Facing Evil, Learning Guile

Abstract

Our students should be acquainted with such writers as Thucydides and Machiavelli, who understood that simple goodness in leaders may be harmful to their followers in a wicked world. Leaders have obligations to their followers along with their other ethical obligations; these may conflict in what I call the leadership dilemma. The leading citizens of Melos according to Thucydides relied on simple justice, rather than guile, and thereby led their people to disaster. Machiavelli urged that a prince use guile: You must be wicked in a wicked world, he said (in effect), but you must appear to be good—that is, you must wear what I call moral cosmetics. This is a dangerous tactic, for the use of guile undermines trust, which is essential to leaders. Facing evil in one’s own organization is a special challenge, as organizations have immune systems that resist change.