The Discourses Book

This might be the worst review I've ever written since half of it is going to be my libido talking.

Niccolò Machiavelli, the man made of androgen.
Choosing the right terminology is a matter of life and death -- I suppose psychoanalysts and fans of Machiavelli would agree on this. Most readers are nowhere better than a highlighter: they pick the phrases that stimulate their lowly senses and leave all the rest behind. In the world of a highlighter reader, libido equals to sex-drive thus equals to sex; Machiavelli equals to political maneuvers thus equals to scum (p.s. someone proposed to make Machiavelli into dog food. Well I say, arf!). If any sincere person should try to enlighten them, well, I hope they are lucky enough not to throw up in front of them.
Same goes with most of the common critiques against Machiavelli. I dare them not to invoke the words "good", "evil" and "morality" unless they are using it in a sarcastic sense. For this is truly the essence of Machiavelli: he freed political philosophy not just from theology, but also from the willy-nilly self-centered infantile illusion that you could control over people. Judging them by your standard is simply useless, for they are Others in a polyphonic world. So, how would you cope with such a world? With all due respect, most people won't even have the guts to face this fact.
That's why Machiavelli's manliness is absolutely stunning.

As far as I could see, the guiding principle of Machiavelli's writings (the Prince, the Discourses, Florentine Histories) is that people would act on their own will; no Prince could change it, no power could vanquish their own intentions and desires. A hidden yet significant feature of his writing is that he suspended the two essential concepts in western political philosophy: rights and obligations. He did talk about obeying the laws from time to time, but one could spot immediately that he was not promoting this for an isolated, self-centered and strictly personal reason. Laws are ought to be obeyed not because people have the obligation to obey, but because of the foreseeable consequences if they choose otherwise (and, naturally, if the foreseeable consequence is desirable, break it). The teaching placed its emphasis on the interaction of personal deed and social responses instead of obedient for obedient's sake -- and similarly, the emphasis on the interaction between the governor's behavior and the people's behavior, the interaction between the weak and the strong.

Machiavelli took a dramatic yet extremely practical turn by focusing on these interactions. If one were to say that Dostoevsky created a polyphonic style by realizing others and various principles they carry with them, Machiavelli should, too, be treated as a polyphonic artist: he realized that each and every person would act on their own accord instead of homogeneously acting upon rules and regulations, and thus the act of governing must take this fact into consideration. To a governor, his people are the countless Others that would bring upon huge influences through the power-relationship, sometimes even sabotaging. Power is a false concept to begin with: negotiation, compromising with all the intentions that are related to you is the true picture of governing.
How could you hope to preach "rights and obligations" in such a world? How is the phrase "universal rights" not a narcissist jargon? How are the moral judgments not a feeble ego-boost just to keep oneself away from realizing the living scenario of others? Machiavelli's dead for almost 500 years and I still hear political philosophers today (in fact, just a few months ago in the political philosophy workshop) talking about how well-justified their moral preaching was. Dear Father of Understanding.

The grim lioness follows the wolf,
the wolf himself the goat,
the wanton goat the flowering clover,
and Corydon follows you, Alexis.
Each is led by his liking.
-- Virgil, Eclogues

Machiavelli, of all others, would know what these verses are about.
He is yet underrated. He is yet to be discovered.