Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Niccolo Machiavelli
Assignment Reflection 3
Machiavellis The prince is mostly about human behavior. Before briefly reflecting the
writing of Machiavelli, let us analyze how his writing reflects his own life. Before going to that
part it is very import to know the core of the writing which are about 1. How to acquire the
power and 2. How to maintain the power. Beside there is emphasize on fortune/opportunity
Analyzing the fortune/necessity items, The prince writing by him was situational,
thus both fortunes & necessity. If he hadnt experienced the tortures and passed the prison term
or if there were no skirmishes in the political scenario of Italy, he might have neither gotten the
opportunity nor the felt the necessity to have such valuable writing. He also was lucky that he
Beside Machiavellis wanted to use his writing for creating opportunity to acquire
power. Through this writing he wanted to be noticed by prince and thus considered a man who
knows about tricks how to acquire power and how to maintain it.
Though the 1st part fortune and necessity which resulted in writing of The prince was
a success story. But he was not able to use it for acquiring power. If there is no power, nothing
to keep of it. He was not able to get use of it, since prince didnt read his writing when he was
alive. His wiring The Prince published few years after his death.
fear over love. Using terms controversial are to state that ideas regarding some points made in
The Prince are pluralistic. Some may support the points by calling them reality, other may
dispute them being so pessimistic, negative and ignoring social norms. Written circa 500 years
ago, the writing is yet quite useful and relevant is todays context of political and business
environment. Argument for supporting the idea of being Machiavellian can fit for some
situation or may be weak in other cases. Machiavellis points regarding preferring fear over
love can be understood, but applying deceiving, betraying, and foxiness as a whole may not
convince everyone.
The Prince nullifies the importance of morality, honesty, sincerity and fairness. The
text states since the people around us deceives, dishonest, immoral and unfair. So to get over
them, its important to be like them. Therefore it is very important for a ruler to learn how not
to be good.
Comparing love and fear, he state that love is a mutual feeling, and fear something
thats one way and implanted. Love may vanish, but fear remains. Therefore for a ruler to stay
in power.
Tony Blaire former British prime minister & some other world leaders are good
example of being Machiavellian. Tony Blaire may havent gotten opportunity of becoming
British prime minister, if then leader of labor party hadnt died at his 50s (fortune). To get
selected for 2nd term, he fairly manipulated migrants issue to get the voters sympathy. Its
noteworthy that Tony Blaire visited Machiavellis home town on 1st year of him being British
prime minister.
Barack Obama, promised his supporter during the campaign to close Guantanamo Bay
prison facility within his official term failed to do so. Other promise was to bring back US
forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. Didnt he bring back the US forces back from these
Italy and France showcasing themselves best friend of Moammer Qaddafi were the first
to provide bases for aircrafts bombing Libyan cities. Saddam Hussain once allies of US was
In general Machiavellis writing even today is useful and relevant but there are valid