Ego vs. Decency

A recent interaction I had with a Left Wing Big Shot led me to re-read my chapter on Machiavelli in my book Genio: The Story of Italian Genius. One thing that emerges from Machiavelli studies (literally an industry: between 2009 and 2017 there were no less than eight biographies of the man in the English language alone) is that there are several ways of interpreting his life and work. The most common, i.e., popular view is that he was amoral, a manipulator, whose most famous work, The Prince, argued that the ends justified the means. Others have seen him as a scientist in the mold of Galileo; while others claimed he was, beneath it all, a republican—a Left Winger, if you will.

Myself, I came up with a different reading of the man, based more on how he actually lived rather than on what he wrote. In his life, Machiavelli did not follow his counsel to princes that they be deceitful if it served their interests. His behavior was characterized by candor and sincerity, which often got him into trouble. It was hard for me to avoid the conclusion that for him, the crucial categories of human existence were not any particular political position, or Left vs. Right, but rather Ego vs. Decency. This was the bottom line beneath the bottom line, so to speak.

Over the past decade or so, I’ve had occasion to interact with a number of Left Wing Big Shots, and these interactions served as a kind of wakeup call for me. I sort of already knew what I discovered in a kind of vague, peripheral way; but when these types of incidents keep occurring, the reality stares you in the face. I won’t mention any names, because that wouldn’t be very polite, but rest assured, all of you would recognize these folks if I did. In a word, for no earthly reason I could determine, these Big Shots plagiarized my work, acted as friends and then gratuitously stabbed me in the back, and so on. In the most recent interaction, one of these Big Shots claimed to be very impressed by an article of mine, and promised to post it on his (very widely read) blog. Months went by, and he kept asking me for more information; which I repeatedly supplied to him. Finally, I realized I was waiting for Godot; it seemed clear that he had no intention of publishing the thing. I finally suggested to him that this was not the best way to treat a colleague, and left it at that. I doubt my remark bothered him in the slightest. I was not, after all, a Big Shot.

What I see, quite clearly, is what I believe the conclusion Machiavelli came to toward the end of his life: Left or Right make no difference at all. The crucial point was your actual behavior. Was it in the service of ego, and ego-aggrandizement, or in the service of elementary decency? I became convinced that if any of these Big Shots were in positions of power (thank God, they’re not), their behavior would not be any more exemplary than that of their Right Wing counterparts. In a word, you can’t save your soul through ideology; a truism that escapes their grasp.

Readers of this blog might want to check out the various videos on line that have been posted around supposed interactions that occurred between Keanu Reeves and various Big Shots. What he teaches them is humility: that how you treat other people is far more significant for your life than being an Important Person. This is something that Left Wing Big Shots, no less than Right Wing Big Shots, simply can’t understand, and the reason is not hard to discern: for almost all of them, they are living a life based on Ego. Decency, sad to say, is not part of their repertoire. Caveat emptor, I guess one would have to conclude; it’s a lesson that is very important for us to learn.