Prince Seminar Response

     One of the evil ideas that Machiavelli has is that when you are taking over a new state, that you should kill the old royal line to prevent problems down the road. “He, therefore, who acquires such a state, if he mean to keep it, must see to two things; first, that the blood of the ancient line of Princes be destroyed. (3)”

     One piece of advice that I agreed with is that new Princes should look to leaders from the past and use their strategies for governing the state. “The wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great. (12)” It makes sense to do what has worked for the good leaders before you unless their practices were morally wrong. If it worked in the past, in a similar situation, it will work again for you.
     A current situation that is using these principals set forth by Machiavelli is taking place in the Middle East. We are sending troops to protect our interests and others in the area from an enemy. Machiavelli says that sending troops is very expensive as we see in our military budget. The cost is one of the main factors of why the U.S. is not getting more involved in the conflict.

Heart of Darkness Seminar Response Week 3

            In the book, women are portrayed as peacekeepers and the emotions of what is going on. In the end, Marlow meets up with Kurtz's intended and is with her during her suffering. The odd thing is that she is still mourning a year after Kurtz's death so that shows women as being emotional in the culture. Oddly, towards the end of section 3, a woman comes up to the boat dressed in rags as if she was trying to confront the whites. This part shows that men weren't the only ones effected by what was happening in the Congo and as the book portrays, women are standing up for themselves and proves that they are not helpless during this conflict. Also in section 3, Kurtz gives Marlow a picture of a woman, and Marlow thinks the picture is amazing and that no artificial light would replicate the picture. Here the book portrays a sort of connection felt by white people with the Africans.

          When Marlow says that women are "out of touch with truth" he means that women don't always have the smarts or know what is going on. I think that he is trying to get at the fact that women in this book are on the sidelines and are not really talked about a whole lot. With that, Marlow thinks that the women don't really know what is going on in the Congo and all of the bad things that are going on. In the end, Kurtz's intended love mourns over his death, but she most likely didn't know what he was doing in the Congo and all of the bad stuff he was doing.