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__**Machiavelli’s Ideas Concerning Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether to be Loved than Feared**__

What defines a great leader? The answer can seem so ambiguous. Does the definition include love, fear, or a balance among the two? One man, decided to offer us an answer of sort to this predicament: Nicolo Machiavelli. Even in the 21st century, Machiavelli’s teachings and philosophy continue to educate, inspire, and relate to American leaders of past and present. In fact, his ideas are clearly etched in American history and can easily be dated back to the beginning of the foundations of our nation’s leader’s values and traditions.

Nicolo’s theory concerning Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It is Better to be Loved than Feared is especially note worthy when dealing with this subject. Again, a great leader is hard to label - there are so many attributes and characteristics which must be taken into consideration. However, if we take a look and examine our nations history, according to Machiavelli’s teachings, we will find a conclusion to his ideas. (Machiavelli)

On the one hand, Machiavelli mentions leaders who have ruled primarily with fear. The leader’s approach being a tactic where he “…arose from nothing else than his inhuman cruelty, which, with his boundless valor, made him revered and terrible in the sight of his soldiers, but without that cruelty, his other virtues were not sufficient to produce this effect…” (Machiavelli) To some extent, we can see this displayed in modern American history through the actions of our current president George Bush, a ruler who has claimed to eliminate terror, but has instead created used nothing but fear tactics, to get his fellow countrymen to obey his own personal beliefs. Machiavelli, also mentions that fear is an element of a good leader, however, fear imposed in combination with personal desire leads to the opposite effect. “But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause…” (Source B)If the leader’s actions cannot be justified, then that creates disbelief among the people, and eventually leads to the leader’s downfall. At the last State of the Union Address, Bush’s Approval Rating fell to 28%, with the public greatly unhappy with his “performance as president.” Furthermore, according to Source A, Colin Powell (Secretary of State), “Issued a public letter saying that Bush’s position throws into “doubt” the “moral” basis of his “war on terror.” (Source D) Moreover, many critics continue to argue, that Bush's "War on Terror" has been used to "justify unilateral preemptive war, perpetual war, human rights abuses, and other violations of international law." (Source C)



The above mentioned is just one type of leader; there are also leaders who have lead on the sole basis of trying to please their followers. According to Machiavelli, leaders like this who permit, “too much mercy, allow disorders to arise, from which follow murders or robberies; for these are wont to injure the whole people…” Fortunately, in American history, we have not witnessed too many “pushovers” who have displayed so much clemency, that chaos erupted as a consequence.(Machiavelli) The closest example would be that of Jimmy Carter for his role on international peace relations (which have been sources of many heated debates over the internet). One blogger wrote on a political based website,” Jimmy Carter is and was a peace monger idiot. He was and still is a pushover. The Iranian Hostage crisis was a total abject failure because of his OMG what do I do, I don’t want to upset them, attitude. Then he tried a political rescue instead of a military one, yeah, he told the military what to do, and of course it failed…” Even though, Carters intensions are always the most sincere and loving, unfortunately there are always certain people who may view him as “wishy washy.”(Source E)



The last type of leader is the one who has maintained a balance of “control” and “loving according to their own will.” (Machiavelli) It is a beautiful harmony of creating admiration from the people through displays of strength and kindness. This is the ideal prince, or leader according to Machiavelli. A perfect example of a leader who exemplified these characteristics was Abraham Lincoln. Not only did he bring various parties together in spite of dissimilar agendas, he made people believe that their input was important, and accordingly, literally united our United States. There were still times where he was considered weak as a leader by his opponents, but his strength shined through by tackling the unkind words head on and not allowing them to affect him. Lincoln stated the following during his Cooper Institute address in February of 1860."Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us…. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." (Source F) Accordingly, he permitted and set forth one of the greatest standards and freedoms in American history; which consequently unified America like never before.



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 * __Bibliography:__**

(Source A) Machiavelli, Nicolo. "1515 The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli." The Prince. Oregon State University. 7 Dec 2007 &lt;[|http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/prince/prince.html#CHAPTER%20XVII&gt;.]

(Source B) "How Bush Rules: Torture and The Quest For Unfettered Power." 7 Dec. 2007 &lt;http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/17/how-bush-rules/&gt;

(Source C) Wikipedia, "War on Terrorism". 12/7/07 

(Source E) 12/6/07 .

(Source F) The Claremont Institute, "Abraham Lincoln: Leader for all Ages". 12/6/07 .

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 * k.khan