Machiavellian thoughts

After reading through this and sitting myself outside for a smoke to contemplate.
Not contemplating anything in particular just contemplating because I can and no one can stop me.
Leading as much to wondering whether or not any of our current world leaders have read any Machiavelli. Of course listening to Janis Joplin and a bit of Marley while doing this probably wasn’t helping at all.
However at one point in “The Prince” by Machiavelli he goes to examine whether or not it is better for a leader to be loved or feared.

“… the prince should make himself feared in such a way that, even if he is not loved, he avoids being hated, since being feared and not hated can easily go together…If he should need to take anyone’s life, he should do it when there is a suitable justification and a demonstrable cause…With executions it is the opposite, reasons are more exceptional and less numerous.”

Who is it possibly that our “Leader of the Free World” in particular has decided to make himself an image of? Caligula? At least we can be happy that Mr Bush doesn’t have a sister called Drusilla. Lenin? We can already see various traits of similarity with Lenin in may areas that he is bringing in, not quite the Bolshevik dictatorship but looking on a broad spectrum at policies and ideas that have been and are being proposed it is not such a far cry from it.
As for Howard, well I don’t think anyone has seen whining like this since Schuschnigg and the German “invasion” of Austria in 1936. Only difference with this is instead of Schuschnigg actually trying to halt the movement of Germany into Austria he forgot one important thing. The Austrian people and what they wanted. So he jumped on a plane to Berchtesgaden (I hear that Eva was very fond of running around there in swimmers and little skirts. Seriously.) in the attempt to suck back up to Hitler and tell him that no he wasn’t really trying to stand up for himself and his country by holding a referendum. Hitler’s response whilst historically noted is a bit boring. I much prefer my own interpretation of it. Being that he laughed in his face, threw him out and marched on Austria.
All in all I have to say I find it all quite disturbing and wonder what will happen when it actually comes to a time that someone in Australia actually does something for us instead of currying favour with someone else.

With a smile as I finished my smoke outside I started thinking of something someone wrote that gave me a good condescending smile that I could bring inside with me. So I thought I’d drag it out and share it, because damn I like it.

“ For thousands of years, human beings had screws up and trashed and crapped on this planet, and now history expected me to clean up after everyone. I have to wash out and flatten my soup cans. And account for every drop of used motor oil.
And I have to foot the bill for nuclear waste and buried gasoline tanks and landfilled toxic sludge dumped a generation before I was born.
I held the face of mister angel like a baby or a football in the crook of my arm and bashed him with my knuckles, bashed him until his teeth broke through his lips. Bashed him with my elbow after that until he fell through my arms into a heap at my feet. Until the skin was pounded thin across his cheekbones and turned black.
I wanted to breathe smoke.
Birds and deer are a silly luxury, and all the fish should be floating.
I wanted to burn the Louvre. I’d do the Elgin Marble with a sledgehammer and wipe my arse with the Mona Lisa. This is my world, now.
This is my world, my world, and those ancient people are dead.”

Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club

How much of everything now is our world?
Are we looking at it as James Bovey did in 1642 as he cites Machiavelli as a blameless observer of the evils of others, and goes onward to lay blame to Mahiavelli for a measure of the corruption of the rule of Charles I?
I suppose it comes down to what we are willing to be aware of and how that in itself is used.
My personal thought result after having this very relieving vent is that perhaps it has been to long since theres been a good revolution.