Machiavelli The Prince Essay

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Machiavelli states in his book, The Prince, that to be a good prince, one must appear to be good to his people, when in reality, he is not. This is to help deal with the idea that a prince may not possess every trait admirable in a king. Machiavelli uses the statement, “no ruler can possess or fully practice” all the characteristics the people would like to see in their prince, and it is for this reason “a prince must be prudent that he escapes ill repute for such vices as might take his position away from him.” These vices Machiavelli refers to are characteristics such as mercy and the inability to appear moral. Having mercy makes a prince weak. This statement is paraphrased constantly throughout The Prince. This does not mean a prince must act without morals and not for the good …show more content…

Torture has become an idea worth rallying behind. When ISIS posts videos of them torturing our people, our nation jump on top of it and say “we should go to war” “and “we’ll make them pay.” In reality, we could be practicing these tactics behind closed doors. This is just an example of how a prince could hide and even denounce immoral acts while participate in them secretly for the good of his people. This ability to manipulate how people view a prince, or government, can be very useful to a prince if he wants to go to war to protect himself or his people. The idea of manipulating the view of the prince to his people is the foundation of Machiavelli’s book, The Prince. He considers the ability to appear good, while in reality not being good, to be necessary for a strong prince. He backs this idea through a trail of concepts including the weakness of mercy, the selfish drive of people, the necessity of immorality, and the ability to disguise and hide practices as a

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