This Day in History: Niccolò Machiavelli was born on this day in 1469. He is best known for writing The Prince, a pessimistic look at human nature and political philosophy. As he writes: “It is much safer to be feared than loved because ... love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” He argued that the ruler or government ought to do good when possible, but they must not be afraid to do evil to stay in power. Other men are willing to do evil in order to overturn the leader's rule, and because of this fatal tendency, leaders must also do evil from time to time. As a result, the word “Machiavellian” has come to denote someone who is cunning and unscrupulous. The Prince made it into the Catholic Church's first "Index of Forbidden Books" in 1557.
Rapper Tupac Shakur read Machiavelli while in prison and was so influenced by his work that he eventually changed his rap name from 2Pac to Makaveli.
In the movie "A Bronx Tale", local mob boss says that while in jail, he passed the time by reading Machiavelli, whom he describes as "a famous writer from 500 years ago"—and then tells him how Machiavelli's philosophy, including his famous advice about how it is preferable for a leader to be feared rather than loved if he cannot be both—have made him a successful mob boss.
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