this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
754 points (97.0% liked)
memes
10060 readers
1720 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.
Sister communities
- [email protected] : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- [email protected] : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- [email protected] : Linux themed memes
- [email protected] : for those who love comic stories.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It shows our failure as a species that most people don't understand that Machiavelli's most famous work was satire.
The Prince was certainly not satire. He wrote it to Lorenzo de Medici with the intention of being hired as his advisor. The entire book is specific instructions of how to rule for this very purpose. Of course he wasn't hired, since the book boils down to "be as duplicitous as you can be to get what you want."
Ok, maybe I'm missing it then. I thought that made it obvious satire. Is this another Poe's law situation?
No, Machiavelli sincerely argued for this kind of extreme pragmatism--do whatever's necessary to get what you want. It was wasn't satire. It's pretty obvious why he didn't get the job as advisor, though.
Well shit. I got Poe'd by a dead man.