Buy sofas or ideas?
Buy sofas! This is what you can read on any forum or hear in almost any add but in the past people were not spreading information about products but ideas. One great man with great ideas was Nicolo Machiavelli.
Machiavelli has yet another argument in relation to the good ruler’s characteristics in his chapter 18, ‘How Prince Should Honour Their Word’[1]. Although in reality the good prince probably should not possess virtues, he should appear to be virtuous in front of his people. The good prince should organise society around virtues, because in my opinion if a society is virtuous and they see that their ruler is virtuous, they are more likely to love him, than hate him. The avoidance of hatred from the people, on the other hand, is a very important moment to be recognised by princes, because hatred is a main drive for rebellion and therefore a main threat to the prince’s power. But although a prince should appear to be good and virtuous, he should always be prepared to employ evil and abandon virtues, should a threat to his interests or power arise. At that stage of the book we cannot fail to notice, that Machiavelli feels very confident about the advice he gives. He has considered every detail and moment of princedom and has accumulated great knowledge on the matter. Whereas in the beginning of the book we could be amazed about how freely Machiavelli talks about using evil as a tool to establish and maintain one’s rule, we are now amazed by the deep understanding and consideration of each detail concerning ruling a principality. He has recognised that image has great importance, although it might differ from reality.
[1] Chapter 18, How Prince Should Honour Their Word, from Machiavelli(2003), The Prince, 6th edition, London: Penguin Classics
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