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Machiavelli’s Prince: Response
There’s a character called Niccolo in Legend of Mana; he’s a little rabbit-mouse salesman dude, and you have to escort him various places because he thinks bandits will get him or something like that. He’s also quite greedy and he hates the Sproutlings, who are these little plant thingies that all share the same brain and say things like “The cow isn’t anywhere. He’s inside my mind,” and he has a big hat. I think if Machiavelli were a video game character, he would probably be pretty much like that, only more sure of himself and full of helpful advice on how to be a successful hero. I also don’t know how the real Machiavelli might react to little plant things that share a single consciousness and say weird things. Maybe he would also be full of useful advice on how to be a successful conglomerate of plant things. I guess if Machiavelli were a salesman in the literal sense, he might be pretty good at it, assuming his clients didn’t all think he was a scheming, debauched jerk. Actually, the real-life Machiavelli’s degenerate state or whatever is amusing to me. I’m sort of a fan.
In tenth grade World History, I wrote an essay about Machiavelli’s thing about how a Prince should be feared rather than loved, but avoid being hated. I don’t remember exactly what I wrote, but I was agreeing with him; after all, it does make sense, especially the thing about how the subjects are the ones who decided whether they will love the Prince, but the Prince can control whether they fear him, and if one happens to wake up some morning and find out that they are, in fact, a despot, control’s the important issue. Avoidance of hate makes all kinds of sense, as if you happen to incur the wrath of the populous you end up with annoying revolutions to crush and things like that.
The whole idea of it is kind of utilitarian-- I can’t figure out whether I am, at heart, basically rhadamanthine or merciful. I find myself deeply admiring people who are severe and uncompromising in their ideals, but when it comes down to it, I think I myself fall on the other side of it. It’s sort of like Republicans and Democrats. There are things I admire about both parties, but they’re also both sort of jerks about a bunch of stuff and I don’t want to affiliate myself with either of them. BAH! I’m off-topic. I was planning to write something really good, because I actually had some thoughts, but they abandoned me when I needed them most... stupid thoughts.
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