Art by Irv Novick
In 1532, Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli published The Prince, an instruction manual for the ruling elite that emphasized glory and survival as their primary concerns. Machiavelli also maintained that deception, treachery, and crime had been used throughout history for political gain, and a reigning monarch could be excused for employing similar tactics to hold onto power. Although Machiavelli never actually wrote the words “the ends justify the means,” the phrase is credited to him nonetheless, while the term “Machiavellian” has become associated with scheming and unscrupulous maneuvering within the world of politics.
In 1982, writer Joey Cavalieri pitted the left-leaning DC Comics superhero Green Arrow against a new criminal mastermind who called himself Machiavelli. The three-issue narrative began in Detective Comics #523, with Green Arrow stumbling upon a transit workers strike in Star City. It’s the third strike in a relatively short period of time, with the first two involving sanitation employees and the fire department. During the latest walkout, some of the transit workers get into a verbal argument with nearby stockbrokers that quickly turns physical.
“We’re just tryin’ to better our working conditions,” one of the strikers shouts. “You should know what that’s like. Or don’t you work for a living?”
“Oh, we work all right,” comes the response. “To pay taxes for your salaries. You work for us!” Green Arrow arrives in time to prevent a full-scale riot, telling the crowd, “You’ve all got beefs, and they’re all legitimate beefs. But the place to settle them is the conference table, not the streets.” It turns out, however, that the confrontation was staged by Machiavelli.
“Like any city, Star City is made up of warring factions, each of which places their own interests above the interests of the whole,” he tells his followers. “We have already begun infiltrating these factions, planting provocateurs, inciting these groups to violence against their adversaries. Soon, each side will be at the other’s throats. Rich against poor. Black against white. Unions against management. We will create an atmosphere of mistrust and fear in Star City until the people look for new leadership that will rise to power above the chaos!”
The new leadership that Machiavelli advocates will be provided by Star City’s criminal elite. “I don’t mean the half-hearted political kind of criminal, who runs things crookedly because he cannot run them well,” he clarifies. “I want things run by real outlaws who understand the labor that goes into making a dishonest dollar. Criminals will run this city’s courts and collect its taxes. We’ll provide asylum for fugitives from justice and keep the rackets thriving. In short, this city will turn a profit, probably for the first time in its life.”
When asked if the general public would go along with such a plan, Machiavelli replies, “They will if they can profit as well. Every man has a criminal side, a side he uses to cheat his neighbors and his government. Now we will allow that side to flourish. Once we show them how they can benefit, how they can grow fat, they will embrace us with open arms. They, too, will join the criminal caste, and abandon the hypocrisy of honesty.”
The decade of the 1980s is often referred to as a second “Gilded Age,” with economic growth resulting in excessive materialism on the part of many Americans. Easy access to credit and a continual onslaught of new products increased the desire of living in the material world – the more Americans owned, it seemed, they more they wanted. Television shows like Dallas and Dynasty, meanwhile, were filled with rich and powerful characters, while Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous spotlighted their real-world counterparts, adding a sense of glitz and glamour to the decade as well.
Stock trader Ivan Boesky famously told graduating seniors at the University of California, Berkley in 1986, “Greed is healthy.” During the 1980s, Boesky himself amassed a fortune of over $200 million through corporate takeovers, while securities investor Michael Milken made $550 million in 1987 alone. Both Boesky and Milken were respectively convicted of insider trading and violating U.S. security laws near the end of the decade but they still inspired the Gordon Gekko character from the 1987 film Wall Street to declare, “Greed is good.” The phrase went hand-in-hand with another prominent philosophy of the times, namely “rugged individualism.” As a result, Americans tended to put the individual ahead of society as a whole and believed in looking after themselves as opposed to their neighbors.
Back in the DC Comics Universe, Machiavelli hopes to get the Teamsters Union to side with his plans. “Everyone everywhere is convinced that they’re getting a raw deal, and that someone else is to blame for their troubles,” he says. “They’ll back us.” Once they do, a Teamsters strike will shut down the city, with no food or supplies entering as a result. At that point, Star City will be vulnerable to a takeover.
“Aren’t you tired of being the city’s cornerstone, while everyone else gets fat off your labor?” Machiavelli rhetorically asks during his subsequent meeting with the Teamsters. “Sure, the whole city depends on your work but who really cares about and looks after your families? Nobody but you! It’s time you start looking out for number one. It’s time to realize you wield clout.”
Green Arrow interrupts the proceedings but not before secretly launching a smoke arrow into the room. Unaware of the charade, everyone believes the building is on fire. “We’ve got to get out of here, but with this crowd, what do we do?” one of villain’s minions exclaims. “You guys know Machiavelli’s rules,” another replies. “Every man for himself!”
During the resulting chaos, Green Arrow is easily able to capture Machiavelli. He also points to the Teamsters as a testament to his own personal philosophy. “You wanted to whip these guys up into a frenzied mob,” he begins. “But instead, they’ve become a team, each helping the other move along. They know that each person’s safety depends on co-operation, on putting aside self-interests for the good of all. Our survival depends on helping to pull the other guy through. That’s a system that works, and I’ve dedicated my life to it.”
That dedication emerged years earlier and remained intact during the “greed is good” decade of the 1980s and beyond, making Green Arrow the perfect counterweight to the philosophical musings of Niccolò Machiavelli.
Anthony Letizia