Enjoy :)

That's why you must have skin in the game. That's why we started out with landowners having voting rights because they worked themselves to a point of responsibility and can be trusted to do the right thing to keep America(any country) going.

The two points where America screwed the pooch is when we gave the people the right to vote for senators which was suppose to be for the state itself and woman the right to vote. I know omg how much a Cretan can you be! Woman are natural communist and family oriented which means they want freebies paid for by the government or we the hardworking people. Where the men knew they had to work to earn it to get it.

I don't give a crap about Socrates and Machiavelli, no matter how much you try to wallpaper the forum with their (laughably wrong and inapplicable) nonsense.

Did Socrates and Machiavelli ever write anything as profound as "Grab 'em by the pussy"?

I didn't think so.

their (laughably wrong and inapplicable) nonsense ... Did Socrates and Machiavelli ever write anything as profound as "Grab 'em by the pussy"?

You indeed have a profound intellect. I am in awe!

I am always amused, and also horrified when I hear our political leaders, talking heads, etc talk about " Our Democracy ". They show themselves to be political idiots.

I had a argument with a few guys at work one time about it. They kept talking about our democracy. Told them we were not a democracy, but a Republic. They scoffed. Told them over the weekend to do their research and prove me wrong. On Monday, they could not.

Told them we were not a democracy, but a Republic.

Rome was a Republic, that is why she was able to defeat enemies and become a great Empire with Emperor at the helm. After conversion to Christianity and transfer of the capital city from Milan to New Rome on Bosphorus lasted another thousand years.

Athens were a Democracy and lasted much shorter. Sparta was a Republic and lasted much longer.

Swiss Confederacy is very stable and is prevented from turning to conquests by its federal decentralized structure.

All such stuff and more is in Machiavelli.

http://www.online-literature.com/machiavelli/titus-livius/

One of these days I have GOT to replace the speaker wires my new kitten chewed through.

I am always amused, and also horrified when I hear our political leaders, talking heads, etc talk about " Our Democracy ". They show themselves to be political idiots.

That's wrong. I am certain you mean to write "professional liars".

LOL, professional liars" / political leaders, same thing, just different spelling.

All such stuff and more is in Machiavelli.

I notice you don't mention his history of Florence, widely regarded as far and away his best work by historians. The rest of his books were derivative and nothing special. And only the reputation for cynical wickedness that The Prince has had since the Victorian era really keeps his name alive at all.

I think it is just wrong to consider Machiavelli a major political thinker or writer. He wasn't famous, he was infamous.

I notice you don't mention his history of Florence

You are grasping at straws, how silly.

On this site you can navigate:

Literature Network » Niccolo Machiavelli » Titus Livius

Click on » Niccolo Machiavelli » and you will see there History of Florence, (which I have read as well as all other works of Machiavelli available in Polish or English. Including his theater piece Mandrake (La Mandragola), which indeed is not on this site ;)