Friday, November 21, 2014

DISINGENUOUS AND DECEITFUL

DISINGENUOUS AND DECEITFUL "A prince must appear to be pious, but must never be," is a statement of Machiavelli's THE PRINCE, a classic of the Italian Renaissance era. It means that outward forms of one's professions, must dissemble one's inner intentions in practical human affairs whether political or mundane. Oliver Wendell Holmes, a noted jurist, said that the best judges had "too much good sense" to be bound by the product of a legal syllogism in determining legal outcomes in his THE COMMON LAW, a legal classic. That means prevailing prejudices, customs, modes, and predicates should and must outweigh logical deductions from legal precedents. They are saying the same thing, to the same audience, the haves; the vilified Machiavelli and the venerated Holmes are rationalizing the absolute desirability of hypocrisy to those with power, over honesty and openness. The powerless, then, are too often left defenselessness with paradigms to which they alone vainly cling: religion and law, imposed by powerful people who are disingenuous and deceitful.