World History Per. 3
Thoughts and Reflection
Machiavelli says that the best way for a ruler to best maintain control of the state is to put fear in to the people, so that they will do what you say, and will fear you. But he also says that this isn't always the best thing to do, and some that you do all the time. Sometimes being the nice guy will get you far, but that can also bite you in the butt, because the people will then not fear you, and will try to get away with more, and maybe even try to over power you. But over all Machiavelli does say that the best and easiest way to maintain control of a state is to put fear in to the people, and he says that you will only need to do this once, and then the people of the state will not rise agains you. For example, if no one in the class did their home work, so in order to make sure that this doesn't happen again, you cut off one of the students fingers, every one is going to be scared, and will most likely do their homework, so that they don't get hurt. This is basically what Machiavelli is getting at.
Machiavelli says that you do what ever you need to do to when you are a ruler, to maintain your power, and that even means using violence and deceit to do so. So if you need to kill some people every year, to stay in power, do so, and if you want people to kiss your feet, you are doing to have to make them look up to you. But as soon as you show weakness, and the people are not scared of you, they will try to bring you down, and you can't let it get to that. He says that you need to set examples when necessary, and even every once and a while, just to make people constantly scared of you, but you just don't want them to hate you, because if that happens, things can get out of hand. Being a ruler is a hard thing, and you have to be prepared to do things that you don't want to, and if you don't you will be taken down.
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