A long time ago, when I was a much different person, I remember finding something unsettling, even repulsive, in the works of Machiavelli. For that reason, I have expended no energy there. This morning, I found this quote among an otherwise unremarkable set of slides on the subject of innovation.
"And one should bear in mind that there is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer than to introduce a new order to things; for he who introduces it has all those who profit from the old order as his enemies; and he has only lukewarm allies in all those who might profit from the new. This lukewarmness partly stems from fear of their adversaries, who have the law on their side, and partly from the skepticism of men, who do not truly believe in new things unless they have personal experience in them." -- Niccolo Machiavelli
I can assure you there is truth to that. Further, I found an interesting review of Machiavelli that suggested his situation, the historical context in which he worked, should be born in mind when conducting any reading of his work. Well, duh -- but I bet I did little of that when first exposed to The Prince.
"Machiavelli's reputation has been largely created from reading his book without reference to its historical context."
Picked up a fascinating map through my UC Berkeley Arts 23 course (Foundations of American Cyberculture):
Here's the site that created it. Thanks Chris Harrison. No, the world isn't flat at all is it?