Today’s entry is brought to you by Niccolo Machiavelli:
Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for 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.
And so, it’s plus five, and minus four (or is it one?). Impeachment-wise, that is. Carlos Conde provides a round-up. PCIJ also summarizes yesterday’s goings-on, which were covered by Miron with great wit.
The punditocracy today has Jarius Bondoc proclaiming the impeachment process doomed; Patricio Diaz condemning reconciliation as a national scandal; Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil dissecting, with venomous ire, the President’s challenge for those without sin to cast the first stone.
In the blogosphere, Jove presents his take on Palace spin; Paeng doesn’t like reconciliation; Ina Alleco vents her frustrations with the President (hers is an interesting and eloquently written blog); Gari provides an eyewitness account of a rally at the House, yesterday; Red’s Herring defends People Power; Misconstrued Religion is against charter change; Big Mango continues an interesting and worthwhile discussion on a Blueprint for a Viable Philippines.
Clickmomukhamo points out the top 500 universities in the world, according to the Chinese, lacks Filipino schools; Citizen on Mars looks into producing fuel from corn; kottge.org looks into operating systems run on the internet; BuzzMachine points to a reporter blogging on the gas crisis in the USA.
A series of humorous entries: Kwentong Tambay, the Mark Twain of Filipino bloggers, recounts a conversation with a recent immigrant to America; Rey Agapay has funny conversations with “auditoneers”;
Unless winds of change blow, the impeachment is doomed.
MLQ3:
I was wondering if you have read Machiavelli’s Discourses. I think too many people associate his name only with The Prince and don’t realize that he is a fervent republican.
Oops, make that ” … was a fervent republican.”
roel, i haven’t read the discourses, though I had read he was a committed republican. thanks for the pointer, I should do that!
So, what if a leader is one who’s neither loved nor feared, make that loathed and ridiculed?
ricelander: according to machiavelli, that leader is doomed, because you can’t bribe everyone all the time.
so who’s your fave leader of all time, mlq excluded? 🙂
what really gets me and makes me climb up the wall, is this alledged attempted reconcialiation, which is so machiavellian, between gma and erap.i’m sure, if it ever swings through it will be a reconcilatiation wrought from FEAR of both parties with each other.
it’s really very sad that political events in our country can come to these scenarios – 2 consecutive heads of state – the first one in jail and the other in deep trouble and may be bound for the same fate as the former – attempting to reconcile in front of our eyes to preserve their political realms. no different from what the cosa nostras do to preserve their business interests.
and this was initiated by a religious leader at that, who, by the way, reminds me of a leprecon.
had that reconcialiation pushed through, the administration would have achieved building up the critical mass for people power to blow them to kingdom come.
bog: i admire mabini and like magsaysay, i’m always reading what i can on franklin d. roosevelt and winston churchill, de gaulle has been interesting me of late as well as lincoln and ulysses grant, but i also love reading about tyrants (to explain why people fall for evil) so i do a lot of reading on hitler, franco, the shah of iran, etc.
interesting list esp. ulysses grant. i believe he had the image as a president similar to erap. but lately, his reputation is getting a rehabilitation of sorts.
james, yes, exactly.
Ah. Machiavelli. Ive been thinking about him lately too. :o)
It’s been a long time since I so enjoyed reading posts in the net. Two thumbs up! when grass compute player make