The Prince and the World's Hypocritical Reviews

When I read Machiavelli’s The Prince, I discovered how hypocritical the world was. Long before I the epic work came to my reading table, there had been controversial comments about the book and how to a large extent its teachings deviated from normal ethical standard. But, later, after the interesting read, I realized that the world may have frowned at The Prince because of its blunt sincerity in documenting how human beings behave and how best is it to win them to your side as a leader either by conventional ways or dubious means.

Niccolo Machiavelli was a Florentine genius, a political theorist and philosopher of the sixteenth century, whose best known work – The Prince – shocked papal Europe upon publication. This was because The Prince veered off from abstract ideas of consolidating power, and thus said things the way it was. Machiavelli’s ideas and writing have been labelled as devious because of the blunt truth embedded in them. Yet, their practical applications have yielded success upon careful practice.

The Prince discusses various ways power is gotten in a Principality either by hereditary, or by force, or by criminal act, etc, and the various reactions the subjects show to these different forms. For instance, a Principality acquired by hereditary is not so difficult to govern. The subjects easily give their loyalty to the new prince.

The Prince goes further to bare to us that human beings are fickle and liars; they easily forget a good done unto them, but remember for a long time a wrong done unto them. So it might be advisable for those rulers who might not be able to please their subjects till the end of their tenures, to deal with their subjects from the beginning of their tenures and then begin to do good unto them towards the end. Because human beings have short memory, they will forget all the evil done unto them and speak well of the ruler.

The Prince says that human beings can be perfectly loyal to their leaders if only the later can abstain from their properties. Properties don’t only relate to furniture, cars, house, etc. Properties in broad prospective could also include wives or husbands; in managerial setting, salary could also be included. Thus, as a manager or ruler, to be successful in your career, it is better to recognize your subordinate’s properties and abstain from them no matter how tempting they may appear.

The Prince has taught me beyond the letters in which it was writ. Although, I had heard about it before my University days (then, often painted with darkness), it was in my First Year I got to hear about Niccolo Machiavelli formally and I read The Prince few years after. In the Philosophy text I read, Machiavelli represented the philosopher of the modern age, because his work – The Prince – disregarded the world’s hypocritical and abstract ideas and thus spoke the truth the way it appears.  But this stand caused him so many foes especially among the Catholics of the medieval period, and as a result of this, he was labelled as an enemy of moral doctrine and as an ill influence to politicians of his time.

Ever since the first version of The Prince was published in 1513, its doctrines have been shocking just as Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. While to some, it has been a compilation of crazy ideas which have brought deceit and lies to modern political corridors, rather than a consolidation of  the abstract truth our hypocritical world has glued together so it could appear vindicated in the sight of the God it claim to worship. But the truth stands that Machiavelli’s work - The Prince – has since had resounding effects on effective management and even wider prospect in preventing anarchy in a Free State. His take on whether it was better to be more feared than loved has in no small measure affected my thoughts politically and otherwise.