The Prince by Machiavelli

[Keasbey Nights]

Why does everybpdy think this book is so great? All he did was tell about his beliefs about "The ends justify the means," or that a leader can do whatever he want as long as it is for the best of his people. Its basically one of the prequels to fascism.

Machiavelli didn't even believe half the stuff he wrote, he only wrote it to gain favor from the deMedici family who kicked him out of Italy.

How does this help you guys personally? (Serious question no sarcasm)

 

[diplomatic_lie]

It goes a lot deeper than that. Most people mistake The Prince as a "guide on being evil", but the reality is that it explores a lot more avenues.

I'm assuming you're keeping the context in mind. The book tells you a lot about the way people think, behave, and interact. Essentially its a psychology book, except more targeted towards leadership.

Also keep the context in mind. Back in Renaissance Europe, people were a lot more brutal than today. Europeans didn't always smoke pot and love peace. If you can't understand the context and shift it to a modern environment, then you won't understand the value of Sun Tzu's Art of War either.

 

[Jvesti]

Depends on what type of game you're playing. If your in politics you might have to play the game because your opposition is dirty too. This degree of corruption slows down agendas in gov't which is a good thing if you look at it from a certain standpoint. But politics if you want a prosperous system is something that needs to be eradicated.

If you are in a business partnership or any kind of business organization. Using tactics like the prince and the 48 laws of power will typically rot the organization inside out. In fact is usually the reason why beaurocracies go to **** of getting anything done. Everyone's playing the game, no one is being honest to each other or real. Everyone's afraid to make themselves vulnerable, no one can trust anyone to work together. Then people who cooperate, trust each other and work together come on the scene and kick their ass to bankrupcy.

I've had to play the game when the guy i worked with was getting insecure when i displayed my talents. Once I noticed this it was clear that i couldn't use the fullest of my abilities and felt oppressed. It would drive any person to either want to get out or throw him over. So my options were give him credit for my ideas, not share ideas, or keep it up and eventually he'd find a way to get rid of me or try and see me as untalented in his eyes.

Eventually, I left the business and a few weeks later it went to the crapper. He never got my full talent or anyone else's eventually down to none of my talent. Good businesses are ruined by insecure power hording leaders.

Good Leaders hire people smarter than them to work with and establish trust, honesty and dependability from the getgo, while insecure ones hire ones that won't make them insecure and if they shine they'll immediately start getting scared.

But anyways I can go up and down the 48 laws of power and show exactly how it will hold you back and ruin you unless you are in a corrupt gov't the drug dealing trade or anything of the such.

If you want to really succeed in life read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill or anything of the such. Or study the lives of successful people in the modern day even back to Carnegie.