Tag Archives: Machiavelli
Ozio
I’m reading Machiavelli for a project and came across a concept that I think deserves more attention – ozio. Ozio is the term Machiavelli uses to describe idleness, luxury, and physical comfort. So far so common. However, the interesting thing is that Machiavelli doesn’t characterize ozio as leading to corruption, he characterizes it as being corruption. Put another way, […]
Power and Persuation
Query: Of what importance is goodness in the weak? The righteously ineffectual fall like all the rest. in reply “Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.” – Nicollo Machiavelli Query: The most useless of our philosophers are fond of saying ‘great men are almost […]
An Open Letter About Barbarian Hordes
Dear Dan Carlin, You are ruining my life. I have responsibilities. I have a job, and a side job, and another side job. I should be doing more writing. I should be sleeping more and I should definitely be organizing my house more. But no, you are swallowing up all my free time with your […]
Mohsin Hamid Replies to My Open Letter
The first in my series of open letters was addressed to Sinead O’Connor. It consisted of my thoughts regarding her and Miley Cyrus’ little “poison to feminism except we aren’t sure what feminism stands for” feud. I really doubted I would get a response from either participant and, considering the level of maturity in Ms. […]
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