Machiavelli And Cruelty 'And Loved Or Feared'

Machiavelli was a Florentine Statesman. In 1512, the Florentine Republic collapsed and the Medico's came back into power. Machiavelli was labeled a traitor and was sent to prison where he was

tortured and threatened with execution.1 He was subsequently released into exile. He went to the

country and wrote “The Prince”. He had wanted to present it to Lorenzo Medici as a show of his

loyalty but it did not have the effect that Machiavelli had envisioned. He never would regain the

position in politics he had enjoyed earlier in life. “The Prince” though not published until five years

after his death, was Machiavelli' best known work.

One of the key chapters in “The Prince” is “Of Cruelty and Clemency and Whether

Is it better for a ruler to be loved or feared by his subjects? Machiavelli replies that

one ought to be both feared and loved but it it is difficult for the two to go together. Therefore, it is

much safer to be feared more than loved. For a ruler or a government to maintain a civil orderly society

fear of punishment for breaking the rules must exist or civil disobedience may occur. This is an

admirable quality in a just ruler but is an abusive trait in a ruler who governs through fear alone.

Throughout history dictators have used “The Prince” has a guidebook on how to get and maintain

power. Joseph Stalin used fear to rule the Soviet Union. Anyone who did not agree with his ideas

were either executed or send to labor camps. He is said to have killed millions of political opponents.

Machiavelli stated that only when there is a manifest reason should a person's life be taken. I don;t

believe that opposing ones political thought is a just reason for the taking of ones life. Machiavelli

believed that a good leader refrained from taking a persons property. In contrast to this belief, Stalin

confiscated peoples farmland. He formed collective farms in which all the grains were sent to

The supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il is a cruel

leader. He rules his county with an iron fist. The prisons are full of political opponents. His people

are kept isolated from the rest of the world. While his people are starving, his army is well-fed.

Religious activities are almost non-existent. To provide an illusion of religious freedom, government

related religious activities exist.3

Machiavelli ignores that men yearn to be free. The United States was founded on this principle.

America was a colony of Great Britain. In 1776, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and

delegated the task of writing a declaration of independence from Great Britain to Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain

inalienable rights, that are among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. He then lists the

grievances the colonists had toward the King of England. Among these grievances was being taxed

without their consent, leaving a standing army in peacetime, for abolishing their laws and suspending

our own legislatures. The United States gained their independence from the tyranny of Great