What a revelation! I am unfortunately unlettered, and in such reading and self-education as I have undertaken, have naturally avoided episodes of betrayal and deceipt that characterize certain periods and empires, such as Venice, because they caused me grief. At the end of my life now, I find this essay enlightening as to forces and directions in history that I did not heretofore understand.
I previously was mystified why the military campaigns of Europe, ostensibly bent on Christian Empire in the Middle East, instead ended up sacking Constantinople and essentially destroying the extant Christian empire in the East. The Crusades baffled me, but your essay reveals the probable vector for the misdirection of the force of imperial conquest to be Venice, slyly turning the wealth and power of others to it's own purposes.
I will watch the videos and follow the links you provide, to gain greater understanding, and it seems likely that this introduction to the Machiavellian methods of Machiavelli's worst enemy will enable a better understanding of history leading to our present predicament to blossom, perhaps to bear verdant fruit potentiating policies effective in securing our liberty and prosperity.
I am very grateful you have shared this.
Thanks!
Your approval is always highly valued & strikes right at the heart of why I write at all.
When I was a Barefoot Doctor of Traditional Chinese medicine I frequently worked unpaid & breadheads within my family would despair of me. I tried to explain that the moments when a client would report healing were beyond price.
Writing gives me the same level of buzz!
If what I do enhances just one life then I am fulfilling my universal destiny.
I am grateful for the opportunity to continue doing that & to you for letting me know that my dart in the dark hit home, somewhere in this macrocosm.
I am continually amazed and dismayed at the inability of so many to so completely account the real value of society and our mutual benefit. The gambler and crab in a bucket indoctrination seems so facile to me, so easily seen through and dismissed, yet the lure of financial encomium blinds so many to actual wealth that I am nearly encouraged to dismiss them that are so devalued by their values as irrelevant.
Fortunately, I am provided the good example of my own humble inadequacy to better understanding that prevents such conceit. I remain deeply grateful for your assistance in that regard.