The document discusses Machiavelli's The Prince and how it has been interpreted in different ways. It then examines how philosophers like Gramsci and Althusser have analyzed The Prince. Several classic manifestos are outlined that emerge from the groups they discuss and propose solutions to problems like alienation. The document argues that manifestos are a primary form of online political action today, facilitating discussion and potentially motivating offline politics, though they are temporary and problematic.

1. Pauper into Prince
Machiavelli, manifestos, and the multitude
Robbie Fordyce

2. “…I hope it will not be considered presumptuous
for a man of very low and humble condition to
dare to discuss princely government, and to lay
down rules about it […] one needs to be a ruler to
understand properly the character of the people and to be a
man of the people to understand properly the character of
rulers.”
-- Machiavelli, The Prince, dedication.

3. Readings of The Prince
The apparent text.
The text as satire.
The text as revolutionary tactic.

4. Althusser, Gramsci, and the Prince
Gramsci
Althusser

5. Classic manifestos
The “Communist Manifesto” – Manifesto of the
Communist Party.
The “Hacker Manifesto” – The Conscience of a
Hacker.
The “Cyborg Manifesto”.

6. Similarities across various manifestos
• Emerges from within the political/social
category it seeks to discuss; usually populist.
• Claims to represent a particular subject.
• Proposes a new mode of production or a new
epistemological outlook
• Generally acts on the basis of problems of
alienation/ideology, which it claims to be able to
solve.

7. Compare with the „petition‟.
• Petitions operate mainly through democratic
party politics.
• Petitions have no dialogues directly surrounding
them.
• Petitions are produced generally by NGOs,
media outlets, political parties.
• Petitions are similar, but not equivalent to the
manifesto; perhaps better considered as a
subordinate category.

8. My argument:
• That the manifesto form is a primary means of
political action online.
• Temporary political mechanisms.
• Facilitates discussion of network
communication.
• Can motivate offline politics.

9. Auxiliary aspects of my argument
• No guarantees.
• Problematic politics.
• Highly temporary.

12. “Philosophy functions by intervening not in
matter, or a living body, or in the class struggle,
but in theory. […] It acts outside of itself through
the result that it produces within itself.”
-- Althusser, Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy
of the Scientists, 106-107.