The seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes said, “I put forth a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire for power after power, that ceaseth only in death.”  This view of human nature led Hobbes to favor any kind of government, however authoritarian, that would keep the peace by blocking what he thought was the natural inclination of people to do violence to one another.  He talked about “the dissolute condition of masterless men” that required “a coercive power to tie their hands from rapine and revenge.”

Beliefs about human nature thus become self-fulfilling prophecies.  If you believe human beings are naturally violent and bad, you may be persuaded to think (although not required to think) that it is “realistic” to be that way yourself.  But is it indeed realistic (meaning, “I regret this, but it’s a fact ….”) to blame war on human nature.

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

Machiavelli’s advice for the prince has been followed in our time by all sorts of dictators and generalissimos.  Hitler kept a copy of The Prince at his bedside, it is said.  (Who says? How do they know?)  Mussolini used Machiavelli for his doctoral dissertation.  Lenin and Stalin are also supposed to have read Machiavelli.  Certainly the Italian Communist Gramsci wrote favorably about Machiavelli, claiming that Machiavelli was not really giving advice to princes, who knew all that already, but to “those who do not know,” thus educating “those who must recognize certain necessary means, even if those of tyrants, because they want certain ends.”

The prime ministers and presidents of modern democratic states, despite there pretensions, have also admired and followed Machiavelli.  Max Lerner, a prominent liberal commentator on the post-World War II period, in his introduction to Machiavelli’s writings, says of him “The common meaning he has for democrats and dictators alike is that, whatever your ends, you must be clear-eyed and unsentimental in pursuit of them.”  Lerner finds in Machiavelli’s Discourses that one of its important ideas is “the need in the conduct even of a democratic state for the will to survive and therefore for ruthless instead of half-hearted measures.”

Thus the democratic state, behaving like the lion, uses force when persuasion does not work.  It uses it against its own citizens when they cannot be persuaded to obey the laws.  It uses it against other peoples in the act of war, not always in self defense, but often when it cannot persuade other nations to do it’s bidding.

For example, at the start of the 20^th century, although Columbia was willing to sell the rights to the Panama Canal to the United States, it wanted more money than the United States was willing to pay.  So the warships were sent on their way, a little revolution was instigated in Panama, and soon the Canal Zone was in the hands of the United States.  As one U.S. senator described the operation, “We stole it fair and square.”

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

How many times have the dreams of young people – the desire to help others; to devote their lives to the sick or the poor; or to poetry, music, or drama – been demeaned as foolish romanticism, impractical in a world where one must “make a living”?  Indeed, the economic system reinforces the same idea by rewarding those who spend their lives on “practical” pursuits – while making life difficult for the artists, poets, nurses, teachers, and social workers.

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

A sum total of one pair of clean pants.

JD’s bike.