Machiavelli’s Moses

Turning again to a question posed by a contemporary political theorist, the chapter uses an injunction by George Shulman and a close reading of Machiavelli’s discussions of Moses and the Florentine Friar Girolamo Savonarola to try to imagine a prophetic language that is democratic. Shulman recognizes that prophetic language is too important to the American political imagination to allow it to by monopolized by reactionary thinkers, and he demonstrates its effectiveness in the politics of abolition. By coyly emphasizing the political skill and democratic power of Moses, and contrasting that with Savonarola’s eventual political failure and execution, Machiavelli provides with a different way to think of the ways in which prophetic language both shapes our politics and provides democratic resources.