What I take from Machiavelli is The Prince read against the grain, as a positive science of power. Then I turn it upside down, and that's The Pauper.
How the word moved
From January to April 2025 he was my guide for Positive Bhumics, and I went through The Prince chapter by chapter for the Pauper commentary. By June 2025 I was saying we have to be Machiavellian about this polyconflict, in the plain sense of seeing it clearly.
In my words
"We cannot enter into the mind of ‘The Prince’ until we accept that we too have been defeated."
from Bhumics Week 2, 28 Jan 2025
Related
- Related Pauper - The Prince, inverted.
- Related Positive Bhumics - he's the source of the positive method.
- Related Moral Immanence - he witnessed the receding tide of moral authority.
- Related Polyconflict - "Machiavellian about this polyconflict".
Still open
I admit I read The Prince "a long long time ago when I didn't have the maturity to understand it".