Some want to rule, others to be ruled. This is a concept that is a kind of constant subtext in the work. Even in a republic, which the Discourses is about, the majority of people want someone to do the work for them, to lead them. They are willing to sign over the governing of their city or nation to someone, in exchange for being left alone. Their energies are tied to maintaining what they have.
This concept goes much further and in interesting directions. In Machiavelli's world, people are not victims. When someone is conned out of their money, it is because they were stupid, because they did not possess the energy to be prudent, or to get what they had back. People want to be conned. On another level, those who suffer under some form of tyranny inevitably have gotten the kind of government they want or deserve. They are unconsciously implicated in the process. No one, in Machiavelli's universe is some passive actor who is acted upon and injured. There is a degree of will involved.
This is a controversial aspect to his philosophy, but one I have long ascribed to. For instance, when many on the left critique America or the Reagan or Bush administrations, they begin from this position that the powers above are actively and consciously oppressing the majority of people. We are the victims of their injustice. These thinkers' attention is focused on the corruption above--whether it is suspect foreign policy, coziness with corporate America, etc. In Machiavelli's eyes, attention should equally be focused below, on those who turn their eye away from what is going on, who ask to be lead, who want economic abundance and do not care too deeply about how it occurs. The con artist and the conned are entwined, colluding partners.
I often turn this in another direction. Instead of crying about Karl Rove and the Republicans stealing this election, or duping the public, I look at the incredibly inept campaigns being run by Gore or Kerry, and the confusion among the Democratic leadership. The Democrats were not victims, but active participants in their own defeat, brought down by incompetence. This way of looking at things makes you active and alert; you are responsible for the bad that occurs to you, and so you can always turn it around. The ruled can want to rule instead. Nothing stays the same.
