Some people say they beat a case in court. There is no such thing as going to court and beating a case, you're still going to lose money every time you enter a courtroom even if the DA/prosecuting team isn't guaranteed a conviction to go on your record, if you haven't already served at least a few weeks in jail for a charge you didn't get convicted of. As long as the machine/system is what you're fighting, what you call a win or beating a case is really just breaking even by not losing everything, and you're always going to lose at least some of your money to part of the machine/system, no matter what. Though that would discourage a lot of people, it doesn't mean that no fight is worth fighting, even if there is no winning in the end.
Machiavellian Victory is a struggle with a Machiavellian force (a Machiavellian prince or princess, a part of the machine) where you don't lose everything for once.
by The Original Agahnim May 28, 2021
Something that seems like a win for everybody involved that doesn't lose everything, though they're often not actually getting/keeping everything, and are actually slowly losing little by little over a long period of time.
People thought it was a Machiavellian victory when a few houses in their neighborhood were burned down or gentrified, then a few more houses and neighbors were lost, and lost everything in the process, then a few more, until finally there was nothing left of what was once their neighborhood. The machine, and the people that were part of the machine took it from them, and they let it slip away from them without ever wak8ng up to fight for it.
by The Original Agahnim May 28, 2021
A win for everybody that was never really a win for anybody, since at least one person, if not everybody, lost something to the machine/system, or someone that was part of the machine/system. Disney was/is a master of Machiavellian principles, since people feel like they gain something by waiting in a line at Disneyland/Disney World for 45 minutes of their time instead of an hour of their time. Really it's Disney that gains from this, since people think Disney has a real concern for their families, and not for the Disney reputation and lost dollar signs that would come with any damage to the Disney reputation.
It would be a Machiavellian Victory if one of the two buildings was demolished, or if 4 or 5 of your 10 neighbors homes burned to the ground and yours didn't, you feel like you kept or even gained something by not losing everything, but half of your neighborhood is lost forever and half your neighbors lost everything. So, a Machiavellian victory is when people feel like everybody won because they didn't lose everything, when really just one person or entity actually gained/benefitted from what actually hzppened. Really most wars have casualties, so they are Machiavellian victories if your country doesn't lose a war, since somebody somewhere still lost a family member. Life is a matter of what you lose and not what you win or gain.
by The Original Agahnim May 28, 2021