• sab@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    26
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Furthermore,

    Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies

    -- Machiavelli in the Prince

    Not to call out Putin’s Russia for being amateur hour, but the Prince is probably the first thing to read for an aspiring dictator.