The Prince

Okay, more topics from class that have been making me think way too much. I have to credit my Professor, who I still have a huge crush on, with depressing me last night. But he also gave me a thesaurus, which I really like. We were talking last night about Machiavelli's The Prince. Machiavelli feels that in order to rule you must be good at one thing - war. I have a huge problem with that. What if you are good at peacekeeping? Wouldn't that keep you out of a lot more trouble than being good at war? He says that in order to have good laws, you must have good arms, and if you have good arms, then you will have good laws. That doesn't make sense to me. Why must you have punishment to keep people in line? Why can't people do things because they are the right thing to do, rather than not do things out of fear of punishment? Before class ended, we spoke incredibly briefly about Machiavelli's notion that the only principality that works well on its own is one of religion. I have to say that I agree with Machiavelli that a society in which religion is the focus will run itself well, because if you feel that there is a "watcher" who you can never hide from, then you won't break the law. But, I still feel that people should, and hopefully do, act out of concern for what is right and good rather than from fear of punishment. Maybe it is a hard level to strive for, and if we can't reach it, it is better to act from fear than nothing else. But I like to think that people do strive to do the right thing because it is right.