What Machiavelli Has Taught Me

I want to talk about a writer who has

obviously been extremely important to me

he was The Guiding Spirit behind the 48

Laws of Power undoubtedly and that is my

good friend Nicolo

[Music]

makavelli makavelli I remember also

going to sound like I was a very strange

15-year-old cuz I talked about nche but

I believe I bought my first copy of the

prince when I was 15 and I very remember

the cover of it cuz it was so

distinctive it had a large hand on it

and there were all these people inside

the hand as if the hand was controlling

all of these people and it was kind of

this metaphor for The Prince and I was

thought that was very striking and I was

attracted to it probably because in high

school and in my family and things I was

dealing with things that were going on

possibly manipulations I I had the sense

when I was very young that people wore

these masks that they pretend to be

something that they're not and it really

fascinated and it troubled me at a very

early age so something inside me was

drawn to that picture of of the hand and

the cover and makavelli so I read The

Prince and honestly I don't think I

understood a hell of a lot although you

know he he talks a lot about history and

it's fairly

straightforward but I think I was very

excited by the language because you know

often times when you're young what

irritates you about humans and adults is

how fake they are how they pretend to be

something that they're not right and

when you're a kid or you're a child or

you're a teenager you see through it you

see they're faking it they're putting up

a front that's not really who they are

and it bothers you makavelli just ripped

that damn mask off of people's faces and

said this is the human animal as it is

they want Power okay and so he was

writing about great Christian figures

like the popes of Italy as if they were

Mafia Don as if they were trying to gain

power and he had this idea which to this

day um I think about all the time it

influences my thoughts called the

effective truth ver I believe in Italian

don't quote me on that the effective

truth is the truth of people is not in

what they say about themselves the pope

will say I am the representative

Christianity of Christ on Earth etc etc

but it doesn't mean anything look at

their actions their actions reveal the

effective truth of who they are of what

they are want and what they're doing and

the effective truth of the Pope at that

time who was a boura who of course was

the nastiest pope of all so it sort of a

skewed impression was he was trying to

conquer Italy he was trying to create an

empire a Vatican Empire within Italy

okay that was the truth about him so

look at people's actions and analyze

them through that lens and see them not

for what they say not for what they

pretend tend to be before what they

actually do and the hardness of his

language the the crystal realism of it

the ability to not look at all the

people throw at you to try and

deceive you was like whoa it's like a

big thing of cold water in your face

that is true that is fantastic and we

imagine nowadays that people can be

pretty sharp and pretty cynical or

pretty realistic I because I don't think

m is cynical at all that's the wrong

word because he's not cynical but pretty

sharp and realistic but imagine being

like that in 1514 or so when he wrote

The Prince when something like that

could put you in prison where it was

scandalous where it was heretical the

courage and the ability to see through

that is what made him 500 and some years

later still being read and all the great

leaders in history have read him and so

many people have been influenced him

both on the right and the left because

of that sharpness of his vision of

looking through and looking at the human

animal in the clearest possible light

the other thing about Maki that I didn't

discover until I was older is that he's

a very rich writer people only focus on

the prince because that's his most quote

unquote evil book but he wrote many

other books that have nothing like that

the discourse is is absolutely probably

his most brilliant work work in which he

he goes through much more of history and

he explains ideas that are much deep

it's a much longer book he did an

incredible book on the history of

Florence called the Florentine histories

which is really beautiful not many

people read it he wrote a book on

warfare The Art of War okay he wrote a

play he was a playwriter and he was a

poet and his play he wrote several plays

but he had a play called mandrola which

is the most scandalous play you can ever

imagine about Christian religion it's

hilarious it's really funny and it's a

beautiful thing and nobody realizes that

makavelli was this creative man who

wrote plays wrote poetry he was also a

great Seducer he had all these numerous

affairs with very beautiful women he was

a character the kind of characters you

don't find anymore in this world he was

a sort of kind of person that I wish I

could encounter if he were here he would

be one of my my best friends if he if he

was a if he liked me I don't know if he

would but but I felt something very

human about him it also helps that we

have nearly the same birthday so there's

some kind of weird vibe going on but

I've always been attracted to his

realism and to his earthiness and he was

by far the guiding Spirit of the 48 Laws

of Power so Nicolo wherever you are I

thank you