Machiavelli’s view of humanity brings to mind this description of The Inferno:
“… Virgil’s warning to Dante when traveling in Hell: if he is to see rightly, pity is forbidden. The eye that wishes to see human nature complete must be unclouded by tears, unclouded even by allegiance.” *
In this context of pitilessness, we see that Machiavelli has little faith in human nature: “We can say this of most people: that they are ungrateful and unreliable, they lie, they’re fake, they’re greedy for cash and they melt away in the face of danger.”
And this: “Since men are a sad lot, gratitude is forgotten the moment it’s inconvenient.”
But if he has little faith in ordinary people, he has no faith in the nobles he met and observed, the very wealthy and privileged who used their wealth to exercise power and preserve their status. Machiavelli writes, “Seeing that they can’t control the people, the wealthy families begin to concentrate prestige on one of their number and make him King so as to be able to get what they want.”
And this: “The people’s aspirations are more honorable than the nobles; the nobles want to oppress the people, while the people want to be free from oppression.”
One is reminded of Timothy Snyder’s recent observation that what we may see evolving in the US right now is “oligarchic fascism,” where right wing billionaires use their massive wealth to undermine democracy and entrench their positions of power and entitlement.
Finally, by implication, Machiavelli reinforces this idea – that utopias are for children and for monsters, a fantasy born of innocence, or a nightmare born of ambition. The child imagines that chance and general unpleasantness can either be expunged from their influence on human life or limited in their capacity to damage them. The monster desires his power as being total, immutable, and subject only to his whims. He believes in the perfectibility of human nature through his version and his version alone of an often-murderous social engineering.
Democracies are by the nature of human beings, messy, full of contradictions and competing centers of power. Tyrants will try to annihilate those centers of power that they do not control. Democracies try to balance them. Tyrants believe that kindness will be seen as weakness and will be met with contempt. A willingness to compromise will be seen as an invitation to attack, to dominate, to destroy. Successful democracies can be cruel, but that cruelty is usually not a feature but a bug. They can and often do institute regimes of mercy and justice. Actually, in order to survive for any length of time, they must do so. Otherwise, they devolve into authoritarian states.
Democracies keep their vitality through compromise. Compromise, by its very definition, means that others who disagree with the leader will be treated with respect and that the leader does not have a monopoly on wisdom or virtue.
Democracies stumble along because they reject utopian ideals and dreams. In this respect, they align with Machiavelli’s world view.
Side Note: Machiavelli’s commentary on mercenaries is especially interesting after the Wagner/Prigozhin mutiny:
“Mercenaries are not a good idea. A mercenary commander may or may not be an excellent military leader: if he is, you can’t trust him because he will always aspire to power himself, either by attacking you, his paymaster, or by attacking others against your wishes.”
*from Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World by Jane Hirshfield. Page 47.
