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.
Talk to the TAs [2/01]
Re: Talk to the TAs [2/01]
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A faint smile.
"But I can't say I quite agree with his comment either."
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"If there was such a situation where there would be rioting in the streets, outright revolution, civil war, the loss of hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives? I'd much rather they were afraid of me than that."
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He shrugged.
"Hypothetical situations only get you so far, really. Dysfunction's greatest beauty is in it's uniqueness."
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