[Music]
from Shakespeare's plays to modern TV
dramas the unscrupulous schemer for whom
the ends always justify the means has
become a familiar character type we love
to hate so familiar in fact that for
centuries we've had a single word to
describe such characters Machiavellian
but is it possible that we've been using
that word wrong this whole time the
early 16th century statesman Niccolo
Machiavelli wrote many works of history
philosophy and drama but his lasting
notoriety comes from a brief political
essay known as the prince framed as
advice to current and future monarchs
Machiavelli wasn't the first to do this
in fact there was an entire tradition of
works known as mirrors for princes going
back to antiquity but unlike his
predecessors Machiavelli didn't try to
describe an ideal government or exhort
his audience to rule justly and
virtuously instead he focused on the
question of power how to acquire it and
how to keep it and in the decades after
it was published the Prince gained a
diabolical reputation during the
European Wars of Religion both Catholics
and Protestants blamed Machiavelli for
inspiring acts of violence and tyranny
committed by their opponents by the end
of the century
Shakespeare was using machiavel to
denote an immoral opportunist leading
directly to our popular use of
Machiavellian as a synonym for
manipulative villainy at first glance
the princes reputation as a manual for
tyranny seems well-deserved
Wow Machiavelli appears entirely
unconcerned with morality except insofar
as it's helpful or harmful to
maintaining power for instance princes
are told to consider all the atrocities
necessary to seize power and to commit
them in a single stroke to ensure future
stability attacking neighboring
territories and oppressing religious
minorities are mentioned as effective
ways of occupying the public regarding a
Prince's personal behavior Machiavelli
advises keeping up the appearance of
virtues such as honesty or generosity
but being ready to abandon them as soon
as one's interests are threatened most
famously he notes that for a ruler it is
much safer to be feared than loved the
tract even ends with an appeal to
lorenzo de medici
the recently installed ruler of Florence
urging him to unite the fragmented
city-states of Italy under his rule many
have justified Machiavelli as motivated
by unsentimental realism and a desire
for peace in an Italy torn by internal
and external conflict according to this
view Machiavelli was the first to
understand a difficult truth the greater
good of political stability is worth
whatever unsavory tactics are needed to
attain it the philosopher Isaiah Berlin
suggested that rather than being a moral
the prince harkens back to ancient Greek
morality placing the glory of the state
above the Christian ideal of individual
salvation but what we know about
Machiavelli might not fit this picture
the author had served in his native
Florence for 14 years as a diplomat
staunchly defending its elected
Republican government against would-be
monarchs when the Medici family seized
power he not only lost his position but
was even tortured and banished
with this in mind it's possible to read
the pamphlet you wrote from exile not as
a defense of princely rule but a
scathing description of how it operates
indeed enlightenment figures like
Spinoza saw it as warning free citizens
of the various ways in which they can be
subjugated by aspiring rulers in fact
both readings might be true Machiavelli
may have written a manual for tyrannical
rulers but by sharing it he also
revealed the cards to those who would be
ruled in doing so he revolutionised
political philosophy laying the
foundations for Hobbes and future
thinkers to study human affairs based on
their concrete realities rather than
preconceived ideals through his brutal
and shocking honesty Machiavelli sought
to shatter popular delusions about what
power really entails and as he wrote to
a friend shortly before his death he
hoped that people would learn the way to
hell in order to flee from it for
another famous take on power dynamics
download a free audio version of the art
of war on audible.com slash Ted - Edie
game of Thrones fans will be excited to
hear a stirring narration from one of
the series most morally ambiguous
characters can you guess who