTRINE (CONT.)Horsefeathers believes that a realistic view of human nature is more likely to produce long term benefits for our country than a wishful utopian one. While President Bush is under relentless attack by critics intent on portraying him as a belligerent war lover, he actually shares one thing with his liberal war critics: a need to insist on our benign motives. We are not simply crushing those who would destroy us but rather, he insists somewhat defensively, bringing the benefits of freedom and democracy. Our military effort in Iraq has been characterized by extraordinary efforts to avoid civilian casualties. Call it “compassionate warfare”(see Victor Hanson)—in truth it reflects a deep and continuing desire to show a benign face, to gain, not just respect, but love. Many of Saddam’s soldiers had merely to throw away their uniforms, melt into the civilian population in order to survive, so careful were we to minimize civilian deaths. Furthermore, our post-modern military won such a clean victory, with so little carnage, that many in the Iraqi population don’t really understand that they lost! Berliners at the end of World War ll were grateful to be alive; they did not, like the residents of Baghdad, loudly protest the failure of perfection to arrive within a month. Residents of Tokyo dared not angrily demand that Americans instantly rebuild their country. They knew they had lost a war. While it’s true that many innocent civilians died, it’s also true that Germany and Japan have posed no threat to America since we conquered them. President Bush, though denounced by Democrats for being too belligerent, is in Horsefeathers’ view insufficiently clear minded about the need to utterly destroy our enemies. Niccolo Machiavelli has gotten a bum rap from history. His name has become a symbol for deviousness. In fact, Machiavelli is worth reading precisely because his view of human nature is psychologically closer to reality than the benign liberal perspective. It is a useful corrective to the wishful thinking that elevates kindly motives over realism. We know that President Bush is not a man to devote much time to literary study and we have therefore boiled Machiavelli’s writing down to the following three quotes from The Prince, which could serve him well as a guide in our continuing war on Islamo-Nazism. "It is better to be feared than loved, more prudent to be cruel than compassionate "If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared." "He who establishes a tyranny and does not kill Brutus, and he who establishes a democratic regime and does not kill the sons of Brutus, will not last long."---Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince Posted at 09:37 AM by
 
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Machiavelli, it could be said, was the precursor to utilitarianism and Social Darwinism, two powerful modern schools. I recall the Spanish saying "Piensa el ladrón que todos son de su condición"; "The thief thinks all others are just like him."
Machievelli, who cannot be known or understood without reading His Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius, owed much I believe to Thucydides in his scientific approach to history. He is certainly right that much wisdom can be achieved by careful observation of people, public affairs and the study of history and politics. He is certainly right to balance book knowledge with PERSONAL EXPERIENCE of the world and a judicious interpretation of the interplay of human nature other natural forces.
Machievelli also believes that religion, particularly the Christianity of his time, is bogus, a childish toy and a superstition. To him the greatest sin was ignorance. He believes that men and women are selfish and will always turn to evil, lust and self-gratification. Machievelli, however, appears to be writing about sexually aggressive Italian men. There is such a thing as love as hot and as false as the sailor's love. And woe to her who would forsake her constant love for the hollow lying love of the stranger of one night!
He errs, here, in my view, because while there are certainly men and women who are selfish and ambitious and sex-mad, Machievelli leaves out a very essential part of human nature, a part that helped the human species survive.
That is altruism. The altruism all adults and young children feel towards babies or abandoned kittens or puppies. The strong maternal love of the wife, which surpasses, in many instances, her love for her (sometimes) unfaithful husband.
Machievelli insists on the uniformity of humanity but men and women are quite different and MOTHERS and GRANDMOTHERS and I dare say UNCLES AND GRANDFATHERS AND BROTHERS AND SISTERS are quite different from fathers whose influence ranges from nothing except being the biological father to being a friend, a mentor and a good father.
Not all individuals are the same age and have the same appetites and are animated by the same desires and the same impulses.
Machievelli believes that the essential feature of all societies is a struggle and an intense competitiveness a virtual survival of the fittest. But then again the most noble of human endeavors are cooperative ventures. I think Colin Powell and Bush both mentioned at one time the importance of sharing credit and putting the team first. This is self-sacrifice and altruism. Well-known and moving is the saying:"Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for a friend."
Machievelli's prince advanced in power through poison, wealth and the deploying of mercenary soldiers. Mercenary soldiers are great of course when things go well and when they can overawe an unarmed populace. But as Auld Pop used to say, " a soldier will die for the Colours but not for an extra two bob a day." This Machievelli seemed to understand when the French defeated Italian mercenary armies time and time again.
Machievelli was realistic enough to realize that the armed minority was the true masters of the unarmed majored. The despotic features of the Prince have, perhaps, overshadowed an important dimension of Machievelli's thought. Machievelli believed that unity in Italy might be achieved if the people awoke to their heritage of classical republican liberty.
Ours is one of the few species in which old woman were honored, loved and protected. It is not well-known but in the memory of my own mother, Islanders in their 80's were still breast-feeding the infants of the Isles as they had for the sixty years previous. Love, friendship gentleness and generosity can be cultivated if people experience what the Spanish call CONVIVIENCIA, having a life in common." 'Tis not good to live too far apart from the milch-cows of your grandparents; 'tis not good to be raised without the love and guidance of many elders." Without having a life in common, without getting to know others in our family and outside our family circle, love and understanding and ultimately peaceful coexistence are impossible. There can be no love between cousins who never see each other except for brief, uncomfortable visits. Take a child away, as James VI was taken away from Mary Queen of Scots and there will be no filial love at all to a person who was a stranger, depicted to him as an adulteress and murderess. The motherless child, like the fatherless child will have many faults but these will not be faults of nature but faults of nurture. Think of the Nazi Lebensborn monstrosity. The blood is strong, of course, but the teaching is strong as well and a child without a proper upbringing is surely at risk. The manners of the folk one lives among will be followed. In other words he who herds with wolves will howl!
The Prince, his only work commonly read today, dealt with the activities of an individual ruler. The Discourses considers the elements that led to the rise and ultimate success of the Roman Republic. In the Discourses, Machievelli, in fact, he notes "a multitude is more easily governed by humanity and gentleness than by haughtiness and cruelty." He also anticipated Gibbon by romanticizing the civic religion and virtue as the basis of strength for the Roman Republic (while underestimating the brutal edge and growing addiction to wars of conquest and slaving). For Machievelli, patriotism and civic virtue instilled bravery and upheld the common good. But the Roman vitality was corrupted and undermined by the arrival of the debilitating, pacifistic, equalitarian doctrines of Jesus. Machievelli, as an aristocratic male, preferred the classical Roman ethic. Machievelli, it is clear in the Discourses, had a sincere preference for limited constitutional government. However, he seemed to be unable to detect flaws in the marvelous structure of the Roman constitution. Power seemed to check power. The gradual extension of suffrage seemed to be advancing the cause of liberty. But the curse which brought about the destruction of the Republic and the corruption of the Roman family was the necessary condition of perpetual war and economy based on expropriation of alien wealth, slaving and a slave based latifundia that ultimately pauperized and demoralized the average Roman farmer. To me it seems that the central idea of Machievelli is that state power is not bound by moral law. Caesar is the law and his power is absolute. There is no unwritten law, custom has no authority neither has religion all is the oligarchy of jurists who admit no moral code that is not of its own making. Man is the measure of all things not God. There is no higher law, there is no natural law. Of course the danger of this is that those without the currency of the empire, the legitimate papers of the empire and the language of the empire will have no rights that an all-powerful state need respect. We should, instead, render only to Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's. When should, above all, be God-fearing, we should "dread God and obey his commandments". There is a time for meat and a time for prayer. There are no thousand year Reichs, there are no master races.
Is gearr gach reachd ach riaghailt Dhe, goes the old Highland saying, short-lived is all rule but the reign of God.
I believe by the way that the old Scottish name for the devil, "Old Nick" is an abbreviation of Machievelli's first name.
Posted by: Ricardo Munro on July 6, 2003 10:46 PM:"Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for a friend."
We all admire and praise the brave man who dies. At the same time pray we never become him. Altruism is a crock, a ruse to get your neighbor to do what is best for you.
Cooperation makes sense, as both parties benefit. But working toward your detriment, whether it is for the benefit of others, or not, is not that good an idea.
No one lays down his life. They go kicking and screaming. No one wants to die, all folks want to live and be happy. Sometimes altruistic actions will do that. But as a moral philosophy, altruism is a death cult idea, the beginnings of tyranny.
Posted by: Ben on July 10, 2003 09:45 AM"No one lays down his life. They go kicking and screaming. No one wants to die, all folks want to live and be happy."
If that were true the USA wouldn't exist and neither would Israel or Scotland to name a few examples. Sure I want to live but I want my FAMILY and COUNTRY TO LIVE FREE, PROSPEROUS AND HAPPY so I would sacrifice for them as I have made many sacrifices for them already.
It is obvious to me that this gentleman has never served in a Highland regiment or in a Marine Batallion. A comrade in arms loves his fellows, loves his batallion and loves his country. He knows there are things bigger than his small life and he would be ashamed to think only of his own life. In any case the soldier or Marine soon learns that SURVIVING DEPENDS on sacrificing for the team. The individualist doesn't last long. You have to have someone to watch your back and cover you when you need it.
I have a Japanese Naval Lieutenant's samurai sword captured by the US Marines at Henderson Field in Guadalcanal. The officer who captured it and 99% of the men in his company sacrificed their lives just to buy a few minutes for their water cooled .50 cal to cool off so that the could finish what was left of 1000 Japanese Marines. He bought that time but was cut down with three squads of Marines but the last squad finished off the enemy. Guadalcanal was a turning point in WWII. That was important that was altruism and those men sacrificed for the common good and freedom not tyranny.
Now you are right to be concerned about a cult of death, and perhaps in certain elite soldiers or warriors there is a touch of the Spartan cult of death or at least the realization that life is short anyway and death is not something to fear and being willing to spend your own life is a very, very powerful weapon.
If I had to choose between my death and the death of my children or students I would not hesitate to sacrifice or risk my life to save a younger, weaker person. Just the other day an entire family was murdered in our community including three small children. Sure I was glad it was not my family but the first thing I thought of where was the father? If an intruder broke into my house - I would do my best to save my family and the reality is that to save my family might mean two things
1) I would have to kill the intruder
2) fight to delay them so that others could escape.
It would be the same if the "intruder" were fire. I would have to stop the fire or delay so everyone could get out.
In the case I mentioned there was no father in the home and in fact the estranged father is one of the suspects. Sure there are people like that but people like that did not build this country. This country was built by hard working individuals yes but by organized activity and by group effort.
I have faced death many times and in a crisis I just don't think about it. The truth is I fear others things far more than I fear death.
Death is coming anyway to you and to me. But I suppose you want to live forever. I know I won't live forever and I thank God every day for the gift of another day of health.
Sure I have worked hard to have a comfortable life but I must say I have had enough luck and happiness in my life that if I died tomorrow I could say my life was not wasted.
I have faced death many times and in a crisis I just don't think about it. The truth is I fear others things far more than I fear death.
Posted by: Ricardo Munro on July 11, 2003 04:46 AM