Nicolle Machiavelli, the Diplomat

Machiavelli had two paths for success for a prince.

Mind you these are all against Dhamma Principles.

Path one is ruthlessness.
King has to a liar.
He has to be miserly.
He has to be very lavish.
He should be harsh to the people.
He should have an army.
He should purge powerful military men.
In other words he should murder the general when Italy was fully conquered.
Italy was divided into three, Florence, Naples and Roma and headed by vested interests.

He should not trust flatters.
He should be surrounded by wise men.

Other path is diplomacy.
For diplomacy to work there should be laws that control the commoner or his subjects.
Subjects should fear him.
Subjects should honour him.
Only after satisfying the above he should show kindness to some of his favoured subjects.
Always guard against the flatters.

The Fear was the base for power.
Fear of death, disease, disability and old age are natural to humans.
The slogan is these natural tendencies should be harnessed to remain in power.

Rulers are
King first.
Army second.
Law and order the last.

Democracy never.

War is common in human history.

Diplomacy is rare.

Nicolle Machiavelli, I believe was a classic example of how diplomacy was created in the medieval history having subdued all opponents by any mean including fear of death and punishment.

These are all real and perceived threats.

Whereas as the threats created by Church are not teal but manmade concoctions.

There were 3 elements in history.
King
Pope
Army

Councillors were non existent.

All my life I did not know who was Machiavelli.

An old lady whom I used to see on medical grounds, when I visited her, gave me a book in Sinhala, called Prince.

She was a political character and there were no political overtones in my simple consultations.

The paradox was that she claimed that she followed Buddha Dhamma.

I refused, since its content were political but on second thought accepted it.
Once, I tried to read it but got bored instantly.

Today, Google enticed me with several YouTube presentations.

This is an attempt to relive his attempts in diplomacy.

He was called prince of political philosophy.

To begin with politics has no philosophy.

Politics is the manifestation of greed and power.

The three who manifest this greed are obvious.

Depending on the Power of  the Pope and his greed for territorial claims and dominance wars were created by design.

Pope is the greediest of all.

Once war is started even Pope cannot intervene since there are many sectors including Orthodoxy.

We need a modern Machiavelli of high repute.

I do not think we would find one until Ukraine is decimated in full.

Do not put the blame on President Putin. He is prepared to drag this war until the presidential election in US is over and done with.

Then only, a suitable diplomatic entity should emerge.

One has to accept the American defeat and Americans have to swallow the bitter pill.

Biden wanted Putin changed and it would turn out to be that Biden and his policies will be changed without a single gun fired towards America.

Already 30,000 Russian soldiers are dead.

Ukrainian death toll is estimated to be over 400,000 and a ratio of over 1 to 10.

I do not know how many are displaced and how many are permanently wounded. Probably that runs in to millions and much more than the second world war casualties.