Machiavellianism Run Amok

Not to pat myself on the back, but the one characteristic I’ve been labeled with my whole life is that I am honest. Albeit, it is usually in the less charitable terms that I, “tell it like it is”. One political philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, posits that this may not be the best quality for an aspiring politician. In The Prince, Machiavelli proposes his belief that much of political maneuvering must rest upon the principle that mankind is predisposed to selfishness and immorality. Therefore, he concludes that in a world of the immoral, one must be willing to do immoral acts if one hopes to achieve righteous ends. There are some problems with this logic.

First and foremost, when one engages in deceit, and other illicit acts to gain power, they are making themselves more than just human. They seek to put themselves in the position of the almighty, by taking power through dishonest means, one seeks to rest the commonwealth in their hands, unbound by truth or merit. Who is to say whether one who rises through Machiavellianism is ever to make the turn toward righteousness that Machiavelli himself prescribes?

As a Democrat wading in the wake of the Presidential election, I have been exposed to many folk’s thoughts about what the party ought to do moving forward. Much of the post-election analysis focuses on throwing different groups under the bus to appeal to what my fellow Democrats think the voters want. Most notably, there has been a lot of discussion about apparently alienating the transgender community. There have also been discussions about moving “right” or moving “left”, in ambiguous terms. Now, I have yet to be a diplomat to Louis XII, but I think we should be thinking differently about both the morality and efficacy of winning based on the projection of what people want.

I think it is incredibly foolish to attempt to predict what voters want, and what they feel. We live in a country of hundreds of millions. We like to simplify things by calling states or counties or municipalities “red” and “blue”, but these labels are rarely lasting, and they are never specific enough to be able to predict what voters want on a given issue. It is also incredibly immoral to abandon what you believe is the right side of an issue because you believe it will get you more votes.

Whether a view of mine is popular or not doesn’t matter to me. I say and do things because they are right. As a Methodist, it is my duty to serve those who are vulnerable. If it becomes unpopular to serve the needy, I shall be unpopular. If my career shall suffer for standing with the marginalized, I shall suffer. An honest man may never achieve that which a Machiavellian man seeks, but an honest man will be bound in the fellowship of their fellow man, a victory of righteousness, while the Machiavellian man will remain lost in a sea of prognostication, causing harm in the wake of their ambition, wondering what they are fighting for.

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” — Matthew 16:25–26.