Machiavellian Kindness
"Cruel to be kind" is a cliché often used in modern society. It suggests using rather harsh means in order to accomplish benevolent ends. For example a parent grounds his or her child for a month after the child is caught smoking. The child thinks the punishment austere, but the parent inflicted the penalty to show the child that smoking is unhealthy and that he or she is breaking the law. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote "The Qualities of the Prince" to demonstrate how a ruler should rule and be successful doing so. He asserts that the prince (or ruler) must use questionable means to be an effective ruler and that a successful ruler exhibits questionable or nearly corrupt qualities. Three of these qualities are making one's only profession war, miserliness, and deceitfulness. Machieavelli's values of a successful prince (or ruler) sound remarkably similar to those equated with modern day politicians. The values he praises, however, are seen as faults and would not lead a politician to success presently. "A prince, therefore, must not have any other object nor any other thought, nor must he take anything as his profession but war, its institutions, and its disciplines...(Jacobus 35)." Machiavelli first states that war is very i
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Qualities Prince, , Bedford Books, Niccolo Machiavelli, politician success, qualities prince, majority american, prince ruler, profession war, lead politician,
Approximate Word count = 831
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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