The Prince Machiavelli
"Men ought either to be well treated or crushed... injury ought to be of such a kind that one does not fear revenge" | |INTRODUCTION to MACHIAVELLI'S THE PRINCE
Few are the thinkers whose name has entered the language. The Prince is essentially a letter to Lorenzo De' Medici, exhorting him to promote a champion to unite Italy against the invaders then plaguing it. But it is the methods of treachery, intrigue, subterfuge, and tyranny which Machiavelli advises such a prince to use which have given rise to the word 'machiavellian'. To be fair, Niccolò does say that he wishes "to give the real truth of the matter, not the fantasy of it" and clearly explains that you cannot do good unless you are secure, and gaining security needs extreme measures.
Such bitterly honest uncloaking of the majesty of princes has not made Machiavelli well-liked, but it does mark him out as the effective founder of political science and one of the true makers of the Renaissance. And Machiavelli should have known- born in Florence in 1469 he served as ambassador, advisor and chief secretary of his city. He experienced torture by the Medici, imprisonment and exile, as well as high positions of state and the ear of kings and popes.
The Prince was never published in Machiavelli's lifetime, and its text is still disputed. But, so much is The Prince now one of the mainstays of philosophy, political science, economics and history that you might do well to remember that whether the 'Prince' of your state calls themselves king, or president, or prime-minister- they have almost certainly read Machiavelli. You can be the judge of how faithful they are to his legacy.
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THE VERY SQUASHED VERSION
States are either Republics or Principalities, either old or new. Now, old hereditary states are easy to rule, but to take and hold a new state is difficult, unless you supervise it personally. Old monarchies can be taken, as Alexander took and held Darius' state, by exterminating the royal family. But...
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