I agree with you on that one. Mayberry is a myth. It’s a created mythological construct, like so many fairy tales and sixties television shows, of how we’d like life to be. In true American style, you can only see utopia when you’re hunkered down in from of your pretty glowing television set.

Here is the definition of Machiavellian from Wikipedia.
“Machiavellianism is the term some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person’s tendency to deceive and manipulate others for gain.”

In this quoted phrase, “Mayberry Machiavellian” I heard it as a description of manipulators using the lie of a perfect small town to manipulate fools. Those perfect small towns only existed on TV, IMHO.

The title reminded me of a column I wrote a couple of weeks back for the Daily Tar Heel about Chapel Hill politics and how I miss Mayberry, which I’ll shamelessly plug.