Niccolò Machiavelli, Politics, War and Democracy

 To conclude then: fortune varies but men go on regardless. When their approach suits the times they’re successful, and when it doesn’t they’re not. My opinion on the matter is this: it’s better to be impulsive than cautious; fortune is female and if you want to stay on top of her you have to slap and thrust. You’ll see she’s more likely to yield that way than to men who go about her coldly. And being a woman she likes her men young, because they’re not so cagey, they’re wilder and more daring when they master her. (from translation of 'Prince' by Tim Parks)

दुर्गाबाई भागवत ह्या Niccolò Machiavelli ला महत्वाचा समजणाऱ्या, विरळा भारतीय लेखक आहेत म्हणून पूर्वी टाकलेली पोस्ट, ह्या निवडणूकीच्या मोसमात पुन्हा एकदा... 

 

पहिली गोष्ट राजकारणाला कुठ्लाहि पर्याय नाही... घटना....कायदा हा राजकारणाचे बाळ असते.... "modern law is an artefact of state power"... 

 

वाचा John Gray:

"... For Machiavelli, writing over a century earlier, politics was best understood through the study of history…..

The true lesson of Machiavelli is that the alternative to politics is not law but unending war….

One of the peculiarities of political thought at the present time is that it is fundamentally hostile to politics. Bismarck may have opined that laws are like sausages – it’s best not to inquire too closely into how they are made – but for many, the law has an austere authority that stands far above any grubby political compromise. In the view of most liberal thinkers today, basic liberties and equalities should be embedded in law, interpreted by judges and enforced as a matter of principle. A world in which little or nothing of importance is left to the contingencies of politics is the implicit ideal of the age.

The trouble is that politics can’t be swept to one side in this way. The law these liberals venerate isn’t a free-standing institution towering majestically above the chaos of human conflict. Instead – and this is where the Florentine diplomat and historian Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) comes in – modern law is an artefact of state power. Probably nothing is more important for the protection of freedom than the independence of the judiciary from the executive; but this independence (which can never be complete) is possible only when the state is strong and secure...."

 

दुसरे मॅकिएवेली (माक्याव्हेल्ली) जे युद्धा बद्दल म्हणतात ते मी निवडणूकीला लावत आहे ... 

 

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince:

"A prince must have no other objective, no other thought, nor take up any profession but that of war, its methods and its discipline, for that is the only art expected of a ruler. And it is of such great value that it not only keeps hereditary princes in power, but often raises men of lowly condition to that rank."

 

मी थोडा बदल करून.... 

 

"A politician (in democracy) must have no other objective, no other thought, nor take up any profession but that of elections, its methods and its discipline, for that is the only art expected of a ruler. And it is of such great value that it not only keeps hereditary sons/ daughters in power, but often raises men of lowly condition to that rank."

 

 

 Artist: Davide Coroneo,  2012