The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom (James Burnham)

James Burnham's classic work on power in politics. Perhaps too gnostic, but nonetheless with much insight into today, particularly with respect to "democratic totalitarianism," on full display in the present moment.

The written version of this review can be found here:

https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/08/14/the-machiavellians-defenders-of-freedom-james-burnham/

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"The American Right, like all outsider political movements, has long been susceptible to Gnosticism. This usually manifests as the belief that a small group of wise initiates can see through rationales for political action and find hidden knowledge, of the real reasons men and societies act as they do. Sometimes those reasons are the machinations of the Illuminati, or the Freemasons, or the Lizard Men. More often, they are prosaic, and although economic Gnosticism is the most frequent type, another common gnostic belief is that power is the only real driver of the actions of men, and all other rationales in politics mere epiphenomena, lies designed to conceal the hidden centrality of power. The Machiavellians is James Burnham’s exposition of this latter Gnosticism." . . .