And let them know that I am Machiavell,
admired most by those that hate me most,
I count religion but a childish toy,
and hold there is no sin but ignorance.
From the prologue to The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe.
Niccolo Machiavelli is thought of as a cunning, unscrupulous and cynical
manipulator but nothing could be further from the truth. Machiavelli was
simply a realist who saw the world around him as it was and did not mince words when describing it. He despaired of the short - sighted selfishness of those he served and tried to make his readers aware of the baseness of most people's motives.
Blogger Little Nicky Machiavelli is the last direct descendant of Niccolo
Machiavelli but due to the quirky genealogy of the blogosphere can
count Tom Paine, Jeremy Bentham, Beatrice and Sydney Webb, Gandhi and Aneuerin
Bevan amongst his ancestors.
When I saw in print a claim that one of the great triumphs of the New Labour years had been the redistribution of wealth I experienced a Victor Meldrew moment.
And then I though no, hold on, they have been successful in redistributing wealth. All the reliable measures show that in the last decade the poor have got poorer, the rich have got a bit richer and the stupendously rich have got stupendously richer.
