“And it should be realised that taking the initiative in introducing a new form of government is very difficult and dangerous, and unlikely to succeed. The reason is that all those who profit from the old order will be opposed to the innovator, whereas all those who might benefit from the new order are, at best, tepid supporters of him. This lukewarmness arises partly from the sceptical temper of men, who do not really believe in new things unless they have been seen to work well.”
—Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
As what the great Niccolo Machiavelli will tell you–there’s no morality in politics, only the proper upkeep of power. If we expect our leaders to be moral, we actually expect our priests to marry.
Mrs. Arroyo should not be blamed--we are
The affairs of the state are temporal, human. Morality or ethics are more of ethereal, spiritual. Politics is all about Power, not ethics. There is even no aesthetics when it comes to Power. There is only permanent PERSONAL interests.
If we expect and PRAY that Mrs. Arroyo lifts martial law out of decency or even morality, then, we will always fail. When we pray for Mrs. Arroyo to meet God when she cheated last 2004 elections, we also failed.
Mrs. Arroyo and her fellow gangsters in government do not understand where we are coming from. We are coming from a position where morality, ethics and politics should mix when they are coming from a more realistic position that these values are antipathetic.
The language which Mrs. Arroyo knows is the mathematics of Power. One cannot defeat her by using Gandhian tactics of non-violence—these methods or tactics are useless and a waste of time. Nor if we use the English language where our opponent uses a complex Parson’s language, we are being foolish and pragmatic. Pacific methods are sure to fail against a true blue practitioner of the Machievallian arts.
And we will always be frustrated because we always subscribe to the elitist method or what I call “paradigm of pseudo-counters”. There is no victory thru the use of peaceful methods. In fact, I consider now the model of EDSA as a failed experiment, even a pseudo, Faust-ian strategy that was fostered as a counter-argument against the most effective method for change, which is Revolution.
EDSA uno and dos were not revolutions–they were accommodations. The more we hope to replicate this model, the more frustration we get because this model is simply not attuned with the times.
“…the main who adapts his method of procedure to the nature of the times will prosper, and likewise, that the man who establishes his procedures out of tune with the times will come to grief”–Machiavelli, Chapter XXV, The Prince
The times call for violent means; this is an era where the fires of passions and hatred must burn the very foundations of a discrepit and violent regime, whose language we surely do not and will never understand.
When we prepare a Priest to lead the revolt, we are venturing into defeat. When we prepare a Moralist to lead us towards revolution, we are surely going to the pits.
Yet, when a True Leader emerges, when all of those posturing to be one negates their very existence by themselves or thru the efforts of their very supporters, then, expect victory. For no one succeeds in a Machiavellian war except a Niccolo. And Sun Tzu agrees.
December 10th, 2009 @ Ricky Rivera
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