maintain the power ya'll

So is Machiavelli a genius or just downright absurd? His opinions are drastic, but somehow correct in their interpretation. Would it be better to be loved or feared? Most of the time, your first answer is obviously to be loved, because who doesn’t want to be loved? However, Machiavelli would disagree with being loved. He finds it more effective to be feared. He states on page 66, “From this a dispute arises whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The response is that one would want to be both the one and the other; but because it is difficult to put them together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one has to lack one of the two.” In this passage, Machiavelli says it is safer to be feared. Initially, I disagreed with this because, if you have people loving you, you automatically have people on your side. These people that love you will support you as prince and will have your back. However, reading later on in the passage, he makes the valid point of how being love can be tricky considering the nature of men. He continues his opinion saying, “For one can say this generally of men: that they are ungrateful, fickle, pretenders, and dissemblers, evaders of danger, eager for gain. While you do them good, they are yours, offering you their blood, property, lives, and children, as I said above, when the need for them is far away; but, when it is close to you, they revolt.” He’s basically saying that men can turn on you so easily. As a prince, you need stability in order to maintain the power. If you are loved rather than feared, it is more likely to be turned on. Princes are hypothetically supposed to make the people happy, but in reality they are doing what is best for them. Being loved is great and all, but Machiavelli states that there is more of a chance of your people getting upset and revolting.

This is where being feared is a more effective choice. If you are feared rather than loved, your followers are too intimidated to challenge you. The last thing you want, as a prince, it to be turned on and taken over. Your power is then lost, and your whole objective of being prince is invalid. Now, what does Machiavelli mean by being feared? Does he mean that he should be hated? One might make this connection between hatred and fear. Machiavelli states on page 67, “The prince should nonetheless make himself feared in such a mode that if he does not acquire love, he escapes hatred, because being feared and not being hated can go together very well.” Yes, Machiavelli threw in that “nonetheless” so this statement got extra tricky. As he stated earlier, the ideal situation would be to be both feared and loved. However, that’s just how how things work. Reality causes you to lack in one of the two. In this passage on page 67, Machiavelli is saying that you should be feared so much that you are extremely close to being hated. However, he does not say you should reach the point of hatred. He says the two, hatred and fear, can basically go hand in hand. You should be feared so much that you are almost hated. You cannot fully be hated however, because then people will revolt. As said before, that last thing a prince wants is to be turned on. The prince should be feared so much by his people that there is no reason to revolt. Hatred and love both have the potential of a revolt against the prince.

Now, obviously it is more ideal to be loved, but we have to think of reality of the situation. Machiavelli’s opinion of fear rather than love seems so absurd, but his points are incredibly valid. His point of being a prince is maintaining power. Love will not maintain power. Men are too emotional and too vulnerable. They can be so quick to go from love to hate. Maintaining a fear throughout the people will maintain a power over the people. I do not think anyone wishes to be feared but it is clearly stated by Machiavelli that it is basically more logical. If you can get a healthy balance between the two, then props to you. However, reality is harsh sometimes, which makes many of Machiavelli’s points so relevant. Whatever you do as prince, do it to maintain the power.