Introduction: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

I read and reviewed The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli which was
written over five hundred years ago. And, it always amazes me how some
books that are timeless classics are still relevant today. The Prince is
one such book. I firmly believe we can use some of yesterday’s ideas to
solve today’s problems if we step back in time and take a look at some
of those classics. For those who like videos, I’ve found some YouTube
Videos created by AntiGroupThink, which I have included.

After you read The Prince for yourself, or at the very least watch
the five short YouTube videos, ask and answer the following three
questions:

1. Does the end ever justify the means? And if yes, in what situations?
2. How do you get power and how do you keep it?
3. Is power the end all and be all?

What is The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli About?

Niccolo Machiavelli worked in politics from 1498 to 1512, but his
political career ended in shame, with him being arrested and imprisoned
for 22 days. Machiavelli refers to Lorenzo Medici as the Prince. In his forced absence from politics, Machiavelli wrote The Prince hoping that given his republican credentials, he would be re-employed with the Medicis, thus returning to a position of power.

The Prince was written nearly 500 years ago, but some of the ideas are still relevant today. In The Prince,
Machiavelli deals with the rise and fall of states, and the measures
that a leader can take to ensure the states’ continued existence. The
author’s focus is on how societies actually work. The book is very
technical, and focuses on how to grasp and hold power, and offers advice
on what worked and what did not work in advancing a political career.
For example, Machiavelli states “A man who is made prince by the
favour of the people must work to retain their friendship; and this is
easy for him because the people ask only not to be oppressed. But a man
who has become prince against the will of the people and by the favour
of the nobles should, before anything else, try to win the people over;
this too is easy if he takes them under his protection… it is necessary
for a prince to have the friendship of the people; otherwise he has no
remedy in times of adversity.”

Machiavelli was nicknamed “Old Nick,” another name for Satan, and the
Jesuits called him “the Devil’s partner in crime.” While reading The
Prince, I was often very shocked because some sections are very dark.
However, once you get past that, it is filled with many parallels and
contrasts to today. If you dig beneath the surface of what he is saying,
the information can be transported to our time and used. For example,
“As for intellectual training, the prince must read history, studying
the actions of eminent men to see how they conducted themselves during
war and to discover the reasons for their victories or their defeats, so
that he can avoid the latter and imitate the former. Above all, he must
read history so that he can do what eminent men have done before him….”
We could make this more relevant to us by interpreting it to mean that
we must read history and study the actions of successful men and women
to discover the reasons for their successes and failures to imitate
their successes.

Machiavelli’s political thesis can be summed up as “I also believe
that the man who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise
that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does
not.”

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli: Five +2 Great Ideas

1. When trouble is sensed well in advance, it can easily be remedied;
   if you wait for it to show itself, any medicine will be too late because
   the disease will have become incurable. This means prevention is better
   than cure.
2. Men willingly change their ruler expecting to fare better. That’s why we have political parties.
3. When states are acquired in a province differing in language, in
   customs, and in institutions, then difficulties arise; and to hold them
   one must be very fortunate and very assiduous. One of the best, most
   effective expedients would be for the conqueror to go live there in
   person. This course of action would make a new possession more secure
   and more permanent.
4. Whoever is responsible for another’s becoming powerful ruins
   himself, because this power is brought into being either by ingenuity or
   by force, and both of these are suspect to the one who has become
   powerful.
5. Governments set up overnight, like everything in nature whose growth
   is forced, lack strong roots and ramifications. So they are destroyed
   in the first bad spell.
6. A man who becomes a prince with the help of the nobles finds it more
   difficult to maintain his position than one who does so with the help
   of the people. As prince, he finds himself surrounded by many who
   believe they are his equals, and because of that he cannot command or
   manage them the way he wants
7. Prosperity is ephemeral; if a man behaves with patience and
   circumspection, and the time and circumstances are right, he will
   prosper, however, if circumstances change and he doesn’t adapt his
   policy to reflect the change, he will be ruined.

Conclusion: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

I recommend that you read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli just to
see how far, and sometimes not so far, that we’ve come. After you have
read The Prince, what parallels can you make to events occurring in our
world today? What are your great ideas?