“Machiavelli‘s return to the beginning means return to the primeval or original terror which precedes every man-made terror, which explains why the founder must use terror and which enables him to use terror. Machiavelli‘s return to the beginning means return to the terror inherent in man’s situation, to man’s essential unprotectedness. In the beginning there was terror. In the beginning men were good, i.e. they were willing to obey because they were afraid and easily frightened. The primacy of Love must be replaced by the primacy of Terror if republics are to be established in accordance with nature and on the basis of knowledge of nature.”
Leo Straus, Thoughts on Machiavelli, p. 167
David Hurley