Machiavelli is one of the great dark characters of Western philosophy and Western political thought, branded as sort of the Darth Vader of philosophy, he represents all that is evil and unholy. He's the man that Plato and Socrates warned us about, the man with the tyrannical soul.
To Machiavelli, there is no other world besides the one we live in. There is no God, no other-worldly metaphysical principles, no other will than the will of man. Machiavelli is one of the most practical thinkers and grounds his philosophy in this world, the world that we live in, and this world only. According to Machiavelli, we live in the jungle, there are no rules, no codes of conduct, and no moral obligations. In the jungle that is our world, nature favours the strong and powerful, much like how lions or tigers rule the jungle, Machiavelli believes that we must dominate our environment in much the same way, by attaining more and more power. The eagle doesn't feel remorse for killing a hare, that is simply the way of nature, and the way of nature is cruelty. Machiavelli, in a sense, wants to liberate us from the guilt associated with conventional morality, there are no rules in politics just like there are no rules in nature, you either adjust to it or you succumb to it, those are your only two options.
Although we may not completely agree with Machiavelli, one must admit that there is a dark brilliance to much of his political philosophy; no matter how unholy, horrifying or blasphemous his conclusions may be, there is a certain grim truth to what he is saying. No matter how hard we try to discredit to invalidate Machiavelli, deep down we know that the world described by Machiavelli, the political world, is a horrifying, immoral and profane place. Those who wish to become practical politicians will come to realise that it is very difficult to act completely "good".
Machiavelli produced a number of works throughout his lifetime but his most notable is The Prince. Machiavelli worked for the Medici family and when they got expelled from Florence in 1494, Machiavelli was chased out also and went into retirement. Machiavelli wrote The Prince when he was in retirement and dedicated it to Lorenzo de' Medici essentially as a gift and advice on how to stay in power. The Prince itself is a very brief piece only around 100 pages and when it's read there is a real sense of restlessness and frustration on the side of Machiavelli, he is upset at the current state of Italy, and you get the feeling that all he wants is to get back into practical politics.
The Prince itself is structured in a ruthlessly efficient manner, it is pretty much a step-by-step handbook on how to be a ruler, and how to gain power, it was Joseph Stalin's favourite book, and he kept it by his night table. And it's not hard to see why, it's concise and practically worded and Machiavelli not only tells you what you should do, he gives examples as well - examples from both history and contemporary politics, so his reasoning is shockingly easy to understand.
One of Machiavelli's most central ideas in The Prince are those surround fear, love and hatred. Machiavelli asserts that it is very useful to be loved, but he finds that love is a fleeting type of feeling and unreliable in the long-term. Fear, on the other hand, is something that really controls people, fear is an emotion you can count on as it is much less likely to wane over time compared to something like love. So, if you have to choose between love and fear, make sure the people fear you rather than love you because fear is far more reliable. But there is a reversal to this, the potential for hatred. If the people fear you to extent where they develop hatred that's when fear loses its value, their hatred will make people unafraid of death and hence the leverage that fear once had will disappear.
"[...] if only because, once a person no longer cares about dying, he's free to strike."
So, avoid contempt and hatred at all costs.
Machiavelli's example of an excellent politician, one he referenced numerous times throughout the book, is Cesare Borgia, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI. The prime example he gives of Borgia is his management of the city-state after it has been conquered. After Borgia conquers a city-state, he finds the city in a state of unrest, there is a great deal of outlawing, crime, and banditry so to establish order he appoints his second in command Remirro de Orco, a cruel, no-nonsense man and gives him complete control of the city, life and death power over everybody. After a couple of months, the bloodthirsty, ruthless Orco dominates the area, executes many, and eventually scares the people into submission. Once the people have appropriately been pacified through fear, Borgia deems that these draconian policies are no necessary as it may arouse hatred, so he assassinates Orco and leaves his severed body in the town square next morning. You send a guy out to do the dirty work and trick him into thinking he's acting with your authority, then you stab him in the back and feed him the wolves right after. Mmhmmhmm... Effectively, ruthless, cunning. Machiavelli is not picky about the means, for the ends can be used to justify any means.
Machiavelli's ideas are rather cynical in nature. In his world, the only way to survive is to get them before they get you. The true Machiavellian is always on his one side, he pleads his allegiance to no one, he trusts no one and exists only to further his own cause. Though his teachings are useful to keep in the back of one's mind, devoting oneself entirely to dominating, backstabbing and double-crossing means that one becomes less than human, he becomes no longer a social animal; he becomes sort of a beast in a sense, seeking to gratify only his lust for power and is willing to cast aside all morality, all rationality to a certain extent, to do so.
Niccolò Machiavelli was likely not a true Machiavellian in the conventional sense in his lifetime, some popular thinkers, such as Baruch Spinoza and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, believed that Machiavelli's intention with The Prince was actually a subtle way to undermine the authority of rulers, by showing the people that power was no more than subterfuge.
Many writers, authors of numerous genres from fantasy to self-help have dreamed up fantasies, republics and kingdoms that bear no resemblance to reality. The Prince, although not without its limitations, still serves as a black pill to our self-delusions and polite fictions about our current world and how we dream about how the world ought to be. Machiavelli to wants us to see for ourselves what the worst of our reality has to offer so that we first deal with the world as it is before we can deal with the world as it ought to be.
Shortly before his death in 1527 Machiavelli wrote to a close friend, Francesco Guicciardini:
"I believe that the following would be the true way to go to paradise: Learn the way to hell in order to steer clear of it.”
🤔... Something worthwhile to think about.
