When Conflict Stops Creating & Only Consumes: America’s Fall from Machiavelli’s Wisdom

“For the greatness of Rome arose from this circumstance above all: that the tumults between the nobles and the plebs kept Rome free and made her powerful” - Machiavelli

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” - Sun Tzu

“Empires always perish from within, when the people prefer the illusion of power to the discipline of liberty.” - Will Durant

“The life of nations is lived in the same way as the lives of individuals. One is strong when it masters itself; it is weak when it is mastered by others.” - Alexis de Tocqueville

Machiavelli discovered something that respectful philosophers would have rather ignored: conflict, when used constructively, is not poison but rather a source of energy. No one knew this better than the Romans. Their republic prospered because of its never-ending disputes, not in spite of them. With their wealth and ancestry, the men of wealth were in constant conflict with the restless masses, known as the plebeians. From the outside, it appeared to be dysfunction and the gradual decay of a divided state.

However, Rome survived, grew, and ruled because the system itself was never allowed to be consumed by the conflict. Negotiation, innovation, and self-control were required of both parties. Rivalry balanced power, making the society and its military stronger.

This was the discipline of controlled struggle, an atmosphere where dominance and liberty were forged, rather than the chaos of a collapsing order. However, Machiavelli cautioned that the system will destroy itself once rivals cease to regard one another as legitimate and resort to annihilation rather than competition. Is America walking down this path?

This is America's dark mirror. At home, its leaders advocate for democracy, but overseas, they capitalize on violent factionalism. America has transformed conflict into the lifeblood of empires, from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the never-ending shadow proxy wars, but without the discipline of Rome. They have confused destruction with strength in their fixation on dominance.

A clear sign of such destruction is the unconditional support of Genocide of the Palestinians of Gaza by the Israeli IDF and Netanyahu

The Romans realized that the most lasting power comes from entangling rivals in a system where conflict never ends but never destroys, rather than from destroying them. America's military exploits and backing of Israel's ethnic cleansing and genocide of the indigenous Palestinian people show what happens when a republic loses sight of this equilibrium and conflict stops creating and only consumes.