Brief Note About Machiavelli and Why he was HATED

NICCOLO DI BERNADO MACHIAVELLI the author of THE PRINCE was a Diplomat for the Florentine Government, as a result of this position he was able to observe different rulers carried out activities. At the time he wrote THE PRINCE the different nations in Europe were uniting into viable and powerful states (Eme Ndu, 1998: 99). He was angry due to the fact that while other nations came together under one government (Absolute or Republic) his own country made no move to do the same. According to Eme Ndu (1998:99) "Italy still remained divided with five larger states holding sway. These included the aristocratic Republic of Venice, The Kingdom of Naples, The Republic of Florence, The Dukedom of Milan and the States of Church, controlled by the Pope". He (Machiavelli) blamed the condition of Italy on the Roman Church because it was being strong enough to unite the country and it would also not permit any other power to do so.

In the case of Machiavelli, the Roman church hated him as much as it did the devil and his name came to be associated with the devil's, almost as a synonym (Eme Ndu 1998).

Also, as Russell points out , much of the conventional ill-feeling that attaches to the name of Machiavelli is due to the anger of hypocrites who hate the frank way in which he exposed the gory side of politics and the unattractive reality that lies behind the pomp and show of great men of politics.. And these revelations are true anytime, anywhere. ( Eme Ndu 1998).

The truth of the matter is that while he was on duty at the courts of different Rulers, he had opportunity to observe what was going on. And these observations he wrote down in his little book "THE PRINCE" and also prescribed a better way of dealing with matters of politics. For example, the morality of a ruler when the safety of the state is in question is to be considered different from the morality to which private men are subjected to. The ruler is freed from this kind of morality and the safety of the state represents for the ruler/statesman a different morality, a higher morality (Eme Ndu 1998). What this means is that, for an ordinary citizen (one holds no political office) it is not moral to steal, kill or cheat others etc. But for the statesman or ruler he is not binding to such morals when it comes to the protection of the state and its reputation. Thus, the moral which is binding to the ruler or statesman is to protect his country as well its intergrity at all cost. Therefore if commiting a crime to protect the state is the only option to the ruler or statesman, he is permitted to do so, IT IS A NECESSARY EVIL. It is as a result of this that most States (countries) seem to engage in Clandestine activities. A current example is the Poisoning of a former Spy in London.

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More to come
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