Fan Noli on Machiavelli and politics

From: Moikom Zeqo

Machiavelli (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527) was born in the city of Florence. He has been nicknamed the Black Prince of Politics. Beyond this metaphor, Machiavelli is undoubtedly one of the few minds in the history of the world that founded the science of politics, one of the most emblematic people of the Italian Renaissance, comparable in terms of the power of research, analysis, and synthesis only to the mind universal of Leonardo da Vinci. Machiavelli in theory and Cardinal Richelieu in practice structured politics also in the form of reflective diplomacy.

Modern political philosophy begins with Machiavelli. He took the first giant step, before Hobbes (Thomas Hobbes) did this with his "Leviathan". Machiavelli said that God is dead, before Nietzsche (Friedrich Nietzsche). And, he analyzed with unparalleled clarity the theory and details of politics. His principle was to tell the truth.

He says that "you can't keep snakes in your garden, hoping that they will only bite your neighbors", and this makes a lot of sense with the current cyclical politics. Fan Noli has done a surprising study on this leading figure of thought and world culture. This study is a manuscript extracted from Fan Noli's fund in the Central State Archives. Noli published this manuscript on January 21, 1939 in the course of European History at the Graduate School of Boston University.

The manuscript also has a bibliography of the main works of study on Machiavelli and his era. Nioli's text is the subject of a monographic book. He called him Machiavelli's "Prince". The structure of the manuscript itself is divided into – Introduction, I-Background, II-Career of Machiavelli, III-Works of Machiavelli, IV-Epilogue. Nolian's study of Machiavelli is undoubtedly of a high level of historical analysis and written in a clear and laconic essay style.

In order to understand the theoretical essence of politics, as expressed in the work "The Prince", but also in other works, it is necessary to study the environment, of which he was a product. In this environment, Florence, the main city-state of the Renaissance in Italy and in Europe, where he was born, is important, but also the other Italian states that Florence had to do with, but also the non-Italian states that tried to dominate Florence and in Italy during Machiavelli's lifetime. Fan Noli makes a brief but ingenious sketch of the history of Florence. For him, Florence was the first modern state in Europe, which relied on trade, craftsmanship and especially the banking economy. Florentine bankers gave colossal loans to England, France, and the Popes of the Vatican.

From a social point of view, Florence was ruled by the bourgeoisie, which was divided into two groups: "Popolo Grasso", or "high bourgeoisie" and "Popolo Menudo", or "petty bourgeoisie", who were constantly at war with each other and did not never managed to reconcile their differences. Meanwhile the nobility, landowners, peasants and the city proletariat were excluded and stripped of all political activity. Politically, Florence was a republic, with a complicated apparatus of executive and legislative committees and subcommittees, a complicated system of indirect elections, short-term functions and all kinds of checks and counter-checks. These were intended to save the Republic from the control of a single family or clan. However, they could never prevent the Medici (or Soderini) from making their city-state machine run according to their wishes and interests.

The city of Florence needed a constitution. Two efforts deserve to be mentioned: that of the monk Savonarola (Girolamo Savonarola), who preached against luxury and moral corruption, but also against the Pope, and that of Soderini (Piero Soderini) who sought technical details of the action. Savonarola gave the citizens of Florence a greater role in controlling the government, but he paid for it with his life. Pope Alexander VI cursed him and the Signoria of Florence hanged him in 1498. Soderini's reform was an imitation of the Venetian constitution.

Culturally, Florence was the capital of the Renaissance and the main center of European humanism. It is the urban womb that gave birth to modern civilization. The ideas of humanism towards the problems of life were hedonistic, away from the asceticism of monks, away from theology, turned to the arts and sciences, away from the Bible, turned to the human culture of classical antiquity. Fan Noli points out that Florence is the greatest center of this movement of humanism, a designation whose meaning was later narrowed and equated with the cultivation of classical culture. Petrarch and Boccaccio, the first apostles of humanism, were two children of the Florentine bourgeoisie.

In Florence we find the first humanist association, the so-called Platonic Academy, founded by Cosimo (Cosimo de' Medici, died 1464). In Florence even earlier we encountered the great Italian writers, such as Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio who used the vernacular in their masterpieces. In Florence, the prophets and forerunners of modern Italian nationalism meet for the first time. Lorenzo (Lorenzo il Magnifico - the Magnificent, so called as a patron of arts and literature) of Florence said for the first time the unforgettable phrase: "I cannot put my interest above the safety of Italy".

Fan Noli analyzes the role of other large cities and centers such as Venice, also a city-state and Republic, but also talks about the Papacy which was a spiritual empire, covering all of Western Europe, but which was also a secular Italian state of the medieval feudal type. Another important center is the Kingdom of Naples. Without forgetting here the Duchy of Milan. Then Noli goes into the concrete analysis of Machiavelli's background and education, as well as his career.

He speaks of Machiavelli's classical education, his readings in Latin, but probably also in Greek. In 1498, Machiavelli was appointed to a high state post, Secretary in the Chancellery, where he was to serve on the "Ten of Liberty and Peace," a committee dealing with foreign relations, military affairs, and domestic affairs. . At the same time, he was charged with other diplomatic duties. He had the opportunity to know, meet and closely observe many important figures such as Lorenzo the Magnificent, Savonarola, Caterina Sforza, Popes Alexander VI, Julius II, Leo X, Caesar Borgia (Borgia), Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo (Michelangelo Buonarroti), Emperor Maximilian I (Maximilian I), King Charles VII (Charles VII) and King Louis XII (Louis XII) of France.

In 1512 Machiavelli was expelled from the service of the Republic. Since he was involved in a feud against the Medici, he was arrested, imprisoned, tortured, but finally released. When he got out of prison he retired to his small fiefdom in San Cassano. His political career was finally over. He also lost his salary and together with his family lived in complete misery. In 1527 he became deathly ill, received the "holy communion" from the hands of Brother Piero and went to the other world as a Christian, perhaps to heaven. And Noli points out not without irony: "The truth is that Paradise was not so pleasant for him, because he once remarked that the opposite direction, that is, Hell, was more interesting. However, his last days must have been very miserable, as can be seen from his touching verses:

I hope and hoping increases suffering,
I cry and clear feeds the tired heart,
I burn and the fire is not visible from the outside. "

***

But we are more interested in Noli's opinion about Machiavelli's masterpiece. The treatise "The Prince" is a guide to a healing prince. First dedicated to Giuliano Del Medici (Giuliano de' Medici) and after his death in 1516, to Lorenzo. This treaty was the report of an expert, related to the problems of unification and the settlement of Italy by foreigners. In fact, there is talk of an imaginary prince, but according to Machiavelli, he could become a reality. The book contains 26 chapters, Noli elaborates on each chapter and chapter XVI, which is the last of the book, "he calls magnificent. In it, the author calls on the Medici to rise to the occasion, establish their authority, call the Italians under arms, drive out the barbaric foreigners and rule as the saviors of their homeland. This was an excellent and mobilizing call, the warning call of the national unity of Italy".

Noli quotes Giuseppe Zonta, who characterizes Machiavelli's Prince like this: "He is a dream built with fragments of reality, therefore it is more of an artistic work than a rational one".

For Noli, Machiavelli's work is more than that. "It is a gospel of patriotic action, based on political science and the philosophy of history."

And, Noli also emphasizes: "This book is the art of combining religion with philosophy and science. Even Karl Marx (Marx) tried to do exactly the same thing: to interweave the program of traditional action with economic science and with the philosophy of history. These seem to be the same thing, but they cannot be reconciled, for the simple reason that religion means absolute faith, philosophy means idle speculation, and science means finding facts by experiment. Of course, this does not mean at all that patriotism for Machiavelli and socialism for Marx are primary, philosophy and science come later, to support patriotism and socialism respectively.

In other works, Machiavelli tries to prove his patriotic gospel with examples from the history of the Roman Republic. For Fan Nolin, Machiavelli is also an outstanding writer. Machiavelli is not only a big name in the history of political science. He is also great as a writer. For Noli: "of all the political thinkers of the time, he is the most easily read. His style is simple, direct, powerful, epigrammatic. No writer equals him in Italy, and very few others can compare with him in European literature. Machiavelli's "The Prince" is a literary masterpiece as much as it is a great political treatise.

Fan Noli also quotes the thinker Francesco Ercole (Francesco Ercole) who makes the comparison between Dante and Machiavelli. But more important is the quote from the great scholar FG Hashon, who, although he has no sympathy for Machiavelli, gives us a summary of all his achievements: "His first achievement is that he changed the method of political thinking, he did it again as it had been in Aristotle's time, inductive and historical, he brought it back from heaven to earth, he made it practical and usable, he, an abstract political philosopher, who had been subordinated to morality and theology, and turned into an independent art of government, separated from both morality and religion. What is more strange is related to the fact that for Fan Noli, Machiavelli does not ignore the class struggle.

Noli writes: "Machiavelli is among the first to recognize the class struggle as an important factor in human history (see his book "Storia Florentine"). In this sense he is a Marxist more than three centuries before Marx was born. He was also among the first to dispassionately discuss the issue of violence and defend it in the interest of the state, especially after the overthrow of a tyranny. So here he is in agreement with Lenin. Machiavelli's tragedy lies in the fact that throughout his life, despite his many studies and extraordinary insight, he was not lucky enough to realize his big dreams for the good of the country. And this is how he will express his regret: "And I complain about nature, which either should not have made me know these matters, or should have given me the opportunity to apply them."

Fan Noli's study of Machiavelli is truly a first-rate intellectual phenomenon. This core subject could well be turned by Noli into a full book. But even so he has carved truths. Noli is self-contained and endless in his short, crisp phrases.

For Noli, Machiavelli is a political thinker. More precisely, the first thinker in Europe who made a scientific theory of politics. Therefore, political sciences generally have Machiavelli as the primary figure. Meanwhile, it must be said that in the 490th anniversary of Machiavelli's death, books and studies have been published all over the world, many thinkers and scholars have returned to the incandescent and permanent essence of Machiavelli the thinker. For historical reasons, his theory of politics, which defines a separation of morality (it is the theological morality of the time, not in the sense of Spinoza's ethics) from politics, is lost. Only in Albania there is no scientific or academic activity for Machiavelli.

At least having Fan Noli's study as a reference. Over time, the term contaminated, which is more a term of journalism and political discourse, than of science and thought, so I am talking about the term "Machiavellianism" has had more pejorative and negative connotations. The phrase "the end justifies the means" is actually not Machiavelli's, but the great critic of literature and culture Francesco de Sanctis (Francesco de Sanctis), who summed up the wrong way of interpreting Machiavelli's theory. But this phrase has remained memorable, often resembling a cause of the greatest rudeness and brutality. It is for this reason that the wonderful English philosopher Bertrand Russell called Machiavelli's "The Prince" a "Guidebook for Gangsters". It is understood that Russell's criticism is a misunderstanding.

Rereading and reflecting on Machiavelli's famous treatise on the Albanian man, many reference points emerge to reflect on what is called the Albanian political class.

Even if rereading Fan Noli's essay makes us more sensitive, it makes us more aware of being dissatisfied, more demanding and more critical of this political class which, among others, has a mediocre level of culture. political, and it is even likely that most politicians, have in mind here the entire collection of almost anonymous deputies, most of them, during these 25 years, who have not read or known Machiavelli.

Among other things, I will point out that Machiavelli in his treatise does not remain without reiterating that "I am not in favor of preserving the status quo, but I am in favor of its destruction". For Machiavelli, the world is always changing, more so than politics itself, (even if there is a God who hands over our end), as Shakespeare says in Hamlet, then we have the existential right to become wiser and wiser. we have an expectation with a higher political knowledge for the future. Machiavelli writes this phrase that has a surprising relevance in the world, "a prince who does what he wants is a fool". Machiavelli adds: "The first method of assessing the intelligence of a ruler is to see what is around him." Also something else. "Titles do not honor a man, but a man honors titles." Machiavelli spoke objectively and openly about governance, about administrative attributes. Unfairly talking about the goals of violence and power, where morality seems definitively separated from politics, it is forgotten to point out another idea that is very accurate and ultimately related to a popular democratic morality. It is Machiavelli who said that: "The intentions of the people are more honest than those of the oligarchs, because the oligarchs want to oppress the people, but the people want not to be oppressed." Here is a brilliant phrase to understand the incomparable and inalienable power of freedom. Machiavelli underlines: "The best way to secure power is to completely destroy the sovereignty of the city (state). Whoever becomes the ruler of a city and does not destroy freedom, must expect his own destruction by freedom."

In the Albanian reality moderated by the banal politics of the day, even the above statement of Machiavelli can be misunderstood.

However, the treatise "The Prince" published in 1516, i.e. 500 years ago, puts our reason to the test. Machiavelli in the science of politics shows that it is impossible to make progress, simply from its absurd ignorance. Marx Weber would say the same thing. So does Hannah Arendt.

In 1992, an American thinker named Fukuyama (Francis Fukuyama) published a sensational book in which he announced the end of the political history of mankind, as well as ideologies and concepts. The end of politics is a utopian idea but like the theories of Orwell (George Orwell), where the absence of political thought can create a more barren, in fact, more negative world. All the political doctrines of the XNUMXth century seem to be declared in a "white death". In some respects it seems as if this is indeed the case.

There is a "death" of politics, just as there is a "death" of philosophy. But these are not absolute, they are not fatal. Likewise, the end of political theories in Albania means that parties act without political concepts. So casually, without cause. If political parties do not have a cause, sooner or later they are mortal, even forgettable. The dynamics of reality are omnipotent. Therefore, the greatest achievements in politics are mental achievements, much more than statistical and numerical achievements.

It seems as if the politics in Albania, whether on the left, whether on the right, or in the center, lacks big causes. And great causes are not the minority. Minority causes are indeed a deplorable historical limitation. Majority causes are a majesty of thought. So of the story itself. These thoughts arise, revive, multiply when Fan Noli's study of Machiavelli is read, and our mind is set in motion to reason it out.

Fan Noli used to say that the mind of the Albanian should not be a "cow" mind. That is, for a person to be abused and abused without thinking about anything, without being interested, without memory, without dignity, just to vegetate and that's it. Meanwhile, for the reader of the Day, I want to give a characteristic poem of Machiavelli. It is called "Opportunism". The verses are these:

- Who do you look like?
Less sweet
While the skies
It decorates them with luxury
your dowry?
Why are you so worried?
Why do you have wings on your feet?
You don't know me?
I am Opportunism.
never sit still
That I have wheels under my feet.
And who accompanies you?
Except repentance!