I am reminded of reading The Prince in college and hearing about virtù. Although you may think it's simply translated as "virtue", it's actually a very loaded c

I am reminded of reading The Prince in college and hearing about virtù. Although you may think it's simply translated as "virtue", it's actually a very loaded concept in his works. Machiavelli employs "virtù" to refer to the range of personal qualities that the prince will find it necessary to acquire in order to “maintain his state” and to “achieve great things,” the two standard markers of power for him. This makes it brutally clear there can be no equivalence between the conventional virtues and Machiavellian virtù. Machiavelli expects princes of the highest virtù to be capable, as the situation requires, of behaving in a completely evil fashion. The managers probably thought their actions were in the "raison d'État". To extend Levy's simile from the article, the male engineers wore the leather jackets with the élan of fighter pilots and the virtù of The Prince.