Long Read
How To Use Machiavelli’s Principles of Power (And Still Be A Good Person)
Learn to distinguish between high and low trust environments.
Machiavelli was a teacher of evil. Among other counsels, the scholar Leo Strauss notes that Machiavelli advises:
“[1] princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish to possess securely;
[2] princes ought to murder their opponents rather than confiscate their property since those who have been robbed, but not those who are dead, can think of revenge;
[3] men forget the murder of their fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony”
Is there any reason, then, that a good person ought to follow Machiavelli’s advice? Is there some profit to be had in reading his books beyond learning how evil men think?
I believe there is, if you take one point seriously, namely Machiavelli’s statement that “a man who wants to make a profession of good in all regards must come to ruin among so many who are not good” — (The Prince, 61).
To explain, I should note that interpreting Machiavelli proves as diabolically difficult as the contents of his teaching. The…