Being Machiavellian

Niccolo Machiavelli was a 16th century Italian political philosopher. He believes that the only thing people are ultimately concerned with is the gratification of their own personal desires. He is most often associated with his book "The Prince" as it nicely outlines the pillars of his philosophy. I think we're all a little Machiavellian from time to time. Maybe not as extremely selfish and cynical as he suggests, but it's definitely there.

Right now I'm in my composition class "working on a research paper" and playing up my own Machiavellian desires. What's paradoxical about this is that I'm technically goofing off on blogger, but at the same time I'm writing about Machiavelli, which is what the assignment is. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll get any credit for this. Though it may help me sort out my thoughts and eventually start the actual (graded) writing process.

The reading in the actual book is a bit dry, so that's where sparknotes comes in. He's got some interesting views as to how things work so it's definitely work skimming over. It's especially useful if you are planning on managing a principality in Italy anytime soon! What's cool about Machiavelli though is that his principles are not just limited to 16th century Italy, they are applicable even today.

An article I came across, cleverly titled "Fresh Prince" (which is disappointingly NOT about Will Smith's endeavors of the 90s) is about Robert Greene's book "The 48 Laws of Power." It's thought to be a modern day version of Machiavelli's "The Prince." The article itself was kind funny, it talkes about how a bunch of big name rap artists use this book's principles to govern both their businesses and personal lives. I'm thinking about purchasing the book myself, it seems like something that would interesting AND useful, and that doesn't happen to often with things I like. =P