The Prince1
"All the states, all the dominions, under whose authority men have lived in the past and live now have been and are either republics or principalities." In Machiavelli's, The Prince, timeless keys to a successful principality are examined. The keys are understanding human nature, respecting that nature, and reaffirming that successful leadership can exist in the same fashion yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Machiavelli's perspective of human nature is founded on the principle that people in general don't want their culture changed by an outside influence. Machiavelli demonstrates in the book that the nature of people is to defend who they are. When "the prince" attempts to change their culture in any way the subjects will do any number of things to crush this attempt or even change the leadership. If a prince uses force to try to change people this will lead to hostility, because as Machiavellis says, "they remain, defeated, in their own homes." This underlying fact will lead to a rebellion of some sort. One way this rebellion can happen is when a powerful foreigner invades the principality. The now "defeated" people will join this powerful foreigner, in hopes that their culture will now be respected, to dethrone the prince. When
" When Machiavelli wrote this he was outlining the key to controlling the people. Machiavelli writes that, "a prince should assume personal command and captain his troops himself. " Another natural tendency of people comes with freedom. Machiavelli asserts this idea when he writes, "a city used to freedom can be more easily ruled through its own citizens. " Because the Romans understood human nature their movement into power was unchallenged. In China Mao did and still today, decades after his death, have a hand in every aspect of Chinese life. Through his "little red book" Mao used positive reenforcement to oil the gears of one of the worlds strongest super powers. Once they have had a taste of freedom, they virtually cannot live without it. Hitler possessed the three keys of understanding, controlling, and defending, and as hard as it is to say he was a successful leader in the 20th century. Machiavelli believes that the military is essential to help create friends for the prince, form trust from the people, and avoid attempts from foreign lands to invade his principality or citizens to overthrow his government. Machiavelli is correct there are either principalities or republics, and I have come to the conclusion I prefer the latter. Machiavelli explains this aspect of human nature when he writes, "he harms the whole state by billeting his army in different parts of the country, everyone suffers from this annoyance, and everybody is turned into an enemy. Hitler stands alone in history as being an individual that was able to justify horrid acts in the minds of his people.
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