The Prince (1532) by Niccolo Machiavelli 


Machiavelli’s The Prince is essentially an outline of “best-practices” for a monarch to maintain their power, with supporting examples in historical and contemporary (European, mostly) rule. This may sound fairly harmless on the surface, but this book is infamous for its many tyrannical recommendations as far as “successful” reign is concerned. To be fair, Machiavelli was very much a product of his environment, in which the pragmatic Florentine government didn’t necessarily shy away from brutality for the sake of self-preservation. And historians debate whether Machiavelli even subscribed to his own beliefs in The Prince, considering his contrasting writings on republics which praised virtue and humanity.


I think what it boils down to, is that Machiavelli is a realist in the most brutally honest way. And while I don’t respect The Prince’s “outcome over ethics” principles, I respect that the book doesn’t try to hide the true nature of political “prowess”. Machiavelli does make important distinctions between conquest and crime, but praises a militaristic monarch and urges princes to be constantly in preparation for battle (for defense of their kingdom) and never remain neutral in an outside conflict (to guarantee future allies). 


Machiavelli’s most immoral recommendations seem to stem from his unfortunate stance on the default state of mankind. He explicitly says that man is self-interested, dishonest, and swayed by fear over love. Consequently, Machiavelli defines a great prince as one who can maintain virtue (if only outwardly), but is willing to deceive, instill fear in his subjects, and generally use whatever means necessary to ultimately maintain power. The caveat is that a prince must ensure he is never hated by the people, although Machiavelli frames this as a device to guard against conspiracy rather than as a genuine attempt to instill goodwill in a kingdom.


While The Prince is decidedly a rulebook for political achievement as a monarch (to the extent that it ends with a call-to-action for Italy’s Medici House to raise a citizen army and establish a monarchy in-line with Machiavelli’s tenets), it more broadly presents a path to success in society as a whole, which dismisses ethics and virtue in favor of results. Again, I can appreciate the brutal honesty of this - but if being a realist means living by these principles, I’ll happily stay an “unsuccessful” idealist, believing that mankind is inherently good, and that virtue is the true standard for success, for the rest of my life.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dawn of the New Everything (2017) by Jaron Lanier

Image
  Dawn of the New Everything (2017) by Jaron Lanier This is a book about the development, and the ideologies behind, Virtual Reality. It’s also largely the story of the author’s own life, as Lanier was arguably VR’s pioneer in the 80s and 90s. And Lanier’s life is fascinating - as are his viewpoints on technology in general. He strikes me as a genius - and I mean that in the objective “prodigy of arts and academics” sense. But unlike most people in that category, he has a refreshing and inviting self-awareness that he brings to his creative and computer-science pursuits (which can’t be fully separated from one another). Granted, he vocalizes his cynicism toward the state of technology today, and not without warrant, but Lanier also seems to have sustained a certain childlike wonder about the world’s potential that has never left his viewpoint. The ideological angle he presents about VR is probably the most fascinating aspect of this book. I’d never previously considered VR as more ...
Read more

The Vivisector (1970) by Patrick White

Image
The Vivisector (1970) by Patrick White This is another Penguin Classics book I found randomly on the “free-table” at work, and it turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable novels I’ve ever read. The Vivisector details the life of an Australian painter, Hurtle Duffield, from his childhood, adopted from poverty into a wealthy family as a prodigy-to-be, through his old age as an acclaimed artist, and ultimately (presumably) to his death by a severe stroke. What’s most striking about White’s novel is that he writes everything as Hurtle sees it - that is, through the eyes of a savant artist. So the reader parses Hurtle’s story not through concrete details so much as the artistic impressions and creative emotions that “paint” them. Hurtle struggles his whole life to commit these impressions to canvas - garnering critical success but not personal solace. He is endlessly troubled, and fails in most all interpersonal relationships from his inability to connect on a human level. Hurtle’s c...
Read more

Le Morte D’Arthur (1485) by Sir Thomas Malory

Image
Le Morte D’Arthur (1485) by Sir Thomas Malory To clarify, this is Sir Thomas Malory and William Caxton’s late-1400s compilation and translation of various earlier French texts chronicling the adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Given that the story is sourced from different accounts, it’s interesting to note the tonal shifts that take place from section to section. There’s almost a biblical quality to a large portion of it, where the intent of the narrative leans more heavily into a dry documentation of events rather than trying to communicate dramatically as you’d expect from a fantasy-heavy epic. The segmentation is also apparent in the variety of “olde English” phrases used throughout the book. I had to rewire my brain to parse some fun but obtuse archaic prose every time I sat down to read - but it was worth the effort over the course of 900+ pages covering the entire lifespan of Arthur, Launcelot, Galahad, and all sorts of legendary knights. The many disp...
Read more