by Niccolo Machiavelli

isbn: 0226500446
subject: Nonfiction
finished: 6/27/2000

The Prince is a crash course in power politics structured as a booklet of advice to (appropriately enough) a young prince. For Machiavelli, ideals don't matter; the important issues are cold, hard realities, and the most basic of these is who holds the largest gun:

For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things which a prince must guard against, as will be explained later. Because there is no comparison whatever between an armed and a disarmed man; it is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants.

People who disagree with this quote should try watching one of those "real-crime" TV shows about police. Note, however, that Machiavelli is not advocating amorality. Rather, he is saying that in order to do good in the long run a leader must remain in power, and in order to remain in power bad things must sometimes be done:

[the prince should] not deviate from what is good, if possible, but be able to do evil if constrained.

I was impressed with The Prince; it's obviously the product of a shrewd intellect and a lifetime of experience. The common usage of Machiavellian ("characterized by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith") is based on a misunderstanding of Machiavelli's message: an unconstrained person should not act as he describes; however, those in power must act like this at times. Politics are ugly, and one of the ways to minimize the damage caused by this ugliness is to understand it rather than denying its existence.