I first studied Machiavelli when I was a sophomore in high school. The expression on Machiavelli's face right up there is a pretty good representation of how I felt about it. Reading The Prince was pretty much akin to torture in my sixteen year old mind. I kept thinking--"Boring guy, boring topic. Let's move on."
Machiavelli was immortalized by his idea that when it comes to being a leader, "It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot have both." In his blogpost, Spencer M argues the point that:
"Machiavelli believed that leaders should do whatever is necessary to accomplish political or leadership driven tasks." This may be what some may interpret from what Machiavelli said, but I don't think that was his point.When Machiavelli said it is better to be feared than loved, he added--"if you cannot have both." I think this last statement is incredibly important. Machiavelli was not suggesting that a prince should be a liar and a conniving politician, but rather that he should not be afraid to enforce his rule IF he had to. I don't think that Machiavelli was supporting tyrants and dictators, but rather a firm hand when it came to ruling. He obviously preferred a combination of love and fear for a leader. Machiavelli did not call for blood and horror, but for leaders with a backbone. I think that too often when we read his famous words, we assume the worst, that Machiavelli was an advocate for leaders who ruled with menace and vengeance.
I believe that the ideas that Machiavelli purported in The Prince had a great impact on how Europeans looked at their leaders. The Renaissance was a time of change and growth. While what Machiavelli suggested wasn't exactly radical, it was revolutionary in the sense that it continues to affect how we judge and perceive leaders, even today.
I love the concept of a leader with a backbone. I took a class here at BYU all about Machiavelli and one of the big debates we had was on exactly how his ideas were meant to be taken. In today's society, true Machiavellian leaders are what we need--people who will work hard to be loved and feared (i.e. respected), but who put being respected above being loved when necessary. People with real integrity.
ReplyDelete"I think this last statement is incredibly important. Machiavelli was not suggesting that a prince should be a liar and a conniving politician, but rather that he should not be afraid to enforce his rule IF he had to. I don't think that Machiavelli was supporting tyrants and dictators, but rather a firm hand when it came to ruling."
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you said here. I feel as a leader it could be hard to draw the line between being feared and being loved. Often times people are too concerned about offending others and wanting to be buddy-buddy with everyone that they aren't that great at enforcing the rules and some sort of chaos tends to break out. For example, for the first 12 months of my mission we had a very strict president. He was a kind man and he earned our respect but we definitely feared him in the sense that when he told us to do something, we did it. Once he left we had another wonderful mission president come in. He was very kind but I feel more concerned about being buddy-buddy with the missionaries and he didn't have such strict instructions or rules as our other president. Slowly things became a little more chaotic. I remember one zone conference where every one was standing around, talking and laughing loudly and no one even noticed that our president had walked in. With our former president we would have been chastised. But the new president said nothing which almost encouraged the behavior. I left a short 6 months later so I am not really sure how the mission is doing. I am sure he has gotten the hang of things by now. I loved both of my presidents but I truly respected my first president who lead and taught with authority.