Machiavelli

In Machiavelli's The Prince, war is seen absolutely ridiculous and petty. Machiavelli talks about war like it is a game. A game about power. A game that has to be won. Now, Machiavelli does provide proof about the points and claims that he makes throughout this book. He alludes to Moses, princes, and leaders that lost their power but Machiavelli has an incredibly evil twist in his logic. Machiavelli is not the only one to think this, though, for it is actually pretty common among past leaders and many leaders today.

Machiavelli believes the key to leadership is fear and domination. He writes, " But if the Turk were defeated and routed in open battle, in such a way that he could not raise armies again, he need not worry about anything... when this is eliminated, there remains no one he need fear,". I think that this is relevant to the present and something most leaders, to this day and age, think about. It ties in the military industrial complex; how war breeds war. Nations are competing to find the most incredible weapon that can create mass destruction. Why? It is because, in a way, they want to defeat another nation's military so badly with one single sweep that their army cannot rise again. Some label Machiavelli as evil but it seems to me just a little bit hypocritical.

War is inevitable. It is either for business like it was in Mother Courage and Her children, for power like it is in The Prince, or for absolutely nothing like it is in The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissumus.

Word Count: 285

Works Cited

Machiavelli, Niccolò, and William J. Connell. The Prince: With Related Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. Print

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