Niccolo Machiavelli was an aristocrat who was put in a prison because people thought he committed crime against the government. While he was in prison he had to support himself by being a writer. Machiavelli wrote about how a prince, or ruler, must maintain his power. Machiavelli’s views revolved around the ideas that one must do anything within his power to keep the influence and power that he had attained. For him, anything that must be done in order not to lose the influence and the power that one has should be done without question. Without the fear in the people, the trust that they have in their leader will whither and they will start to look for other leaders to take the place of the one that they believe to be weak.
A good prince should follow instincts and does not have to spend other people’s money, break promises, or be cruel and mean to gain power. But Machiavelli thought that the importance of this tactic should override all others. Although, he believed in emanating a sense of fear to the people that were being
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This advice from Machiavelli would not only make his subjects not trust him, but also other rulers would not want to make promises with him. They would know that they could not trust him. If the other rulers heard about the prince breaking promises they would be afraid that he could do it to them too. A prince needs to remember the feelings of other people when he does things because that will keep his subjects happy so they will not think that he is a selfish mean or even evil ruler. He would have no loyalty from them and they might not listen to what he said, nor did what he wanted. There is no room for this type of thinking in modern day life.
Being the one in power, a prince had the ability to rule any way he wanted to, but it would not be good if he was cruel, mean, broke promises, or spent other people’s money because his subjects would hate him. The prince might get power or he might be a good ruler, but people would hate him and would not listen to him any more. I believe that such rulers today are not tolerated (and should not be tolerated).
A prince never lacked legitimate reasons to break his promises. Respect is another factor that was very important to Machiavelli and his way of thinking. No one would trust and respect him. The Prince, as Machiavelli stated, must do anything to keep his respect with the people, but at the same time to make sure that he had ultimate control.
I believe that so much control by one person will ultimately lead to war and the demise of the society.
Approximate Word count =
717
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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