Thomas Hübner „Machiavelli and Literaturen Vestnik“

by Владимир Сабоурин

 

In „Il Principe“, Machiavelli is categorising the different ways to rise to power: conquest of power by virtue (skill and resources), by fortune (i.e. someone else’s virtue), by criminal virtue (i.e. immoral and cruel deeds), by support by the great (those who wish to command the people), or by selection by the people (those who do not wish to be commanded).

The scandal around „Literaturen Vestnik“ is in a nutshell nothing more than a dispute regarding the competing narratives about how the actions of those who conquered power over the journal can be categorised according to Machiavelli’s analysis.

For the not personally involved and hopefully unprejudiced spectator it is fairly easy to see what happened (and why), based on the undisputed facts, and it is also more than obvious to see why the big loser of all this is Bulgarian literature.

(My first and last public word on this topic.)