A story of a prince and his powers
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

published first in The Frontier Post
We will only discuss Machiavelli’s prince today and his powers, for he is the only thing that is relevant now, the only character that makes sense, irrespective of all the chaos prevailing around him. As it was said, to understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be the people. So here is a story of the people, and a prince who ruled over them and, not taking into account a few setbacks here and there, enjoyed absolute powers.
So the prince came on the throne, rather he acquired the throne when nobody was expecting he would. But the throne had its own fascinations and inclinations. His job was tough and the work was cut out for him. The last benevolent prince had left plethora of problems for his succeeding mate – benevolent because he was too merciful to be leaving nothing for his predecessors even the things that were duly his - but he had left some powers also, and as long as these powers were there the prince was never to be mistaken as a nominal or a constitutional head. He had to be a partisan in executing all those powers for this is what a prince is supposed to do.
There were many diseases afflicting the state when the prince ascended the throne. Machiavelli had urged the prince to address them instantly. Machiavelli wrote, “And what physicians say about disease is applicable here: that at the beginning a disease is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been treated or recognized at the outset, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. The same thing occurs in affairs of state; for by recognizing from afar the diseases that are spreading in the state (which is a gift given only to a prudent ruler), they can be cured quickly; but when they are not recognized and are left to grow to the extent that everyone recognizes them, there is no longer any cure.” These gifts to the prudent ruler were never identified well in time.
The prince scrupulously followed Machiavellian views that benefits should be conferred gradually; as they would taste better in this manner, but he at the same time forgot when Machiavelli had said that a wise man does at once what the fool does finally. Resultantly, the prince delayed a restoration of a people’s figure, not knowing that it was something inevitable, and in the end he had to beat a hasty retreat. His prestige seemed to wane but he still had the powers; the powers that he was not willing to shed; the powers that earned him many envious enemies.
The prince knew the quote, “Promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.” Machiavelli had taught him that a prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise, and hence he told his people that his promises are not ‘decrees of heaven’, and every prince is supposed to play shenanigans on the board of chess. He knew that he must keep the illusion of keeping his word and be reliable, but he must only do that when it suits his purpose.
Everything seemed fine on the surface. The prince liked visiting other countries, making friends at important places. He was living his tenure to the fullest amongst all his enemies. What he did not know was that a constant hatred was building up among his people, and that was the very feeling Machiavelli had warned him against. There were other portents as well against which he was warned.
He had been taught that the first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him. But alas, the people around him were no better than sycophants who could only cajole him and could not tell him the truth. He could not guard against flattery; he could not convince people around him to speak the truth. He still would have been the powerful ruler, had he shed some superficial powers to isolate his enemies. But his advisors were not smart enough to comprehend this. They persisted that the prince should be obstinate about it. And at last, this very obstinacy proved to be his last and the final undoing.



