Today’s political stories feel like fatigue and self-righteous choices. We live in Hypermobility. The noise is merciless, the stakes are high, and people retreat, assault, and complete the irony. Some people weaponize virtues in the way others wield complaints: as an unbearable license. Moral clarity is easy, and the product is a comfortable zone. Political judgment is not the case.
We adapted to a flat, far too wide world, which perceives dark corners as dangerous. Complexity seems like a threat. Ambiguity sounds like betrayal. The silent voice no longer holds trust. In such a world, dismissing hard political thinking as ironic or rejecting unpleasant truths is fascinating.
I thought Machiavelli was a tactician for tyrants and a glorious court cynician. I wasn’t totally wrong. He saw how power corrupts and how evil is disguised. But he also grasped that many partisans today refused to face. Call it obvious, and you have found your excuse to avoid difficult choices.
He died earlier in 1527 prince It was released after cutting off the ties of influence. His politics rests on this premise. Virtue is secondary to learning what is not good. The urge to always get better leads to retreat or oppression. In reality, it is less evil that saves the day. Good does not govern by itself.
Evil is not an excuse for itself. It’s nothing more than redemption for failure. It makes clear what is at stake. Political action may not secure good, but it may block worse. Less evil is not a virtue. It is a judgment under pressure and could be tragically wrong.
In recent political novels, A cruel means, a bitter endthe war-weary prime minister secretly thwarts his country’s military plans and believes surrender is the only way to end a brutal and endless war. He does not act out of hatred or coli disease, but of confidence that peace calls for sacrifice. For him, justice meant ending the murders regardless. His logic is devastating. His honesty is brutal. His choice cannot bear. But the story asks:
Take immigrants. One side unfolds the razor wire, and the other side opens the gate. Neither counts what it breaks. Strict enforcement destroys families and institutionalizes abuse. Cleans up the tension system of pardon, causes repulsion and supplies demagogues.
Or abortion. To be correct, both sides reduce the other to an absurdity. One side considers birth as the only morally acceptable outcome, with a few exceptions. Others keep their choices as if every choice is sacred. Both frame the problem as purity and wildness. They lock women, doctors, and laws in logic that does not acknowledge tragedy, but only liability.
The same standoff defines discussions about police. Calling for reform is accused of suppressing crime. If you ask for enforcement, you are accused of conspiring in racism. Each side only sees what it fears: confusion and cruelty. Fear becomes a slogan, a deadlock.
The choices are rarely beautiful. Conservative moralists defend order as if suffering was the price of virtue. Liberal idealists reject the restrictions as if all restrictions were betrayal. Both claim moral highlands. What governance requires is not faced with identification, trade-offs, willingness to take responsibility for incomplete outcomes. Anger is deliberation. Principles override prudence.
What is right can feel like the overall point of the discussion. However, unless you are supposed to continue to be furious, it is clearer and more useful to ask what others are feeling and why they see it so differently.
What begins as moral clarity can end with moral disintegration. Conscience makes demands. The verdict pays the bill. Democracy takes up the tab.
Machiavelli warned that insisting on doing good will always lead to doom. Not because good is useless, but because power requires judgment. When circumstances become cruel, survival depends not only on virtue, but on knowing when it will turn. Choice is not between good and evil, but between paralysis and responsibility.
I hesitated, hedged, signed an inexpensive petition and accused me of opposition. Like many, I was pleased that it existed right after everyone stopped helping. Digging is not a strategy.
Recently, a group of lawyers, translators and clergy have established a makeshift legal clinic near the tropical border. They did not stop the deportation or modify the law. But they appeared – they built movements, placed shelters, gave birth to witnesses. They practiced proximity, not purity.
They are not alone. Protecting democracy Coordinate legal defenses against authoritarianism. Braver Angels Promote citizen trust across Divides. Moral Courage College With clarity and humility, we develop the ability to speak the truth as hard as possible. Their work is slow, unattractive and constrained. But they do act anyway.
Political action may not achieve good. But it can prevent the worst victory. That’s not a failure. It’s a fight. They don’t always win. But they stand on their ground.
That’s how history changes from time to time.
Notes and reading
“There is no justification for political evil, such as the belief that it is right.” – Arendt warns that moral certainty can enable political evil Eichmann of Jerusalem and The origin of totalitarianism. cf. Machiavelli, Discussion with the Prince– Evils that can bear tolerated may need to engage in it, so that it does not spread the unchecked.
“A cruel means, a bitter end” – Marin Bilishkov, After a dinner conversation (2021, Vol. 2, No. 11), pp. 64–75. Biliškov is a student at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. The publication is a US-based literary magazine featuring short fiction focusing on ethics, philosophy and “the structure of everyday life.”
“The problem with dirty hands”– Michael Walzer, Philosophy and public relations, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Winter, 1973), 160-180. The basic text of this whole idea. “The lies won’t go away, but of course, we might be told that we won’t continue to empower the biggest liars unless we’re a great liar enough to make us forget.” (Summary) Walzer thinks critically about Merleau-Ponty’s. Humanism and fear, As well as works by Camus, Isaiah Berlin, Bernard Williams and Max Weber. Politics as a profession– Grandfather of all those.
Product comfort –See Thorstein Veblen, Leisure class theory (1899, 2009). It’s ironic and critically important. The privileged class shows exemption from productive labour as a mark of Veblen’s status as “notable leisure” fostered by wealth derived from the work of others.
Protecting democracy is a nonprofit organization founded by former government officials from the entire political spectrum. It works to prevent abuse of authority’s power and to strengthen democratic norms.
Braver Angels is a national movement that brings together Americans through partisan divisions through workshops, discussions and structured citizen involvement.
Moral Courage CollegeFounded by educator Irshad Manji, people train them to speak up to their values without shame on others.
in Quiet AmericanGraham Green explains how American idealism, “wanting for the best” paved the path to Vietnam’s catastrophe. In the idiom of the time, his warnings approach: “Innocence is like a foolish leprosy patient who loses the bell and wanders around the world, and is harmless.”
Tip #220 – Horseshoe Nails: AI and creativity
Tip #219 – Holy holy
Approx. 2 + 2 = 5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
