Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!border-1.nntp.ord.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local-3.nntp.ord.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-1.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 07 Jun 2025 05:05:48 +0000 Subject: Re: Distros specifically designed for children Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc References: <100lcd7$30vat$1@dont-email.me> <10131kd$28rgm$2@dont-email.me> <10184uj$3fruv$4@dont-email.me> <1019ljc$3s6rv$4@dont-email.me> <101damu$mkpm$5@dont-email.me> <101detf$nrh9$1@dont-email.me> <101ekc4$126kd$6@dont-email.me> <101frt4$1f7bt$2@dont-email.me> <101klqm$3ca91$1@dont-email.me> <101ma5k$3sucd$1@dont-email.me> <101p9od$ojp1$20@dont-email.me> <684334ee$0$16823$426a74cc@news.free.fr> From: c186282 Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2025 01:05:56 -0400 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.13.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: Lines: 33 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-58SJS/zZ3RLPg/4Z7pDcLpknS9pGmu+9928MFikx/kSKn0TMr8ZprnFIsq+Tbn/4dQdJtwYdLVJDzXc!UlonRktNuYPWOM3KD2VItRp861CZZ2rz1uJ5qLiRkA6GImTm8Dxd+YpRlJaTwoWABxxcgt5iGvGC X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 On 6/6/25 9:06 PM, rbowman wrote: > On 06 Jun 2025 18:35:26 GMT, Stéphane CARPENTIER wrote: > >> Le 04-06-2025, The Natural Philosopher a écrit : >>> On 04/06/2025 07:13, vallor wrote: >>>> Do you think Machiavelli was writing a manual? >>>> >>> I've met people who think he was. >> >> I don't know how many book he wrote, but the two I read were manuals. >> They were intended as manuals about war and politic. They were bad >> manuals, but manuals anyway. > > Machiavelli was more cynical than Plato but Republic and Laws have some > suggestions that might not go over well today. First, we need a > foundational lie, er, mythology. Then we need a hierarchical structure > because, Gods know, the dummies need herding. > > iirc Laws was written as a manual for Dionysius III (?) but he ignored it. Machiavelli was a scholar ... he detailed political techniques that went back to the Roman Empire and beyond - and noted how they were still used in his day. They are still being used NOW. What works, works. MOST people are only exposed to "Prince" ... but "Discourses" is MUCH more informative - provides the WHY to what's recommended in Prince. Hell, it even explains CEO "golden parachutes" ...... Yes, it is useful to consider many of his works as "political manuals". They seem to have been intended as such - "How-To's".