Word: machiavellis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2000
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...tried, and he's always selected good ones. In Texas he chose (or was chosen by; let's keep that open) lieutenant governor Bob Bullock, one of the shrewdest s.o.b.s who ever walked. Let's just say that if Bush had studied politics under Lyndon Johnson or Machiavelli, he couldn't have done better. Dick Cheney is apparently the new mentor, and I'm favorably impressed, certainly by Cheney's demeanor; one worries because his voting record is so nutsoid...
...been easy. The agitation for television is constant. When Bush v. Gore reached the high court and the networks demanded entry with cameras, the chorus grew particularly loud. Rehnquist said no. His denial seems anachronistic, but it represents a deep understanding of the modern sensibility. Like Machiavelli, he knows how important an air of mystery is for maintaining authority. And TV's very essence is to demystify. Everything it touches becomes familiar and ordinary, ripe for irony and camp...
...Harvard's 14 or so registered members of the GOP, I find the whole business rather entertaining--and as Machiavelli noted wisely, it is a far better thing to be feared than loved. Nevertheless, my heart goes out to my fearful fellow students, with their Mondale-Ferraro memories and their yearning glances at socialist Canada--and so I try, without much success, to point out that a Bush victory in November might not be all that...
Stanley Bing's most recent book is What Would Machiavelli...