[Ansteorra] The Prince

[willowdewisp at juno.com]

i find the writer to be stupid.He didn't know anything. He really thought the Prince he was writing about would be pleased to have some of his techniques brought out in the open.
At the first Crown list  Countess somebody who will go nameless except she was the Steward of the BOD asked loudly to one of my brothers "Does she study "The Prince" every night?" and my brother replied as loudly, "No, she communes from The Borgia and gets the information right."
I think the section on foreign mercenaries and their uses should be read by every person who thinks being an mercenary is a good idea. There are some other period writings that gives advice on how to handle mercenaries The one I most remember isn't in "The Prince" but sticks in my mind. "Make sure to paid your mercenaries after the battle because if you plan it right they will be all dead and you won't have to pay them."
I know a lot of Americans think the book is horrible but it does have some really good advice. One part I think is often not listened to is if you do something really underhanded don't brag about it.  I have often heard SCA politicians talking to someone in the general populace bout how they got over someone. "The Prince" warns about talking to much. As a Pelican I feel like I should immediately give a class to the people on stupid behavior and inept politics. 
What makes this so stupid is often no ones knows they were hood winked. When it gets out and it Will get out because they are talking in a public place where lots of people heard them the general populace gets hurt because they thought the person was one of the "good guys" and their dreams are broken. 
 Back in my youth I thought that it was my duty to warn people about political techniques that could be used to hood wink people. My first degrees is in Sociology and Small group politics was my area of interest. This was a mistake because in America people "don't do politics" and politics are bad.  I also thought that if I went up and asked permission to do something and got an OK to talk to people and see if they would go along with me and didn't use any razzle dazzle politics I would be able to get some stuff done. In both cases I was wrong.
In the first case because I was talking about what they should watch out for and what would help them communicate with others they thought me "a power hunger monster".  In the second case I just scare everyone and they kept looking for my hidden reasons. "The Prince" warns us about talking about what we are doing". I should of listened to him. Haven't you seen a lot of successful SCA politicians who state often and loudly "I don't do politics". 
 I find it ironic that over the years I have taught people techniques and they are thought pure and noble and in reality it is because they do successful politics that make many people happy and doesn't have a lot of ill feeling fallout because it is done well. Most of what we call "bad" politics is just ego based sloppy politics. 
In the real world I have been called on to help groups or organize groups and I trained them to get things done within and without their organization. I have done it as an volunteer and sometimes as a badly payed professional but they recognized that these techniques are tried and true. Social scientist have studied these methods and best as can be supported them. I worked with Dr. Warsaw in Alabama and when he went into corporation and helped him with his research and that was all that he did. Get big bucks to tell people how their small group politic were messed up.
The Prince was one of the first books to ever talk about how someone who could get communities and large groups of people to follow him and while the writer was on the outside and could only observe some things he did state somethings about the system that made people believe in the system and it gives us insights into the workings of a system based on kings. 
willow
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