Where Machiavelli Freaks You Out

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like most people, probably, I read parts of this in school at different times. I decided I should look at the whole thing instead of just bits, and I would say there are small rewards for taking the time to do it. Not enough for most readers, but you might want to.

It's not all that long, anyway.

Obviously, this whole essay-style writing is very Machiavellian, making it generally good advice only for people without scruples. It's not about being a moral person. It's entirely advice on how to keep yourself in power once you arrive there, and it is so practical that is also often deeply unethical and unprincipled, even straight up evil. The good of the people is not considered, because the people are not his audience, and a prince would only care about the people to the extent that it mattered to his continued success in controlling his princedom.

To understand how the author thought, the reader should conceive of the people in Machiavelli's writings the same way we would normally consider animals on a farm. They are possessions or tools, a means to an end, a way to be wealthy and powerful. Their good only enters into the equation when or if it supports the prince and helps him maintain control over his lands.

"A prince wishing to keep his state," he writes, "is very often forced to do evil." (Isn't that the kind of thing sociopaths say? You forced me--I didn't want to do that.) Sure, make them love you if you can so that they cooperate with you, so they don't rise up, but don't hesitate to destroy enemies and malcontents in a way that terrifies others. He also says that the prince "cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed, being often forced, in order to maintain the state, to act contrary to fidelity, friendship, humanity, and religion." That's pretty bad, doncha think? He has practical advice on how to do this, and in the abstract it sounds like advice on weeding your garden, but when you think about it any deeper it is beyond disturbing.

He didn't care. He wasn't writing for you or me.

What I was most surprised to realize was that he was very well informed and educated, more than I thought. He uses examples from the history of Rome, ancient Greece and Persia, and all of Europe at different stages of history. He knows historical details about campaigns and leadership styles and a lot more, giving his arguments a pretty good basis in fact. The style, though, is kinda goofy. It's all written like a flowchart: "you could take power this way or that way; if the first, you might do a or b; if the second, c or d; if you want to achieve X, you can do Y or Z; if Y, this or that might happen..." It feels like a simplistic view of personality and causality and possibility, as if everything breaks into two or three simple categories, each with its corresponding series of action that will lead to success. However, I like this for one reason: he is pushing back against the medieval/Renaissance belief in fate, the wheel of fate, the way people are brought up and then cast down and there's nothing you can do to alter that. He thinks you can act to decide your fate, and I prefer that as a philosophy.

Near the end, he addresses the practicality of that belief in the face of reality, where unforeseen events can change history. He admits that there are forces beyond our control, but fate or fortune isn't wholly in charge. He says, "I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less." He talks about a flooding river that can carry everything away despite anything we do, but argues that we can prepare for floods and mitigate their harm the next time. Not bad advice.

As much as anything, I found it interesting to see how people thought 500 years ago. The Prince isn't terribly amusing on its own, just for pleasure reading, but his first-person essay and advice does answer some questions about our ancestors and the way they saw the world. And it reminds a modern person why we want to limit the power of elected officials and others. Don't give them the chance to put Machiavelli into practice.

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