Tyler Durden (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tyler_gone) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2010-02-01 07:09 am
tyler_gone) wrote in fandomhigh2010-02-01 07:09 am
Entry tags:
Build Your Own Philosophy, Period 2, 2/1/10
The board read:
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. -- Niccolo Machiavelli
"Today," Tyler announced from his perch atop his desk as soon as class was assembled and the door was closed, "we're skipping ahead a thousand years. We're talking about Machiavelli." Two books -- a text and an accompanying set of SparkNotes -- were already on each desk. "He was writing in 1513, telling local rulers what they needed to do to keep power. He was also trying to tell people who wanted power how they could get it. This is one of the first books about philosophy to be flat-out practical. Machiavelli isn't looking at what God wants you to do -- he's looking at what you need to do. He's looking at how to be a wolf and not just another dog."
Yeah, Tyler had an ideological crush.
"We'll be spending a couple weeks on this book, so please take it home. Look at it. Read it. Sleep with it under your pillow if you want. Today, we're starting with one question: Do you want people to fear you, or to love you?" He paused and paced across the classroom, wishing for a cool swirly cape like Anakin's.
"We all want to be loved. We're all designed to crave love. To bask in it from the cradle, if we're lucky. Roll around in it. But people will do things out of fear that you could not get them to do out of love. So -- if you want power -- fear's the blunt instrument. Cruelty, even, if you're trying to keep a large group of people like an army on the same path. At least, if you believe Machiavelli."
"What I'm asking today is what you think. Imagine you're in charge of a country. Do you want the people to fear you first, or to love you first?" He grinned. "Automatic detention to anyone who says both. I'm not in a mood for having it both ways."
He meant that, too.
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. -- Niccolo Machiavelli
"Today," Tyler announced from his perch atop his desk as soon as class was assembled and the door was closed, "we're skipping ahead a thousand years. We're talking about Machiavelli." Two books -- a text and an accompanying set of SparkNotes -- were already on each desk. "He was writing in 1513, telling local rulers what they needed to do to keep power. He was also trying to tell people who wanted power how they could get it. This is one of the first books about philosophy to be flat-out practical. Machiavelli isn't looking at what God wants you to do -- he's looking at what you need to do. He's looking at how to be a wolf and not just another dog."
Yeah, Tyler had an ideological crush.
"We'll be spending a couple weeks on this book, so please take it home. Look at it. Read it. Sleep with it under your pillow if you want. Today, we're starting with one question: Do you want people to fear you, or to love you?" He paused and paced across the classroom, wishing for a cool swirly cape like Anakin's.
"We all want to be loved. We're all designed to crave love. To bask in it from the cradle, if we're lucky. Roll around in it. But people will do things out of fear that you could not get them to do out of love. So -- if you want power -- fear's the blunt instrument. Cruelty, even, if you're trying to keep a large group of people like an army on the same path. At least, if you believe Machiavelli."
"What I'm asking today is what you think. Imagine you're in charge of a country. Do you want the people to fear you first, or to love you first?" He grinned. "Automatic detention to anyone who says both. I'm not in a mood for having it both ways."
He meant that, too.
General Class Stuff [2/01]
Re: General Class Stuff [2/01]
Re: General Class Stuff [2/01]
The problem was that Liir couldn't really see anyone doing either.
He wasn't an intimidating person by nature. Oh he could storm and scowl and look a bit grumpy, but he didn't have a Presence that people would respond to like that. He could grump and growl all he wanted and the main result would be that he was grumpy.
On the other hand, love was almost entirely out of the question. While he had accepted that some might love him, he was well aware that most did not. Most might pity him, or find him tolerable, but love, and the kind of love which he knew might be useful politically, was utterly beyond him.
...which gave him rather a lot to think on, all said.
Re: General Class Stuff [2/01]
He already knew how completely unintimidating he was, so it wasn't like he had to think that hard about his answer.