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1 3 0 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 2that “many have imagined republics and principalities that have never beenseen or known to exist in truth” owing to the fact that “how one [actually]lives…is so far from…how one should live.” 34 According to him, one shouldstop wasting one’s energy with the pursuit of the best regime, which cannever be brought into existence, and aim lower. The new goal, on Strauss’sinterpretation, should simply be a state that would benefit from “freedomfrom foreign domination, stability or rule of law, prosperity, glory or empire.”Machiavelli’s “lowering of the standards is meant to lead to a higher probabilityof actualization of that scheme which is constructed in accordancewith the lower standards.” “Dependence on chance” is therefore reduced, asMachiavelli’s new ambition, which distinguishes him from the ancients, is to“conquer chance.” 35 The ability to subdue Fortuna, which controls only “halfof our actions,” 36 becomes Machiavelli’s new virtù that replaces both classicalvirtue (wisdom) and biblical virtue (righteousness). Virtue, for Machiavelli,essentially means efficiency, and “is nothing but civic virtue,” or “devotion tocollective selfishness.” 37The implementation of the “new orders and modes” 38 requires the workof a “new prince,” 39 motivated by “the desire for glory,” 40 a motivation thatreplaces the philosopher’s love of knowledge and the believer’s fear or love ofGod. Strauss argues that “the desire for glory” which Machiavelli cultivates isessentially a selfish passion. According to Machiavelli, men are not motivatedby a generous concern for the common good, but by “the natural desire ofeach to acquire wealth and glory.” 41 Hence, the classical and biblical principleof improving social life through the cultivation of virtue suffers from afundamental lack of realism, with the result that “he who lets go of what isdone for what should be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation.” 42Rather than pointlessly attempting to cultivate a sincere concern for the commongood, through education for virtue, “the task of the” new Machiavellian34Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1985), chap. 15.35Strauss, “What Is Political Philosophy?,” 41.36Machiavelli, The Prince, chap. 25.37Strauss, “What Is Political Philosophy?,” 42.38Machiavelli, The Prince, chap. 6.39Ibid., chap. 24.40Strauss, “What Is Political Philosophy?,” 42.41Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli, 269.42Machiavelli, The Prince, chap. 15.