>Dear People,
>
>I am rather a busy man - but reading the interplay between the various
>members of this list and Proff. Zisser concerning the "Wider-view" of
>literary studies and its relationship with temporally relevant historical
>and political occurrences - I must say that people on this list have
>probably no knowledge whatsoever of political WRITING from the era
>mentioned.
>
>All the esteemed participators no doubt will accept the widely held fact
>that history/politics is something that has its resonance not only in one
>country but is a reflection of international movements. One cannot ignore
>the Reformation and Luther when studying the British adoption of Protestant
>values, neither can one study the English Renaissance without feeling the
>strong echoes of mainland Europe. (I can point you towards several ;literary
>study works dealing with the matter - just ask].
>
>I have had the distinct pleasure of acquiring a combined degree in English
>Lit. and in Political Science. In addition to having held several jobs
>including being a newspaper editor and a few military jobs. This brought me
>to delve rather deeply into literary works dealing with political and
>military thoughts during my favorite part of the English culture - the
>Renaissance. For those who are not aware of it, quite a few important
>political manuscripts had been written during this period - some of them are
>considered up to this day to be extremely important to political theory
>studies. I will not bore you with all the details and various insignificant
>writers, but I WOULD like to mention one important writer - who obviously is
>known to must learned people: Niccolo Machiavelli.
>
>Machiavelli, known in political studies as the "Father of Modern Politics,"
>was a true Renaissance man - he attained his high position due to the fact
>that his father made him a "man of thoughts" a man who had studied the
>classics. Machiavelli's writing including "The Prince" and "Political
>Writings" are considered important corner stones in the field of political
>thought and his insight and quick wit show a strong understanding of human
>nature.
>Machiavelli though WAS a man of his time - that is why his writings show his
>view of the importance of aesthetics even in political writing - his
>description of his main protagonist - the son of the concurrent Pope and a
>duke in his own right - is not only one of personality. Machiavelli praises
>his beauty and charisma -and ties them in with his great achievements. In
>addition Machiavelli talks about the beauty of politics and the aesthetics
>of international affairs. This becomes even clearer in several of his less
>known works about the "Art of War" - the works are written in the form of
>Platonic conversations [his connection to the aesthetics and to the
>Classics] - in a ideal garden setting. But the interesting part of the text
>is not only its form [though form and setting clearly held a great
>importance to the man] - but in something else altogether. Machiavelli - the
>great political and military thinker completely disregards the invention of
>gun powder, of guns and of cannons. We cannot put light thought into this -
>since the invention of these weapons completely changed the ancient
>battlefield - a thing Niccolo must have been aware of. Machiavelli
>disregards these "new" weapons and almost childishly pines for the
>"beautiful day" and the aesthetics of the old battlefield where it was "Man
>against Man" in the true Roman style. His description of war is a fully
>aesthetic one - and his perspective is more in line with poetry than with
>what we today would call "Real Politic."
>
>Still, Machiavelli is the FATHER of real politic - he must have known the
>truth behind the fairy tale veil that he had let lay. I can find the
>reconciliation of this problem only in the overall growing Renaissance
>though of the REAL importance of aesthetics to the human psyche. His pining
>after a lost world where things "made sense" and order existed completely
>aopose his view of the growth of democracy, his hymn to the Swiss infantry
>and their recreation of the Roman Phalanx is sung as poetic tribute and not
>as true military theorem and his anger at the "unfairness" of the war from
>afar - is clearly "childish."
>
>In this light one can only see his writing as a work of aesthetics and not
>only of political thought.
>Why would such a prominent figure write such a text - I live that to you
>learned folk to discover.
>
>Oded Ilan
>
> ________________________________
> Oded Ilan
> Content & Support Supervisor
> www.whquestion.com
>
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