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How Did Machiavelli's Ideas Seen As Evil And Cynical

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Niccolò Machiavelli wrote during a period of a lot of change, during the Pre-enlightenment. He witnessed corruption of states with internal fighting between the powerful families. Machiavelli’s writing The Prince’s ideas were most appropriate for the time in which he was living in, and today this writing and Machiavelli himself is seen as cynical and evil. Although many of his ideas are seen as evil, it is great to still talk about his ideas in politics today. In the following essay, Machiavelli’s most important ideas presented in The Prince will be discussed as practical, but how they are now looked at as evil and cynical in today’s politics. One of the first ideas Machiavelli’s first ideas to be discussed is under “On Those Things for Which …show more content…

This idea is that cruelty may be required to maintain order and cruelty. Today this is good for political leaders to learn about the wrongs of leading. Cruelty should never be required to maintain the order under a leader. Machiavelli is wrong when he says that it is better to be feared than to be loved. No person today will want a person leading whom they fear, rather a person that they love and trust to not do them wrong. It is also almost impossible to be more feared than loved, without becoming hated by those he is leading. This idea is seemingly cynical, because of the laws and regulations that keep from cruelty ever having to be used. Hitler is a great example of using cruelty to control, and others around rebelling and Hitler ultimately failing in his attempts. Machiavelli writes that a prince should have two fears, Internal such as his follower and external such as foreign threats. He is wrong here, a prince or any other leader should never fear his subjects because then there would be no trust. If there were no trust between and leader and his followers, there is an ever so fearful thought of an internal fight between the subjects and the most loyal to the prince, thus creating a corrupt state. If a leader fears his subjects, he should not be leading them because there is no trust and no one can properly lead without

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