In the popular sense, to be Machiavellian is to be “characterized by expediency, deceit, and cunning”. An objective is hidden behind a facade of friendship, cheerfulness, or cooperation and pursued by obtaining the (usually unwitting) help of persons who might then be betrayed when the objective is attained.

The alternative to deceit is forthrightness. If you want something, you say what it is and you ask for it or work for it, without disguising your objective.

Most human beings, I daresay, are forthright. Forthright persons are easy prey for deceivers. First, the deceiver strives to seem forthright so that he is trusted. Second, the forthright person — usually having no experience of deceptiveness (except when dated a two-timer or bought a used car) — assumes that the deceiver is what he seems to be. Thus a forthright person easily becomes a deceiver’s unwitting accomplice.

The deceiver knows what he is. He also knows that his penchant for deceit might be uncovered, most likely be another deceiver. This results in a kind of paranoia where the deceiver suspects deceit where there is none. He is therefore prone to project his deceiving ways onto forthright persons.

Here’s an example from my working life. An incompetent lawyer who had been promoted over his head several times was dumped into the tax-funded organization where I worked. He had some political connections (thanks to a brother-in-law who was a successful and respected politician). Although he was styled as corporate counsel, he did no legal work for us (we paid a firm of sharp lawyers for that). He was supposed to use his political connections to represent us on Capitol Hill, but he failed at that, too, with the result that we endured some large budget cuts in the early 1990s.

At any rate, early in his tenure at the organization, which lasted (amazingly) more than 20 years, he vied for the job to which I was appointed. He presented himself to me as a wise, experienced adviser, all the while sizing me up and (unbeknownst to me) using his knowledge of me to put himself forward for the job that I got. I didn’t learn of his perfidy until after the fact, but I let it slide off my back. I had the job that I wanted and he was, outwardly, a likeable person.

But as the years rolled by I became aware of his constant sniping and criticism — behind my back — of the way I did my job. Enough became enough and I became outwardly hostile toward him. My break with him became final when I learned about his failure on the Hill.

But over the years before our final break — in ways large and small, overt and implicit — he suggested that it was I who was out to “get” him.

Deceivers deceive themselves as much as they deceive others. They are morally weak persons who cannot accept their shortcomings. Others are to blame for their failures. They can’t see it any other way.