Machiavelli, Part 1: The Gangster's Handbook

Niccolo Machiavelli. (I’ll call him “M” in the rest of the blogs). A man synonymous with ruthlessness and power hungriness. Unethical, unscrupulous, cut-throat. The book behind that reputation, The Prince, was called “a handbook for gangsters” by Bertrand Russell. At the peak of the war between Catholics and Protestants, the two sides could agree on one thing: M was a bad guy. Of course, the Catholics thought M was a heretic, like the Protestants. While the Protestants thought that M’s advice was exactly how the Catholics behaved.

The museum in Florence has statues of Galileo, Leonardo, Michelangelo... and M! To many (not just in Florence), M was an intellectual hero. He was a great philosophical and political thinker.

So which view is right? In the first part of his podcast on the man, Sebastian Major contends that you can’t decouple M from the environment he lived in. Ergo, he takes us back to Florence in the 1400’s, one of the great city-state powers of the age along with Venice, Milan, Naples and the Papal states. Lesser powers would rear their head now and then, and often be gobbled by the bigger powers. This was the backdrop to M's life and works. (Remind you of Game of Thrones?)

Florence was a Republic. Then, Cosimo of the Medici family used his banking wealth, power and connections to practically own the Republic. Until France defeated Florence and forced a humiliating surrender. A seething Florence turned its wrath on the Medicis and forced them out of the city. It was in this Medici-free city, a Republic again, that M rose in government in various designations.

Alas! Another Medici soon rode back to town at the head of an army and took control of Florence again, and the Republic was overthrown again. M was perceived to be close to the erstwhile Republic, so he was tried, imprisoned and tortured. But they couldn’t find any proof that M was part of any anti-Medici group, so they let him free. He left Florence, a self-imposed exile.

It was in exile that he wrote The Prince, a book on how a ruler should rule. M dedicated it to the ruling Medici. Many believe this was an attempt by M to prove himself a loyal, no nonsense, smart political operator who could be of use to the Medicis. By this interpretation, The Prince is M’s resumé!

Here are some of the famous points from the book: Rulers should, from time to time, lie and deceive. A new prince should make a show of strength. The ends justify the means. A leader needs to be cruel at times. A prince should surround himself with “people you can control”. And most famously, it threw up the eternal question for those in power: is it better to be loved or to be feared?

And then the podcast switches gears to show how grey matters really are…