Manuel Corte Professor Johnson Readings in the Humanities
“There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.” –Machiavelli
Machiavelli I believe was a great scholar of his time for his pure drive and appreciation for knowledge. His initial position from which he writes the prince is of a humble educated background that he had to struggle through to achieve the knowledge he retains. He is offering a very unique opportunity to the Medici family by offering them his teachings, especially because of the point of view they are getting this knowledge from. Being a royal family, the soon to be king has really never experienced the struggle filled world of his people and what they have to go through to survive. The prince may not have initially been entirely open to accepting what this poor man has to say but as he states in the quote above, one must be open to the ideas of others even though they might even challenge your own. A great challenge in writing this book is hoping that the prideful ignorance that goes with the prince’s royal status will not cloud his decision making so that he can be open to accept that he is not all knowing and that he could have a great advantage over his predecessors with the help of this simple writer. It is greatly important to he willing to accept the possibility that you are wrong to be able to start to learn from others, especially those who you believe are lesser than yourself.
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“it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link
of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” – Machiavelli
This was a very impactful statement for me because I personally am very black and white when it comes to basic concepts of respect like this. It is very true that it is generally fewer problems come from being feared than loved. This is an unfortunate reality yet it does not have to be a constant reality in all situations and aspects of life. I honestly learned a lot about the nature of people from all the tales of the escapades you have endured through your travels in life. One main thing I learned is there is a time to befriend someone and a time to challenge people. For the calm, average, clear headed person the first response in a situation of altercation should not be intimidation and violence. I am not a very imposing person so I live my life thinking that if I attempt befriend everyone and be very logical and open-minded there is no reason I would need to be intimidating towards someone for my own benefit. That being said, a soon to be king is not your average person, which is why this quote applies so well to his situation. For a person who so many people depend on for their own safety and wellbeing it is very wise to make your imposing presence known to the people you are ruling over. This will dispel any possible thoughts of rebellion and increase the people’s ability to rely on their new king to keep them safe.
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“There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another
which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.” –Machiavelli
This quote shows how deeply Machiavelli has truly thought about the broad concept of intelligence. The basic theme of the first quote was that one must be open to learning from various pools of knowledge to obtain a very well rounded base of intelligence. I believe this statement somewhat follows up that message by telling how exactly to interpret what you learn and how to compare it. The first class of intellect is all based on self-reflection, it comprehends all incoming information which it parallels to previously established knowledge. An important aspect of this way of thinking is that one always trusts ones self before others. If you are wise enough to be willing to accept the teachings of others, while still questioning these teachings against your beliefs, you will have a great balance of knowledge which you can use to your advantage. The next type of intelligence breaks the balance that is needed to aggrandize and use information. It is important to appreciate what others know, but one must be careful to not let the word of others become law. You have to be able to stand firmly on your beliefs yet be humble enough to accept teachings of others. The last intelligence doesn’t even make much sense out of the context of comparing them to the other two. If you do not trust your own knowledge, nor be accepting of others teachings, you are simply an impressionable pawn in the hands of your intellectual superiors.
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“I can't dislike you, but I will say this to you: you haven't got long before you are
all going to kill yourselves, because you are all crazy. And you can project it back at me, but I am only what lives inside each and every one of you.” –Charles Manson
Charles Manson is such a unique individual for his unique way of viewing humans and the human condition. It was very perplexing reading this novel because even in jail Manson’s words have such a profound effect on people, including myself. His initial mission and purpose of his life was all routed with misguided, unreasonable hate. His racist agenda comes from no factual background yet he believes that entire races of people are going to simultaneously start to attack each other, which will inevitably lead to the end of the world. The thing that setts him apart from most other psychopathic conspirators is that he knows how messed up what he is doing is. He believes he is the embodiment of inherit human evil that is contained by the average person. He even states that you, being the average population, can project what they think is wrong with themselves and society on him, blaming all the problems of society on people like Manson. This is easy to do because of how he manages to dilute the validity of his “teachings” with insane statements like “You haven’t got long before you are all going to kill yourselves, because you are all crazy.” It is easy to blame the crazy person and use him as a scapegoat but his main message is that we are doing this to hide the fact we all have our demons and beliefs about what is right and wrong.
“I'm probably one of the most dangerous men in the world if I want to be. But I never
wanted to be anything but me.� -Charles Manson
This statement touches on the inevitability of having to encounter our inner demons while we strive to suppress them and pretend they do not exist. All of us want to be kind caring individuals, especially in the eyes of others, Charles is pretty much the opposite of this. He greatly embraces his inner evil by ordering the brutal killings of individuals of a race of people he believes are going to end the world. He might of tricked himself into thinking he is doing something righteous for humanity, which is the only way someone could carry out something so evil. I am not sure either to call this a trained mental ability to block out emotion or a mental unbalance where he does not even realize what he is doing. Either way, Manson very well could be one of the most dangerous men in the world for his ability to commit such evil yet be so sure about his actions. Following the general theme of Manson, this quote contains themes showing how crazy and evil he is yet there is a theme of remorseful truth at the end. All he wanted was to be himself, which is something we all struggle with, with all the outside influences we are always encountering. It is hard to gain individuality in this world, which is something we all strive to achieve. Manson pokes at the fact that he has achieved this feat which we all desire, yet he knows that he obtained his fame through really twisted means.
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“I can't judge any of you. I have no malice against you and no ribbons for you.
But I think that it is high time that you all start looking at yourselves, and judging the lie that you live in.” -Charles Manson
This is by far one of the most coherent and logical Manson quotes I have come across. This really shows how much of a bigger person Charlie can be. He is very much aware of what most people think of him, they think he is a monster and it only acceptable for him to simply rot in jail just the rest of his life only because the state couldn’t of killed him at the time, which I bet most people were upset about. Despite his entire image being based around hatred he does not feel any remorse, nor take any offence in what people think of him. In the quote he stated: “I can’t judge any of you” this is where he makes it clear that he realizes and most importantly accepts why everyone feels this way about him. He does not spite people for the negative feelings towards him, nor does he appreciate it. The main message he is trying to get across here is that we have to stop blaming others for not being who we want them to be or acting the way we want them to satisfy us. We all need to do a little self reflection and think about our own inner demons to enact positive lasting societal changes, that is where it all starts. To certain varying degrees we all have some messed up thoughts and hateful feelings about certain things. Charlie basically did the things some of us wish we could do. With this said, I’m not trying to say we are all out to wipe out races of people we don’t like, rather we are all too scared to swim against the current of normality and acceptance to carry out ideas we truly believe are right.
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“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a
hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” –Sun Tzu
“The Art of War” was one of the most interesting and actually practical books I have read in a long time, Sun Tzu truly was a genius in his field of work and study. His knowledge of battlefield strategy is truly unmatched simply because of the unique way he looks at the phycology of human conflict. His teachings use such a great level of fluid logic that covers so many different aspects and potential outcomes that the strategy’s he talks about can be easily translated to real life, every day situations. This quote is all about knowing the people you are going to be in conflict with and how to relate that to your own strengths and weaknesses. One thing I took away from class discussions is possible strategies for conflict resolution, which is why this book facilitated learning me learning so much in class. Knowing ones self is easy, you know better than anyone how you will react to certain situations. A key part to this quote is knowing your enemy so that you can prepare a response for anything that could possibly be coming your way. This awareness is important so that you have time, before an engagement begins, to go over possible outcomes so that you can react to the problem properly. Without this, one might make a quick rash decision that does not truly reflect how you would normally react.
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“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and
confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.” –Sun Tzu Sun Tzu again proves that mental manipulation is the key to success in having an impenetrable plan of attack. A bit part of personal conflict is knowing your enemy and being able to predict their plan of attack. Now, this is not exactly a secret, know thy enemy is an important fundamental principle. What Sun Tzu emphasizes the importance of realizing that your enemy is going to be trying to figure you out to use this same tactic. The mind game begins when you start to manipulate what it appears you are going to do, to keep the enemy guessing. Sun Tzu’s teachings are so good I would say one could even use this tactic in ones love life. Women love guys that are mysterious, they like to be entertained with new things and don’t like when something is stagnant. By keeping some parts of your personality hidden, you can constantly expose different parts of yourself over a lengthier period of time, always making them want to come back to learn more.
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“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem
unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.” –Sun tzu
A common theme among these authors is deception and manipulation, which while not always morally correct, really is the best way to achieve what you want to acquire. Here, Sun Tzu tells to not only keep the enemy guessing but rather manipulate what they are guessing at to your advantage. For example, you’re in a bar and someone wants to pick a fight with you. If you know you have no chance at putting up a fight it would be wise to follow Machiavelli’s teaching to rather be feared than loved. Make it appear that not only are you more than powerful than you are letting on, but make it seem like you are above mere quarrels like that you are confronted with. This strategy will cause the aggressor to start to question himself and his own motives which has the potential to end any repercussion while giving you time to read how they are going to react. I now have a much better understanding and a much clearer interpretation of how to look at a lot of situations. While this is a very broad statement it teaches a important message in how to look at a lot of situations. It is imperative to look at all aspects of a situation and be willing to use and accept the teachings of others so that one could have a broader understanding and react to things accordingly.