History Repeats

[womzilla]

But those who think that every Prince who has a name for prudence owes it to the wise counsellors he has around him, and not to any merit of his own, are certainly mistaken; since it is an unerring rule and of universal application that a Prince who is not wise himself cannot be well advised by others, unless by chance he surrender himself to be wholly governed by some one adviser who happens to be supremely prudent; in which case he may, indeed, be well advised; but not for long, since such an adviser will soon deprive him of his Government. If he listen to a multitude of advisers, the Prince who is not wise will never have consistent counsels, nor will he know of himself how to reconcile them. Each of his counsellors will study his own advantage, and the Prince will be unable to detect or correct them. Nor could it well be otherwise, for men will always grow rogues on your hands unless they find themselves under a necessity to be honest.

--Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527), The Prince, from Chapter XXIII: "That Flatterers Should Be Shunned"

Comments

Some Things Speak for Themselves...

[(Anonymous)]

...or, rather they should, but they don't always. A 1932 newspaper cartoon showed a car wreck and a dazed passenger; next to the passenger was President Hoover in chauffeur regalia. The caption read: "You're lucky it was me and not some inexperienced Democrat driving."

It didn't work in 1932. It shouldn't work in 2004. Yet it may: this morning, I read the responses to David Brooks's Saturday column and found four letters taking issue with it. This was the one that didn't, from Brian Rom of New York:

"David Brooks has it exactly right. John Kerry is the competent paint-by-numbers guy who will accurately execute a composite vision, which is what we might expect of a good senator.

"President Bush is the creative artist, the visionary, the innovator, trying to create something dramatically new, which is what we need in a great president.

"So now the choice is even clearer: slow and steady into an unimaginative future, or boldly into a new world where grand things are possible."

Richard Nixon once said that he would have made a good pope. George W. Bush has spoken about how much easier dictators have it. But I don't think, based on the last fort-five months, that he he has it in him to be a great President...and were he a dictator, he would only be "great" in the cinematic, Chaplinesque sense of the adjective.

Though I suspect that Adenoid Hynkel would still be funnier.

Salaam from the Sparrow, who has nothing against Texans with vision when they know that it's "a hell of a vision" and that that may not be a good thing. Unfortunately, Dubya owned the Rangers; he didn't serve with the Rangers, as Woodrow Call did.