The Greatest Individual

Niccolo Machiavelli (see super-hot picture above) can easily be considered one of the greatest individuals in history, in that he was one of the most influential theorists in the realm of politics. As political agendas tend to have an effect on economics, social standards, and even culture, one could even say Machiavelli has affected every aspect of history we as Mr. Smart’s AP students have been taught to consider relevant.

In fact, the very manner in which students were prepared for the AP test was an implementation of Machiavelli’s principal theory that “the ends justify the means”, because they were allowed to choose from a wide variety of means in order to gain the highest score on the test. Students could look at key terms, actually read the book, buy a 5 steps to a 5 test prep book, use practice questions, play online games, learn from discussions amongst themselves, or even in the case of one student: create color-coded flashcards. Which method each of them chose, whether it was silly or obsessive or full of procrastination, was unimportant because the end result, the scores, was what had value to both Mr. Smart and to his students. So as long as one got the end he/she desired, his/her method was considered to have been an appropriate choice. But not only do Machiavelli’s political philosophies have impact on our everyday lives, but also were at the root of many huge moments in the world’s history.

To understand why Niccolo Machiavelli should be considered so immensely influential, we must examine his life’s story as well as consider the global after-effects of his being alive. Machiavelli was born in 1469 in Florence, Italy, as the son of a middle-class juror. So as a child he got to witness the way “justice” was carried out in Florence.

He grew up and entered politics by participating in the faction that brought down Savonarola, the religious leader who held political power in Florence. Machiavelli worked his way up to being secretary and a second chancellor for Florence. This lead him to go on political “missions” and introduced him to the murdering, scheming Cesare Borgia. Many hypothesize that Borgia was Machiavelli’s inspiration for The Prince because of the man’s willingness to even resort to poisoning people in order to further his political objectives (like staying in power). Unfortunately for Machiavelli, he was kicked out of his government position when the Medici family took power in Florence. They also happened to torture him and exile him for being a republican (not the GOP kind, the “we want a republic like in ancient Rome” kind).The cruelty of the Medici family may have been another inspiration for Machiavelli’s theories on maintaining power at any cost. At any rate, he never was able to regain his political position of power in Florence, and he died in 1527.

His writings (he had many others besides The Prince, such as The Discourses on Livy)  really only became famous after his death. Yet the basic theories in his writings are put into practice throughout history, across cultures in different areas of the world. This man is great because he was able to observe how different politicians worked, and was brave enough to tell the truth about what he saw happening. Even though he was subjected to torture by the Medici, that is the same type of ruler he writes of as being effective at keeping power.It is true. The Medici had ruled Florence for centuries, were exiled, and managed to come back and attain absolute power again and keep it for many years. Bitter as he should have been about what he noticed, he put into words what others would subconsciously act upon but would not say: that if the outcome has enough value for an individual, he/she will feel morally justified in the means he/she must use to attain that outcome. Also, that if the outcome is power, the means often must include unpleasant actions on the part of the ruler.

You may be thinking, well this is cool, but why can one argue that Machiavelli’s philosophies actually affect the course of human history?

The answer is because of rulers like Stalin, who was willing to kill his opposition to keep control, to let people starve, to control every aspect of life in the USSR, in order to get to his “ends” of Socialism, Industrialization of the USSR, and continuous power for himself (naturally). Stalin used  Machiavellian theory, whether intentionally or not. If he had not, it is likely the Cold War would have ended much sooner than it did, and the Korean and Vietnam wars might not have occurred, there might have been no Space Race, the list of historical events goes on.

The answer is because of Hitler, who used Machiavellian philosophy in order to gain and to maintain control over Germany. The end he desired, that of a prosperous, world-dominating, pure Aryan race to Hitler was worth enough to justify the means. These means included militarization, which ended up leading to expansion into neighboring states and contributed to the start of WWII. They also included the violations of human rights of over 11 million people (the Holocaust) who Hitler considered to be impure and “parasites”. Without use of Machiavelli’s political principle, Hitler would not have been able to justify his violent actions to the German people and the German soldiers serving him, and would have lost favor in Germany which likely would have meant he never would have gotten into the position of global influence that he did, the Holocaust would never have occurred, so Israel probably never would have been created, and a TON of the Middle Eastern conflicts in the later half of the 20th century would not have occurred.(The Israeli-Palestinian conflict going on currently probably wouldn’t be happening, either).

The answer is because of Henry the VIII, who was willing to change the religious affiliation of his entire nation, and behead two of his wives, in order to try to reach the “end” of having a male heir…these are merely a few examples of Machiavellian philosophy in play.

It does not matter whether these men actually read Niccolo Machiavelli’s books,the point is that the philosophy Machiavelli wrote about is what happened when those choices, those rationalizations, were made by all of these historically influential figures. Without Machiavelli, there would have been no written, fully formed expression of HOW these people did what they did when the methods were so immoral. He said what others thought subconsciously. Niccolo Machiavelli is the greatest individual in history for understanding the hows and whys of the decision-making people who had a large effect on their world used, use, and will continue to use in the future.

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