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Entry: What Would Machiavelli Do? Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/what_would_machiavelli_do1#18900 Post contents: Macchiavelli or Calvin? Macchiavelli did not have the totalitarian impulse to make us holy, whether we wanted it or not. His opinion as to freedom was that people meant to things with it, one the ability to carry out their daily lives and prosper, and the other to be included in power. Macchiavelli advised the ruler to protect the first kind of liberty, and to curtail the second. Hmmm.. I have to get back to the Evil Overlord list. There are some recommendations on how to keep power that makes me think that a truly competent Evil Overlord (bent on keeping power, not just being evil) might at a certain point be undistinguisable from a benevolent ruler (ObTanyaHuff plug: the short story "A Woman's work" where she shows that Queen Arrabell, while quite ruthless, is also beloved by her people). Sent at: 2008 09 07