The modern "Prince"

Remember that book, The Prince. One of the books you were supposed to read in high school, but didn't. Only skimmed the Cliff's Notes the night before the test, right? Why did they assign that book anyhow?

My English teacher also assigned The Pardoner's Tale, from Canterbury Tales. Curious, as a 50 something adult, I read it, and it's hysterical. The punch line is this crooked guy who gets his hand farted on, and he's pissed. Who wouldn't be. And who wouldn't be roaring if they saw/read such a thing. I think he might have assigned it for a couple of reasons, first off to win us over. To get the students to think he's really a cool guy with a sense of humor. And second to get us to be willing to read the stuff he assigns on the off chance it might be worth reading.

The Prince is a little, ah, thicker.... It's a thin book, but it's kind of stale to wade through. They should have assigned The Pardoner's Tale first to build up credibility. Alas, they didn't, so I didn't read either of them back in the '60's. What is The Prince about? I'm going to say, practical living. It forces you to think about how slick you need to be when screwing somebody over. When to abandon an old friend, and double cross them. What kind of lies to tell to a stranger. Ever wonder where politicians find that invisible line where the lie becomes untenable? Read The Prince.

Which leads me to what I'm actually thinking.

How to react to a lie. Think about it, you catch people lying all the time. So what do you say to them? How about: Try some other line of bull shit that isn't so obvious. Do you let them get away with it? And, if you do let them get away with it, what does that imply? They think you believed them, but you'll use what you know to get the best of them perhaps?

You know, if I'd read that book, I'd know how to play someone lying to me.

I think I just might cruise down to the library and pull a copy off the shelf. I could compose a lecture, the subject being, why you want to carefully study The Prince. All they ever did for me was, 'Chapter 3, the first 8 pages, by day after tomorrow.' No wonder I never read it.