Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00611)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, MKR<ramadoss@g...> wrote:


> There was this hilarious experience of Krishnamurti at that time. 
When he 
> was in Italy for a lecture, at his first lecture, the hall was 
full with 
> many of the military generals in the audience. The next lecture 
all of them 
> were gone!


The article by Mussolini, mentioned earlier, is entitled "The Folly 
of Democracy - Some Lessons from Machiavelli", and was published in 
the June 1924 issue of "The Herald of the Star". The author is 
referred to as Prime Minister of Italy and the article was 
reprinted "by courtesy of the Editor of *English Life*".

An interesting editorial note precedes it: "The Editor feels that 
the exceptional and unique interest of the following article by the 
Prime Minister of Italy renders it unnecessary for him to repeat 
that he accepts no responsibility for the opinions expressed in any 
article appearing in the HERALD OF THE STAR." The Editor was J. 
Krishnamurti.

I just can't resist quoting the last paragraph of the article:

"Governments based exclusively on the will of the people have never 
existed, do not exist, and will probably never exist. I am supported 
in this view by a pregnant quotation from 
Machiavelli's "Prince": "Armed prophets conquer; those who are 
unarmed are ruined. Because the nature of peoples is changeable; and 
while it is easy to persuade them of a thing it is difficult to 
maintain them in the same persuasion. Therefore it is well to 
arrange things so that when people no longer believe they could be 
made to believe through force. Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus 
would not have been able to enforce their constitutions for long had 
they been disarmed." 

To compound the bizarre nature of this event, the inside front cover 
of the same issue of the "Herald" carries a beautiful picture of 
Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy (Ming Dinasty, 1400 A.D.)! 

(courtesy Campbell Theosophical Research Library, Sydney)


Pedro