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Machiavelli's Cruelty

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A truly powerful leader is cruel and shows little to no accounts of mercy but rather use cruelty to bring order and restore peace and obedience in societies; moreover, while avoiding being hated. Machiavelli argues that a prince should not worry about the criticism of cruelty when it is a matter of protecting his citizens and ensuring they are united, loyal, and obedient. Furthermore, excessive mercy allows for disorder to arise and prosper while creating a dysfunctional society that hurts the future of a prince’s power and credibility. A prince should avoid being hated, but still show no mercy as it establishes him respect and shows his strength, influence, and compassion as a good leader; also, institutes more peace, harmony, and order in …show more content…

(285) Leaders who show mercy, love, and establish friendships are taken advantage of and lose their power. It is important to be seen as a cruel and with an army to exemplify the strength and unity of your army; therefore, being seen as fearful and cruel on a greater and global level. A prince should not be worried about being considered cruel “for without reputation he will never keep an army united or prepared for any combat” (Machiavelli, 284); moreover, while this attains respect for him and he is now perceived as terrifying, he benefits greatly from acting inhumanly cruel. With cruelty comes major respect and nobody will question the prince or his decisions, instead he will be met with pure obedience and reach stability and harmony in society. Thus, a prince maintains his power through the act of mercilessness and is reciprocated with high esteem and fear from his citizens. Cruelty is more important than mercy because it maintains a prince’s power and establishes order and sustainable peace within society. Moreover, a leader must be feared as he will be taken more seriously and never be questioned by his disciples. Cruelty preserves more respect while shows more compassion towards citizens than mercy and love; thus, a leader is better off being feared and respected immensely than loved and susceptible to his own

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Then for Machiavelli he talks about how a prince should show no fear instead for him to show that he is the one with power. That a prince's people should fear him. Both authors go on to talk on how their people react based on the prince and princesse act. The authors then go on to explain how they should view and run their people. Both authors also reflect the fact that the way their people are going to act towards them is mainly based off of how they treat them.

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In Niccolo Machiavelli's book, The Prince (1513), he evaluates on how a prince can be a successful leader. Machiavelli’s purpose of this guidebook was to construct his argument to the rising ruler Giuliano de Medici for when he comes to power in Florence. He adopts a casual but authoritative tone in order to convince the prince that Machiavelli’s evaluation on how to be the best prince, is the right thing for the prince to do without coming off as he knows more than the prince or is trying to intimidate him.. Machiavelli’s reference to previous rulers and whether their tactics failed or succeeded helps to benefit his credibility along with his allusion to historic text. He appeals to our logic by simply stating a prince can only do what is within his power to control, and his use of an analogy furthers his argument.

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According to Machiavelli, “when the prince is with his armies and has a multitude of soldiers under his government, then it is above all necessary not to care about a name for cruelty because without this name he never holds his army united or disposed to any action" (Machiavelli 67). Machiavelli promotes rulers practicing cruelty because it inspires fear in a ruler. Essentially, This fear makes his subjects easier to control because they fear the retribution the ruler may bring down upon them for disobeying one of his laws or

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Machiavelli argues the perfect prince will be both feared and loved by his people, and if unable to be both he will make himself feared and not hated. Machiavelli believes it is much safer to be feared than to be loved because people are less likely to offend and stand up against strong characters, also people are less concerned in offending a prince who has made himself loved. Accordingly, Machiavelli believes generosity is harmful to your reputation and the choice between being generous or stingy, merciful or cruel, honest or deceitful, should only be important if it aids the prince in political power. All in all, Machiavelli believes the ruler must be a great deceiver and do what is essential to uphold power over the

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In Machiavelli’s “The Morals of the Prince” the idea of a ruler’s/ tyrant’s obligation to his people is also presented. In one section, Machiavelli talks a ruler’s best way to navigate himself through leadership. Machiavelli weighs between the importance of being generous and self-preservative. A ruler risks his entire welfare for the sake of being seen as benevolent. He states, “A prince of character is bound to use up his entire revenue in works of ostentation...

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In The Prince (1532), Machiavelli lists elements a prince should have. The biggest thing Machiavelli cautions against is breeding hatred. He claims that “[…] a wise prince should establish himself on that which is in his own control and not in that of others; he must endeavor only to avoid hatred” (Machiavelli 82). Hatred will lead to loss of control. If the civilians hate the prince, then they have control over him.

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“Everyone sees what you seem to be, few people perceive what you are; and those few don’t dare opposed the general opinion, which has the majesty of government backing up it.” Thus Machiavelli, in “The Prince,” suggests that most people putted their trust in what they saw, and that the would-be ruler must exploited this mass credulity by a good show: “The masses are always impressed by appearances and bi the income of an event—and in the world their is only masses. The few have no place there, when the many crowd together.” If he wanted to stay in charge (and in health) a ruler have to pleased those staring and complacent multitudes with a publik nose of sanctity, which will let his carry in the gruesome work of politics without

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One aspect of Machiavelli’s theory which significantly contributes to his reputation as the “philosopher of evil,” is his advice to the prince on keeping their word to the public. In chapter eighteen, Machiavelli states, “a wise ruler cannot, and should not, keep his word when doing so is to his disadvantage, and when the reasons that led him to promise to do so no longer apply” (pg. 37). To simplify, Machiavelli says princes are obligated to lie in certain circumstances. He also states that while it is unnecessary for the prince to have positive qualities, such as honesty, trustworthiness, sympathy, compassion, or be religious, it is essential for the prince to be viewed so by the public (pg. 37). While many people argue that Machiavelli’s legitimization of lying and deception in politics is immoral, I argue the opposite.

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According to him, rulers should know their respective limits when it comes to the force and violence they inflict. Machiavelli believes that maximizing betrayal, deception and other cruel acts aren’t considered talents. Although these methods are effective in gaining empire, these don’t help in getting glory. Therefore, using violence and cruelty may be necessary but should have limits. The prince must know up to what extent his violence should be inflicted upon and he must do it all at once to avoid the hatred and resentment from his

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