“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.” - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
The above quote is a lesson given by both Machiavelli and Musashi. In warrior circles Book of Five Rings and the Art of War are default texts, but for some reason The Prince is often ignored as book concerning itself with politics, not combat. Maybe even to the point of it being cowardly because Machiavelli is generally wanting others to fight battles and put themselves in danger in his place. The Prince is critical to read and understand if one is to operate in the world and follow Musashi’s advice of seeing your wisdom in the martial arts as useful in all things. The Way is about putting what you know about combat into practice everywhere. If you understand Musashi and you understand your art, you will see how this is so with The Prince.
Many dismiss Machiavelli’s work claiming it is amoral and evil. He encourages one to operate in a deceptive, manipulative fashion - but does not Sun Tzu encourage the same? Musashi? Sun Tzu also encourages knowing your enemy. As a moral warrior your enemies certainly know, understand, and put into practice the lessons in The Prince. It is critical that you read it, know it, and understand it. Machiavelli speaks mostly of natural law as it regards to power and society, these things are true even if we would rather they are not so. Morality is not a consideration in The Prince. It is likely not a consideration to your opponent other than as a way to bind you. Musashi used custom, morality, and the strict adherence to it in order to gain advantage over his opponents. For they took great offense at Musashi’s disrespect, lost their calm, expected Musashi to fight in a particular way, and then were cut down. The only consideration in The Prince is getting actual power, keeping it, and surviving when you have what others desire.
A major theme in The Prince is dealing with the mob, the hoi polloi, the crowd. Readers of The Prince often take this as part of the amorality. Machiavelli treats the bulk population as a herd of animals relying on base instincts rather than individuals with their own thoughts, aspirations, and moral behavior. Problem is, Machiavelli is correct. The span between January 2020 and the date of this posting, and likely later, should be proof enough. Likely the population at large is in opposition to you and your way of life. Failure to accept and understand this is refusing to know your opponent.
In reading the Prince years back I remember being struck by a section where he was extremely misogynistic. It seemed to me poorly thought out and not given due consideration. Especially considering the tone and nature of the rest of the work. Key to understanding texts from the past is to understand the culture and predominant norms of the time. These are not Bibles to take as absolute truths that must one hundred percent be incorporated into your life and thinking. These works are written by people with their own flaws and myopias. Possibly the most major flaw of our time is due to an error, short sightedness, or assertion that does not survive the test of time; we then reject and eject every single other useful lesson by that person believing everything they’ve ever said or will say is equally as flawed. We act as if any flaw is catastrophic and damning of the entire rest of the work and life. Do not do this. It ensures you will not learn lessons from those that came before, and it will prevent you from learning how to weigh individual assertions for their wisdom on their own. Understand why the author thought as they did, why it may have been necessary or at least understandable. Then you will gain wisdom even when the author you are reading is wrong.
Machiavelli is not teaching you how to achieve hero status. He’s teaching you how one can maximize their effectiveness, attain power, keep it, and survive the crowd and hierarchy if notoriety is achieved. Do note that Machiavelli advises avoiding reaching notoriety and fame. He advises to have the ear of the people that pull the levers, to give them commands rather than be in the position to pull the levers yourself. As when the crowd deposes today’s lever puller you can still be intact, and still at their ear still having the levers pulled as you will.
Let’s end with some quotes from Machiavelli. Compare how these match up to Musashi, Sun Tzu, and your observations of the last 18 months.
“Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” Think of how many of us are fighting the last war, in the last way, with the old weapons, completely oblivious to the fights, slights, and injuries happening right in front of us, directly, today, by which we have no counter or defense. How many stereotypes and prejudices of the past do we hold onto long beyond their usefulness? Fuddlore?
“It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.” I consider this in a different way than Machiavelli meant, kind of. In our current day people worship titles. MD, Director of, Professor of, whatever-ologist, President. These titles grant the power and forever. Having them places one directly in the “expert” class and suddenly anything they say is taken as absolute truth and their preferences as command. It is not that the populace honors the person and their reasoned opinion. No, they worship the title and without the title your words and actions mean nothing.
“Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.” Our Liberty was not lost by armed conflict, the police, stormtroopers, or an invading army. It was lost by propaganda, deception, and “for the children/grandma”.
“Everyone see what you appear to be, few experience what you really are… The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.” Consider celebrity worship. Worship of titles. Worship of fictional characters. Think of how shallow the perception of the average person is to the politicians and titled around us. Consider the power of marketing in our society, and that propaganda is simply marketing of the political.
“There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.” Flip side of the coin to Jordan Peterson’s “Tell the truth, or at least do not lie.” It is critical that one inspires and rewards this in others. Otherwise if any degree of power is found, one will find themselves surrounded by yes men.
“Without an opportunity, their abilities would have been wasted, and without their abilities, the opportunity would have arisen in vain.” This describes the predicament we on the side of Liberty find ourselves in and is the strategy of our opponent. Many, maybe most, of us have ample ability and even courage, but are being denied opportunity. It is unwise to think this is not on purpose. Once the ability is gone (most of us dead or disarmed) then ample opportunities will arise that cannot be capitalized on due to lack of ability.
“Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.” Who are the Princes in today’s society? I would posit the high ranking members of the large corporations. Particularly PR, Marketing, CEOs, CFOs, and various people sprinkled through the media landscape that have an outsized reach and megaphone.
“Therefore the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.” Take this as a silver lining. Look at the people that are in government and the princes. They have their fortresses, they have their guards, but they are hated.