Transcript for Lecture on Machiavelli's Foreign Policy & Case for Conquest

Transcript for Lecture on Machiavelli's Foreign Policy & Conquest

0. Introduction

Johnathan Bi: Conquest has been completely disavowed by our culture. We are told that expansion is bad. Boys are chastised for showing the slightest aggression in school. And the only way you are allowed today to attack another country is in the name of defense. Machiavelli warns us that our modern obsession with peace is actually a lot more dangerous than first meets the eye. For easy times make soft men, but soft men make hard times. Now, we might think, look, conquest is morally repugnant, that even if it is successful, the conqueror’s soul becomes corrupted. But Machiavelli flips this logic on its head. It’s precisely those who know only peace, those are the people who are morally decadent, becoming soft and effeminate. In other words, what’s so shocking about reading Machiavelli is not just that he urges us to conquer, but why he does so. Machiavelli believes that there is something spiritually and morally healthy in conquering others. Danger cleanses your soul, war brings sobriety, and violence is a moral teacher. This is what we’re going to cover in this lecture today. Part one, why Machiavelli urges conquest. Part two, how Machiavelli believes we should conquer. And part three, my own critiques, reserved for the end. Because clearly we cannot follow Machiavelli’s advice of geopolitical conquest in our age of nukes and mutually assured destruction. So I will end this lecture by sharing how we might adapt his insights on the necessity of conquest to the 21st century.

1.1 Why Conquest: Decadence

Johnathan Bi: We all want to live in a state that is peaceful, that is stable, that has some luxuries and leisure. But Machiavelli warns us that there are great spiritual dangers with living in luxury. And conversely, there are great spiritual luxuries, if you will, to be had. Living in danger, living up close and personal with what he calls necessity. This idea is going to form the backbone of why Machiavelli advises us to conquer. And so we’re going to begin part one with three examples to try and build this intuition. The first example is a conversation I had with a friend who went to UChicago. I’ve always been amazed about how UChicago, compared to our elite counterpart schools, seemed better at protecting free speech and resisting political trends and fads. So I asked him, why does UChicago have such great free speech? Is it the Constitution? How you hire the faculty? Is it the students? He said, “No, it’s the violence there. It’s the fact that we live in a very dangerous neighborhood in the south of Chicago, Hyde park. And that kind of violence strikes constant fear into your souls, into the student body. We have one of the largest... “ He continued, “Private police forces in the world. And even the absence of violence is felt all the time on campus, not just the patrol cars, but every few blocks there would be this big police lamp post with a big button you could press for help.” And my response was, okay, let’s say I grant you the premise.