Clean Power is Possible: Post-Machiavellian Politics

 
 

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln

Have you ever heard of Niccolò Machiavelli?

If you haven't, just know this man had a huge impact on how we relate to political leadership.

After surviving years in the shadowy pit of Renaissance politics, in 1513 Machiavelli wrote his book, 'The Prince,' his candid exploration of the cold, cut-throat mechanisms of political power and leadership.

Ever since then nothing has been the same.

We've been under no illusions around how politics is known to be brutal, dog eat dog, sink or swim.

Today, this is known and felt enough human beings that vast numbers of people just don't want to go anywhere near politics.

Political apathy and disengagement are rife.

And our political leaders - those who are entrusted with the most power over us - are routinely seen by the public as those who are least trustable and the most morally corrupt human beings.

As a result, whole movements are rising now as a reaction to this.

Crypto, blockchain, and DAOs for instance.

All with hugely important contributions to make to the evolution of our societies.

And, all built on a fundamental drive to decentralise power because human beings are just simply fundamentally not trustable with it.

Singularity is based in a radically different premise:

That Machiavelli didn't tell us the whole story.

That power CAN be wielded by human beings anchored in their heart and identification with the thriving, health and needs of the Earth as a whole.

An affirmation that power does NOT need to corrupt human beings.

That political leadership is sacred vocation that requires rigorous training from those that are to lead and when that is the case, it can look massively different.

That it is absolutely possible for us to develop political leaders who are anchored through their heart in the unity of the whole.

And who can lead from a foundation of integrity, heart, non-polarisation, embodiment, vulnerability and real power.

This is a radically different position that that alive in our systems of power.

This is the revolution of leadership Singularity stands for.

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Image is Santi di Tito’s portrait of Machiavelli, which hangs in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.

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