Jesus vs Machiavelli

[Da Skinna]

I'm trying to compile a list of polar opposite thinkers in history and found this one to be a ticklish thought.

Jesus was a good person, that we can agree. But other than being the Son of God and yada yada, he followed a set of tenets that are kind, patient, forgiving and humane, he embodied the best of God's teachings, not Sodom and Gemorrah but taught the best of the Book of Job and how the Lord is forgiving. Jesus was humanist by nature. And today to see that kind of good-heartedness we're even calling these individuals "Christ-like". He believes humans are fundamentally good.

Machiavelli on the other hand, had an affinity for human nature, not uncapable of caring, and indeed was that kind of person, but believed humans to be fundamentally flawed, and pragmatic as he was he made it a get-out-of-prison-free ticket, and failed. He took advantage of people's flaws by applying best to those that governed people, he catered to a niche. His thinking about humans and their nature to governance

Jesus catered to the poor, the broken and the uncircumcized, by catering to the things felt most emotionally but never realized, like being valued by someone who owns the world. Jesus was a poor man's messiah. Unfortunately, he wasn't in the position to write these down to a ruler and hope Pontius Pilate would spare him. Pilate ruled by some of Machiavelli's points, looking down on the people he ruled.

So... Jesus, Machiavelli are the same person but one had faith in humanity's goodness and the other had confidence in their flaws, one grew up a Jewish carpenter's son the other lived in the relative elegance and luxury during one of the most tumultous yet wealthy eras.

Their environments as well as belief in whether humanity was good or bad was what shaped them, which comes back to what we are immersed in our lifetimes and some people can be pretty good at making an opportunity work for them. It worked for Jesus, didn't it: he's the Messiah. It didn't work for Machiavelli because he didn't have people following him, he was applying upwards in the ladder, Jesus marketed downwards. And so it all comes back to how we regard each other, and that revolves around into whether we look at humans, either good, or bad.

Yum.

[Thanatos]

I personally don't see any discrepancy between Jesus and Machiavelli's teachings. Rather, I see it more as Machiavelli realizes that only Jesus can be the perfect dictator, so humans must rule a bit differently.

[Da Skinna]

But you do agree with me that they are the same person, just one grew up differently from the other, but we only see Jesus from one very biased light, and not as an exceptional human, which Machiavelli might have even been inclined to believe.

[Thanatos]

Well, you have to understand, is that humans are fundamentally good, but are corrupted by sin. Machiavelli knew that, and Jesus most certainly knew that.