You Live Free Because Your Ancestors Were Ruthless | Machiavelli
The Brutal Founding of America
America violated the freedom of the natives in order to build the freest nation in history. According to Machiavelli, this is not hypocrisy; this is necessity. Be it Rome, Ancient Israel, or Persia, all great nations are founded by ruthlessness: there is no other way.
This is the interpretation of the great Machiavelli scholar Leo Strauss who writes: “America owes her greatness not only to her habitual adherence to the principles of freedom and justice, but also to her occasional deviation from them. [Machiavelli] would not hesitate to suggest a mischievous interpretation… of the fate of the Red Indians… there cannot be a great and glorious society without the equivalent of the murder of Remus by his brother Romulus.”
Strauss brings in Machiavelli to combat two dominant views on America’s founding. The right wants to whitewash and hide this founding murder: they blame disease; they point to how “backward” the natives were; they want this period of history hidden in textbooks to preserve America’s pristine moral image. The left, on the other hand, seeks to expose and guilt: they tear down statues; denounce their ancestors; and want this injustice seared into the minds of each American.
For Machiavelli, both sides are equally misguided, and for the exact same reason. The right buries its head in the sand and ignores the brutality. The left implicitly assumes that it could have been otherwise: that you can build your shining city on a hill, preserve the original city, while everyone sings kumbaya. Both voices are afraid to own up to the true cost of freedom. Machiavelli writes: “there is no secure mode to possess [a city] other than to ruin them. And whoever becomes patron of a city accustomed to living free and does not destroy it, should expect to be destroyed by it.”
It is tough and ruthless men, willing to violate their deepest principles, who get you to a state of strength where you can actually realize those principles. As the saying goes, tough men make peaceful times. But Machiavelli thinks that people living in peace tend to forget this. Because peaceful times are so easy, you delude yourself into thinking that toughness was never needed. So you either whitewash like the right or denounce like the left. Peaceful times make weak men. And so, to not let weak men make tough times, Machiavelli’s role as teacher is to constantly remind you of the treachery of founding and the true cost of politics. If he were writing a textbook on American history it would be filled with acts of America’s ruthlessness — not to be denounced but to be imitated — just as his books are filled with ruthless Roman leaders for his fellow Italians to learn from.
In this lecture, you will learn about the terrifying things you need to do to build a free, equal, and lawful society. And, as always, I will withhold my own opinion and critiques for the end after a charitable reconstruction.
Topics we cover:
0:50 America’s Founding Murder
11:03 The American Case for Technology Theft
18:29 Why Machiavelli Loves the Vulgar
35:56 Machiavelli Really Dislikes the Elites
46:58 Why co-CEOs Never Work
59:43 Wokeism is the Capitalist’s Best Friend
1:18:35 Corrupt People Cannot Be Reasoned With
1:21:08 My Own Views on Machiavelli