QUORA – Are you more of a Machiavellian or a Nietzschean? Why do you think so?
Not possible.
Machiavelli accepted humanity’s dysrationality (AKA the nihilist, last-man nature of humanity, to use Nietzsche’s terms) and conspired to work within it. This is what it means to be Machiavellian. Nietzsche, perceiving insightful facets of the problem, set off prematurely to fix it; this was the meaning of his excellent book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” However, a fictional hermit (in the book) warned him against his goal, declaring it folly (revealing that he knew it was folly as well): the hermit urged Zarathustra to stay in the forest and live among animals rather than return to imperfect, sleeping humans.
I do something different. I live and ruminate among the sleeping humans but deliberately think aloud. I disturb some with my contextualized (to them) ramblings, and that’s enough.
