My Thoughts on “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli

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“There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.“

– Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Wow. This was quite the book. I went into it with the presupposition that it would be a manual for world domination; and in a sense I was not wrong. But after dwelling on Machiavelli’s ideas laid out in The Prince, I have come to the conclusion that the book is much more than that.

1. Though Machiavelli’s ideas are not well respected in society, I do not think they were ever meant to be. He wrote the book knowing the risk to his life and future. It was meant to shake up the thought processes of many people. And if we look at it through that perspective, Machiavelli was wildly successful. His tactics and techniques for attaining and keeping power were not new to planet earth. But he was the one who decided to reveal them.

2. Machiavelli was the ultimate whistle blower. He did not invent the concepts laid out in his book, he merely observed them. Although the Medici family exiled him from Florence, I believe it was his critique of the tyrants climbing the bureaucratic ladder that shocked the public. His work enlightened many people of the greed and arrogance of their leaders. We have to remember that this was the time of inquisitions and divine rights. To paraphrase Lord Acton, leaders had absolute power and were generally absolutely corrupt. Machiavelli revealed the absolute rationality and brutality of dictators; who showed no regard for the public except for their ability to finance to pay taxes. In my mind The Prince is much more than a tyrants handbook, and offers much good wisdom in perceiving the way hyper-rationalists think.

3. The Prince definitely also had some ideas that are quite applicable to today’s world. The quote I chose at the top of the page is a prime example of that. We live in a hyper-emotional age; with culturally accepted philosophies from the likes of Michel Foucault and Sigmund Freud. It is in this highly emotionally confused era that it is frequent for individual’s subjective emotional truth to be emphasized more than objective truth. Machiavelli being a rationalist would not support these ideas. His critiques against the way of flattery I believe apply more to our society than his own. Though his rational beliefs often are extremist, this is one that our emotional culture needs to hear. The world would have less hurt and damage to people’s feelings, if generally the truth was told.

Overall this was an intriguing book. It showed me a new perspective on which to view the world, for better or for worse. I do not believe I will become a devout follower of the ideas in The Prince any time soon, but I think the book was important to read. Machiavelli gets a bad rap and always has. I do not think he deserves this as in my opinion his ideas were just observations and critiques.

AI Oil Painting of Lorenzo de’ Medici

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