Micah Blogs

Machiavelli, once a failed politician, believe and wrote through one of his works, the Prince, that the main purpose of a politician is to protect the honor of the state from internal and external threats. Doing this, he will need to be able to keep his own people in line, but although being nice may work for a little while, the ruler should air on the side of ruthlessness, for this is what keeps people in line. The people should not find it easy to do what they want, but the prince shouldn't be so ruthless that it disgusts the very people he's serving. He needs to be seen as extremely strict, but also reasonable. Machiavelli argues that a prince should make good use of the term virtue, which would involve wisdom, strategy, strength, bravery, and in some cases, ruthlessness. Machiavelli describes this as something like "criminal virtue", which allows the politicians to be cruel in the name of the state. This doesn't mean that they can be cruel whenever they pleas