Season 3 Podcast 146 The Road to Power, Machiavellian Pragmatism, Rule # 10 Feign Morality

Linda, The Road to Power, Machiavellian Pragmatism, Rule #10, Feign MoralityIn Rule #10 Machiavelli urges the prince to feign morality and act above the law.  He said,“And it must be understood that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those things which are considered good in men, being often obliged, in order to maintain the state, to act against faith, against charity, against humanity, and against religion.” (Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince)In other words, Pretend morality but be amoral.  Let me distinguish among morality, immorality, and amorality. Morality means a state of being moral. Webster’s dictionary defines moral as“Of or relating to principles of right and wrong; conforming to a standard of right behavior; capable of right and wrong action;”Some synonyms for morality are·      Virtuous·      Righteous·      Noble·      Ethical ·      Good·      Upright·      Just·      Honorable·      Honest·      ChasteWe can learn more about the meaning of a word by studying its opposite. The opposite of morality is immorality. Synonyms for immorality are·      Unethical·      Wrong·      Vicious·      Wicked·      Evil·      Bad·      Unprincipled·      Corrupt·      Sinful·      Iniquitous·      Nefarious·      Pernicious·      Unlawful·      Illegal·      UnseemlyNotice that to be immoral one must be conscience of what is moral.  They must know the difference between morality and immorality but choose immorality anyway because they are able to do whatever they want.When America was founded, there was an assumption by our forefathers that we shared a common sense of morality. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said,“We hold these truths to be self-evident.” In other words, truth is absolute, not relative. Self-evident means that everyone understands them as absolute truths. Thomas Jefferson added, “All men are created equal.” He meant, of course, that all men were created equal by God.” In other words a belief in God as our creator was a self-evident truth according to our forefathers.  Our laws were based on the same moral code that governed the lives of Christians and Jews for thousands of years. That moral code was governed by the Ten Commandments. Machiavelli was a Sixteenth century Italian. Rome, then as now, was the seat of the Catholic Church.  When Machiavelli speaks of morality, he is also speaking of the Ten Commandments. But Machiavelli saw the Ten Commandments and Christian Morality as an impediment to gaining power and holding power. He felt a sense of morality would cloud the prince‘s judgment and weigh him down with the weaknesses of the masses.  Therefore, he counselled the prince to be prepared to challenge faith, ignore charity, defy humanity, ignore God, and deny religion.  The same thing is happening to Christianity today in America. Hillary Clinton, once the leading democratic candidate for president, said: “Deep seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed.”