National Network for Equitable Library Service

In this disturbing, erudite and highly readable book by author, playwright and artist Tom Block, America is shown to be a surprising example of Machiavellian politics, utilizing all of the post-modern methods of information distribution and "legal" fraud and corruption. Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission (2010) and the Super P.A.C.s it spawned, the massive amounts of money ("power's master key"), the intermingling of the language of religion and war and the 90% negative advertising of the 2012 Presidential campaign (channeling Machiavelli's dictum that the adversary must be "assassinated," though in contemporary America by character assassinating) and even Barack Obama's Machiavellian machinations are looked at in light of the Renaissance political philosopher's ideas. The final sections look for and find an antidote. Chapter Four (The  Threshold of a New Era) explores the specific reasons that we might hope that  the citizenry can wrest the public square from its amoral, bottomless  Machiavellian pit. Morality can become  the center of public interaction even in the bloody 20th century, prophet  activists such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela were able  to change the course of history for the better, centering their political  movements not in Machiavelli's ideas but in ethical behavior working for the  common good.