The Auron MacIntyre Show - Machiavelli： The Power of Glory ｜ 5⧸13⧸26

00:00:00.300 Hey everybody, how's it going? Thanks for joining me this afternoon. I am Oren McIntyre.

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00:00:30.000 All right, guys, so we are back to our series on Machiavelli. If you don't know, we have been

00:00:36.140 reading through Machiavelli's The Prince and diving deep, giving different takes on how we

00:00:42.500 can apply this classic work of political theory to our current situation. There's a whole playlist

00:00:48.600 of these in case you haven't been following along, but I think each one stands on its own.

00:00:54.680 Machiavelli is timeless, and he writes in these really concise and powerful chapters

00:00:59.520 so I think that you can watch these individually or if you want to just basically get an audiobook

00:01:04.960 of the prince with my commentary once we're done with this series you'll have that as well so

00:01:09.400 there's a playlist in the YouTube feed if you want to go ahead and click on that and you want to see

00:01:15.000 the previous episodes in order but that said we're going to go ahead and start today with

00:01:20.220 chapter 20. Are fortresses and other princely devices advantageous or hurtful? Princes wanting

00:01:28.040 to make their state secure have variously disarmed their subjects, encouraged factions in their

00:01:34.280 subject towns, fostered hostility amongst themselves, set out to win over those whom

00:01:39.940 they distrust at the start of their reign, build fortresses, and destroy fortresses. A final

00:01:46.420 judgment on these things can only be made in the light of the particular facts regarding each case,

00:01:51.940 but I'll discuss the matter as comprehensively as the topic permits. One, no new prince has

00:01:57.980 ever disarmed his subjects rather when any new prince has become uh the prince or sorry uh when

00:02:05.100 any uh where we go uh no new prince has ever disarmed his subjects rather than any rather

00:02:11.560 when any new prince has found the people unarmed he has armed them why because by arming them you

00:02:17.440 make them yours the men whom you distrust become loyal those who were already loyal remain so

00:02:24.160 and your subjects become your supporters not all the subjects can be armed and those who

00:02:29.500 are armed are receiving a privilege but this won't get you into trouble with the others

00:02:34.320 they will understand that the armed men are bound to you and are likely to put likely to be put in

00:02:39.860 harm's way on your behalf and so deserve a great reward and they won't hold it against you when you

00:02:46.020 get when you have given them when you have given some and not others others this privilege so

00:02:52.160 Machiavelli here says that if you're a new prince or if you're someone taking power you don't take

00:02:57.460 away people's arms that's not how it works because the people who are already in charge

00:03:02.740 are the ones who ultimately got to decide whether or not they had weapons when you come into power

00:03:08.980 you're not going to take weapons away from people who already had them and were already loyal to a

00:03:14.340 previous king a previous prince that doesn't make any sense so if you are a new prince the only thing

00:03:21.300 if you're adjusting whether or not people have weapons at all will be that you will be giving

00:03:25.580 those weapons to your people and the reason you'll do that is obvious it's going to make them more

00:03:31.260 loyal to you if you are somebody who is trying to come into power but the people did not have

00:03:36.620 access to weapons before they didn't have a way to defend themselves then ultimately uh you're

00:03:42.800 going to give those arms to the people so that they can overturn those that are already here

00:03:47.620 Think of it as the old, we're going to arm the Kurds or the Mujahideen or whatever that we're hearing from the current, you know, neocons, the classic play of we'll arm the rebels.

00:03:59.840 Now, the difference is if you're the king and you're going to be inside the country, then the rebels will fight for you.

00:04:05.800 That's the idea. You arm them and they're loyal to you.

00:04:08.360 And he says, don't worry, because, you know, some people may say, oh, we're giving it to some people, but not to others.

00:04:13.120 says don't worry about that because people will understand that if you're giving weapons to people

00:04:18.260 who didn't have it previously those people are on your side and are expected to fight for you

00:04:22.160 they're expected to put something on the line for you and so not everybody's gonna want to do that

00:04:27.120 they're they're not gonna they might be jealous of not receiving the weapons but they'll be happy

00:04:30.840 that they didn't have to fight and bleed and possibly die on your behalf so ultimately they'll

00:04:35.760 understand why some people got the weapons and some didn't now this is interesting because of

00:04:40.500 course in the united states we are a people who pride ourselves on being armed being armed before

00:04:46.880 the fact but of course if you wanted to take those weapons and turn them against the king

00:04:52.340 well that's what we did in the revolutionary war but we already had those weapons in our possession

00:04:57.600 if a new king was going to come into power in the united states he would not be able to do that by

00:05:02.020 taking away our weapons he would need the people's weapons on on his side basically because he's the

00:05:08.380 insurgent he's the guy who's trying to take over from the people in charge so a existing king might

00:05:15.460 remove those but uh over time if he's been there for a long time but new kings are never taking

00:05:21.380 weapons away from the people which is kind of the opposite of what a lot of people put out there

00:05:25.740 they say oh well authoritarians will will come for your weapons first well if the authoritarians

00:05:29.860 aren't already in power they have to enter into power and the way they do that is usually by some

00:05:34.860 popular uprising utilizing uh some segment of the population that is ultimately uh disserved by the

00:05:41.680 current regime and those people need to be armed now remember when Machiavelli is writing this it

00:05:45.660 is a little bit of a different situation arms are expensive and very difficult to manufacture

00:05:50.840 in fact we're just getting to the point where like you you don't in Machiavelli's time where

00:05:56.540 you don't have to have these extremely expensive cumbersome plate mailed knights who need like

00:06:02.920 entire lives to train on how to fight and giant fortunes in order to own you know own these arms

00:06:10.280 in the first place it's not like it is today where you just could 3d print a gun and start

00:06:15.200 handing them out in Machiavelli's time just obtaining arms was very difficult their

00:06:20.920 manufacture was expensive training with them was very difficult and so just giving people arms

00:06:26.260 was a much more serious prospect in Machiavelli's day than it was in like 2026 or as it is in 2026

00:06:37.460 America. But when you disarm your subjects, you are at once offending them by giving evidence

00:06:43.580 that you're either cowardly or naturally distressful. And either of those options

00:06:48.840 will make you hate it. And since you can't survive without some army, and since you have disarmed

00:06:53.980 your subjects you have to turn to merchants and as i've already shown in other chapters

00:06:59.540 what they're like and even if you had good mercenaries it wouldn't be enough to defend

00:07:04.940 you against powerful enemies and subjects whom you don't trust so i repeat new princes in new

00:07:10.800 principalities have always distributed arms among their subjects so here he makes it clear right and

00:07:16.760 this is really important if you are a prince or a ruler who is already in a bad in a bad way with

00:07:27.060 your people taking away the arms does not solve that problem because if you take away the arms

00:07:32.780 they immediately think that you're a coward or that you distrust them which means that they

00:07:37.540 already know that you're planning to do something terrible to them which to be fair is the argument

00:07:42.780 most people have for the second amendment right if you take away those arms the government won't

00:07:47.480 have to respect you and Machiavelli is kind of saying that here like look if the people already

00:07:51.240 have arms you have to respect them if you try to take away their arms they're going to know

00:07:55.420 you're a scoundrel they're going to know that you have bad intentions they're going to know that

00:07:59.200 you're cowardly or that you don't you distress them and they're going to worry about you they're 0.98

00:08:04.200 not going to put their faith in you so you need to be very careful if you're new prince coming in

00:08:08.520 you always distribute arms you never take them away that's not the way that power flows and this

00:08:13.500 is again always true of people wanting to come to power it's always offering the people more right

00:08:19.580 this is and this is why the high and low versus middle was such a classic political formula the

00:08:26.320 king offers the people a new king offers the people something they couldn't have before

00:08:29.900 maybe rights citizenship arms jobs money whatever land you always say i'm going to take from the

00:08:37.020 people who already have it i'm going to give it to you and so in this case the new king comes into

00:08:41.540 power it's the aristocrats the the people the landed uh you know uh nobles who have the weapons

00:08:47.520 who have control and he says i'm going to give weapons to you the masses the people the right

00:08:52.500 to have those that you didn't have before and now you're on my side you're with me right so that's

00:08:57.060 how the distribution of weapons works it's a flow of power from a new king uh that he acquires uh

00:09:04.280 and he acquires the support of the people when he does this, an old king who comes in and tries to

00:09:10.220 stop them, you're going to be signaling that you're weak in some way, that you're not trustworthy.

00:09:15.920 Generations ago, the experts used to say that Pistoia can only be held by factions and Pisa

00:09:22.980 only by fortresses. And this idea, or a generalized version of it, led to foment quarrels in some of

00:09:30.480 their tributary towns so as to make them easier to dominate. Back then, when there was a kind of

00:09:37.920 balance of power in Italy, this may have been a sound enough policy, but I don't think it's

00:09:44.320 acceptable today because I don't think that now factions can ever be used. On the contrary,

00:09:50.920 when a city divided by factions is attacked from the outside, it will quickly be lost because the

00:09:56.340 weaker faction will always help the external attackers and won't be able to resist. I think

00:10:01.520 the Venetians are following this policy when they've stirred up trouble between the Gulfs and

00:10:07.240 the Ghibellines factions in their subject cities without letting the trouble come to bloodlust.

00:10:13.660 They encourage these disputes so that the citizens wouldn't unite against them, the Venetians. We

00:10:20.440 saw that it didn't work out in the way that they had expected because after the Venetians

00:10:24.660 defeated after the venetians defeat at velia in 1509 one of the two factions took courage and

00:10:33.300 seized the state a prince is following a prince following this policy that he is uh a prince is

00:10:39.840 following sorry strange way this is written a prince is following this policy uh policy shows

00:10:47.320 that he is weak because these factional quarrels won't be permitted in any vigorous principality

00:10:53.580 in times of peace it is a policy for managing subjects not in a time of war it is sheer

00:10:59.540 folly all right so this is interesting because this is literally happening in the united states

00:11:04.340 right now a lot of people ask or and why is our current ruling class trying to import foreigners

00:11:11.060 why are they fomenting hate between different factions in the united states why are they

00:11:15.620 constantly playing them off each other who would destabilize their society like that

00:11:19.400 Well, you know, Machiavelli says, I understand this strategy. This is a classic strategy. You divide the people inside your city or your country, and those people are too busy fighting each other to unite against you.

00:11:32.800 so you want to set these different factions off against each other and that will keep them from

00:11:37.300 uniting push back against your rule but there's a problem with that and the problem is a couple

00:11:42.860 fold if you have a disunited body politic yes they are easier to rule because you can play one

00:11:50.720 faction off against the other but if you ever run into a situation where you're actually attacked

00:11:56.240 this is a very bad idea for a couple reasons one you're going to be disunited it's going to be

00:12:00.940 hard to unite the people to come together and defend the land second you are going to have a

00:12:05.880 scenario where the weakest faction inside your civilization your country your city is always

00:12:11.360 looking for someone to free them from your tyranny if you have been treating them poorly you've been

00:12:16.560 turning other factions against them fomenting hostility towards them they're ultimately going

00:12:21.160 to say you know what we're probably better off with some other leader we're going to let in these

00:12:25.920 other guys we're going to work for them because they it couldn't be worse than it is under a

00:12:30.300 current leader. Now, they're often wrong about that, but that is the mentality when you have

00:12:34.200 this factionalism going on. And the United States is very much currently being divided in this way.

00:12:42.520 This strategy is being used to control the population. The reason that they're fomenting

00:12:46.900 hatred against white people, the reason that they're bringing in foreigners is to play this 0.99

00:12:51.640 tactic that Machiavelli warns about. It's not that it can't work at some level, but he very much 0.99

00:12:56.660 warns that this is at best in peacetime a policy for managing subjects which sounds exactly like

00:13:03.260 what's being done to us right now they're creating these divides these factions these rifts they're

00:13:08.100 bringing in people they can leverage against the native population of the united states

00:13:11.260 because it helps them to manage the population it makes them weaker it makes them more divided

00:13:15.520 it makes them easier to control you can't unite against the bad guys however if you're ever

00:13:22.660 attacked, this looks bad. He says, but in time of war, it's sheer folly, right? Because if you're

00:13:28.520 attacked, then ultimately the cost of this tactic is going to come due. You're going to have to pay

00:13:34.820 the cost that you have accrued for dividing the country and setting it against itself.

00:13:40.900 Now, the United States is very lucky in that it's very hard for anyone to invade us. We're very

00:13:45.840 difficult to assault in a classic military manner we're surrounded uh on all sides pretty much by

00:13:53.240 water divided by all you know by the sea from any real serious threat to the united states

00:13:59.920 we've got two relatively weak uh countries bordering us you know in canada and mexico

00:14:05.580 who don't really have the ability to invade or put serious pressure on our boundaries and so you

00:14:11.640 that you can get away with a little more of this right you can play this game a little longer or

00:14:15.900 at least like oh well we can keep we can keep doing this divide and conquer strategy because

00:14:20.240 ultimately there's no one who's going to come and attack the united states assault the united states

00:14:24.700 and exploit the fact that there's this division however this is ultimately folly because even if

00:14:31.040 you aren't going to have an army showing up on the doorstep the united states and you know we have to

00:14:35.900 be serious at some point that could happen and if it does that's a very real problem but even if

00:14:41.500 that's not going to happen, there will be other ways for foreign powers to exacerbate these

00:14:46.120 divisions. And we see that on a regular basis. We see that Russia and China and these other actors,

00:14:52.660 probably Israel, are looking to exacerbate these divisions inside the United States for their own

00:14:59.020 advantage. And so this strategy can work for a while. It does have some legitimacy, 0.71

00:15:05.060 but Machiavelli warns you're going to pay a cost for this. Yes, in the short term,

00:15:10.160 it will keep the people from turning on you it will divide the people and allow you to exert

00:15:14.760 more power over them because they can't unite to fight against you however you are going to

00:15:19.400 ultimately see that this is a destructive method of controlling the people

00:15:24.060 so he advises against that factionalism there is no doubt that a prince becomes uh becomes great

00:15:33.840 when he overcomes difficulties and obstacles for this reason uh fortune wants uh wants greatness

00:15:40.000 to come to a new prince who needs uh who needs a personal reputation more than a hereditary prince

00:15:46.800 does it causes enemies to arise and turns them against him this gives him the opportunity to

00:15:52.020 overcome them climbing higher on this ladder that his enemies have brought to him that's why so many

00:15:57.000 people think that a wise prince should when the opportunity presents itself engineer some hostility

00:16:01.880 against himself so that he can crush it and thus elevate the level of fame so he says one way you

00:16:07.720 can control the people is you know to kind of gain support of the people is to overcome adversity

00:16:14.080 that's why new princes you know princes who are trying to climb the ladder who don't have that

00:16:19.040 hereditary connection who don't inherit the kingdom they need to have these uh like big moments where

00:16:26.300 they overcome adversity to win the favor of the people he says there are even some situations

00:16:31.880 Where people believe that if a prince is actually in a pretty good position, he should still like engineer some kind of hostility, like create some kind of drama so that people see him as somebody who's overcoming these things and should be elevated, should receive honor, should receive glory.

00:16:48.720 So he says that you might think that it's always best to have this quiet life, this quiet, peaceful rule, but actually it's always better if you can to have something to overcome.

00:17:00.900 So even if you're like in the secure position, look for these opportunities. And if you're someone who's climbing the ladder, who's entering, you need these opportunities. They're foundational for you to prove that you're worthy to be elevated to the level of ruler of prince.

00:17:14.060 princes especially new ones have often received more loyalty and support from men

00:17:19.560 who they had distrusted at the outset from those whom they had trusted uh pendolfo uh

00:17:27.120 petrucci uh prince of siena governed his state with more help from those who initially distrusted

00:17:35.160 uh that he initially distrusted than from others but one can't generalize on this topic

00:17:41.580 because individual cases vary so much i'll say this men who have been hostile at the start of

00:17:47.600 a principality and who don't have the rank or status needed to support themselves without help

00:17:52.640 can easily be won over by the prince they'll be strongly bound to serve him loyally because they

00:17:58.620 know how important it is to them to act in ways that will cancel the bad impression he had formed

00:18:05.000 of them. So the prince always gets better value from them than from men who serve him neglectfully

00:18:13.660 because they are so sure of their position with him. So he said, basically, look, obviously you

00:18:19.100 want long-term supporters, but in many cases, it will be new supporters that actually are the most

00:18:24.520 valuable to you because they have something to prove. If originally some guy was seen as

00:18:29.100 untrustworthy or not loyal or not supportive. And then he needs to go out there and show

00:18:35.120 that he's supportive. He's going to be even more loyal. He's going to feel compelled at all times

00:18:40.860 to constantly work to win you over and get rid of this reputation as a guy who doubted you.

00:18:46.260 And so this kind of prodigal son, this person who returns or wasn't on board in the first place,

00:18:51.180 but ultimately ends up rejoining you, he might be more loyal. He says, you can't judge it all

00:18:57.380 the time i'm not you know he says you know i'm not saying you are should just only look for people

00:19:02.240 who were disloyal to you at the beginning it's not a hundred percent thing however keep in mind

00:19:06.500 that just because someone was loyal to you previously doesn't mean they're the most loyal

00:19:10.720 now in many cases it may be someone who was denouncing you or wasn't on board originally

00:19:15.460 who ultimately ends up going out of their way on a regular basis to show their loyalty and they

00:19:21.420 might be your most valuable supporters i should warn any prince that who has taken over a new

00:19:26.860 state, with the help of its inhabitants, that he should think hard about their motives in helping.

00:19:32.480 If they were motivated not by any natural affection for him, but only by discontent

00:19:36.920 from their government, he'll find it very hard to remain friends with them, because it will be

00:19:41.220 impossible to make them content with him. In the light of the reasons for this, look at all the

00:19:47.840 ancient and modern examples. You'll find that it's easier for a prince to make friends of men

00:19:52.560 who are content under the former government and are therefore his enemy therefore his enemies

00:19:58.220 than those who were discontent with the government and wanted and enabled him to seize power so he

00:20:03.260 says be careful i know these people might have supported you but ultimately they might just be

00:20:08.480 angry with the government in general not really care much about you and if that's the case if they

00:20:12.520 were just angry with their government in general and willing to overthrow it then they might still

00:20:16.900 be angry at you when the revolution is done you might not have their full support in many ways

00:20:21.160 It might be the guys who were going along to get along with the last regime who will be willing to go along to get along with your regime.

00:20:28.960 They actually might be more reliable than the revolutionaries that ultimately push to get rid of it.

00:20:34.600 And we see this all the time.

00:20:35.620 There's a reason that after the revolution, many times, the most revolutionary people get pushed out or even executed because they're kind of constitutionally against governments.

00:20:46.220 they're constitutionally willing to rise up and take out leaders that they don't like do you

00:20:52.200 really want that guy hanging around once you're the leader they take out do you really think that

00:20:56.720 you need to win over the people who are disgruntled at the last government enough that they'd kill

00:21:01.760 their leader and put a new guy in place do you want to try to win them over or maybe it's just

00:21:05.720 easier to use the power of people who were basically already on the side of power anyway

00:21:10.820 maybe maybe that's the more useful thing to do again Machiavelli not known you know it's not

00:21:15.880 like oh you fought in the revolution i owe you everything nope machiavelli's saying not really

00:21:19.880 actually you should be aware that just because someone fought for you doesn't mean they're

00:21:23.240 actually loyal to you that's different princes wanting to increase the security of their states

00:21:30.200 often build fortresses a fortress can serve as a bridle and bit reigning in potential enemies

00:21:36.880 as a place of refuge from first attack i praise this as a time hollowed practice yet in our times

00:21:43.160 we have seen these events nicolo vitelli uh demolished two fortresses in caida de castello

00:21:49.960 as an aid to uh to holding on to the town guys as always uh you know excuse my italian pronunciation

00:21:57.240 i certainly have no i'm not very good at it uh guido abaldo and the duke of urbino drove caesar

00:22:04.620 borgia out of his dominion and then flattened all the fortresses in that province which he thought

00:22:11.320 he could hold more easily with the fortresses gone. The Benteveligo regained power in Bologna

00:22:18.820 and followed the same policy. Whether a fortress is useful then depends on the circumstance.

00:22:24.820 If they help you in one way, they harm you in another. Here's a way of looking at it. A prince

00:22:29.980 who is more afraid of his own people than of foreigners ought to build fortresses, but one

00:22:34.640 who fears foreigners more than he does his people ought to do without them. The castle

00:22:40.880 from the castle that Francisco Swarza had built in Milan has given the Swarza family more trouble

00:22:49.200 than any of the state's other troubles and will go on it will go on doing this the best possible

00:22:55.780 fortress for a prince is not being hated by his people if you have a fortress and your people

00:23:00.780 hate you the fortress won't do you any good an openly rebellious populace will have no shortage

00:23:06.440 of foreigners wanting to come to their aid against you so this is very interesting because actually

00:23:11.260 this one's directly applicable to our situation today so he says yeah i get it walls fortresses

00:23:18.100 these are classic defenses they are useful however you need to think about why you need that fortress

00:23:23.160 what is it for because if you are building a fortress because you are scared of your populace

00:23:29.840 that doesn't solve the problem that does not solve your problem at all yes temporarily it could make

00:23:35.360 it easier to defend against a rebellious and unruly populist mob however you can't live your

00:23:42.140 life in the fortress all the time you can't rule effectively from the fortress right Machiavelli

00:23:46.640 is very clear you need to be among the people you need to be present you need to you know kind of

00:23:52.000 exert your power in public and you can't do that if you're hiding behind castle walls all the time

00:23:57.420 fortress walls all the time if the people want to hurt you they will hurt you like you are ultimately

00:24:04.060 always in a situation where if the people banded together they could hurt you and so you have to

00:24:10.900 recognize that also if you're worried about foreigners on the outside well your best defense

00:24:15.400 is the love of your people is not being hated by your people because they're always going to be

00:24:21.320 able to find a foreigner to come in and hurt you if that's their goal if the people hate you and

00:24:27.020 you're hiding in the fortress it's not really making you safe because ultimately they could 0.81

00:24:31.800 always find some other foreign power. And so the whole reason you'd have it to defend yourself from

00:24:36.080 foreigners, it becomes useless if the people hate you because they're just going to recruit some 0.99

00:24:40.060 foreigner. And that fortress is ultimately not going to solve your problem when both the people 1.00

00:24:44.080 and the foreigners are all dead set against you. Now, Donald Trump has just had another

00:24:51.080 assassination attempt, right? And they were having it at this event, you know, the correspondence

00:24:57.880 dinner uh that was not in the white house it was out at a hotel ballroom and the security was not

00:25:05.580 great from the secret service because our secret service is a joke and are terrible the jobs

00:25:09.260 apparently uh however uh the the push after that was we need to build the ballroom we need to build

00:25:15.000 the ballroom we have to put the ballroom in the white house because then we'll have an event space

00:25:18.880 that is secure and the the president can serve from there and fine build the ballroom but

00:25:24.840 Machiavelli points out the ballroom is not going to save you ultimately if someone wants to hurt

00:25:29.420 Trump because he's so hated because the people don't like him that's the problem or very

00:25:34.720 importantly they don't fear him enough right they don't think that trying to take a shot at the king

00:25:39.800 is going to cost them something or at least it's not going to cost like their wider political

00:25:44.540 movement something yeah probably they'll arrest the guy who took the shot but they're not going

00:25:48.840 to go after you know Antifa all these other guys that they should be going after after that happens

00:25:53.480 and Machiavelli explicitly warns you look you can build that fortress but ultimately it's not going

00:25:58.920 to save you if you have this situation so you need to recognize that okay there's some utility in

00:26:04.300 these but ultimately you need the love and fear of the people more than you need fortress walls

00:26:09.880 if you don't if you have a people who hate you then ultimately and remember fear and hatred are

00:26:15.080 not the same thing fear and hatred are not the same thing if you have the people who hate you

00:26:19.520 it doesn't matter what's going to happen or if you have people who are not afraid of you

00:26:23.240 then it doesn't matter how many fortress walls you have because ultimately they're going to turn on

00:26:27.520 you no prisoner times has found a fortress to be useful to him with the limited exception of the

00:26:33.300 countess of forley on the death of her husband count your lot your alma in 1488 her fortress

00:26:40.640 enabled her to withstand the popular attack and wait for help from milan thus recovering her state

00:26:47.240 The circumstances of that time were such that no foreigners could help the rebellious people, 0.98

00:26:52.600 but foreigners didn't do much for her in 1499 when Caesar Borgia attacked her and when her

00:26:58.780 hostile people were allied with the foreigners. At both those times, she'd been better off having 0.99

00:27:04.300 subjects who didn't hate her than she was with a fortress. All these things considered, then,

00:27:11.700 I'll praise any prince who builds fortresses as well as any who doesn't, and I'll blame any prince

00:27:17.040 who doesn't mind being hated by his people because he's relying on the fortress so again he says like

00:27:21.780 there's nothing wrong with fortresses in theory they can help you there are limited situations

00:27:27.280 where a fortress can be advantageous but don't be foolish enough to think that building it solves

00:27:33.960 your problems i'll praise you if you build a fortress and you fix your problem but if you

00:27:38.340 build a fortress and you still are hated by the people if you build a fortress and you do not

00:27:42.580 instill either a love or a fear or probably both from the people towards you, then ultimately that

00:27:48.920 fortress is not going to end up getting things done. All right, chapter 21, what a prince should

00:27:57.800 do to acquire prestige. Nothing builds a prince's prestige more than his understanding, than his

00:28:04.500 understanding great enterprises and his setting a fine example by his personal conduct. We have in

00:28:10.860 time Ferdinand of Aragon, the present king of Spain. He can almost be called a new prince

00:28:18.260 because his fame and glory have raised him from being an insignificant king to being the foremost

00:28:23.740 king in the Christian world. At the start of his reign, he attacked Granda, the Moorish kingdom in

00:28:28.880 southern Spain, and this campaign laid the foundation of his power. He proceeded quietly

00:28:35.860 at first with no worries about being interfered with he kept the barons of castile busy thinking

00:28:41.840 about the war and not planning any changes inside spain and they didn't notice that by these means

00:28:47.860 he was increasing his prestige and his power over them by financing his army with money from the

00:28:53.280 church and from taxes and through the that long built war that long war he built a military

00:28:58.880 establishment that was since brought brought him honor further under cover of religion he embarked 0.99

00:29:05.660 in great schemes with pious cruelty hunting out the jews in his kingdom and expelling them a pitiful 0.99

00:29:12.600 state of affairs brought about by an by an extraordinary act under the same religious 0.97

00:29:17.760 cloak he attacked africa invaded italy and now has attacked france thus he has always planned

00:29:23.980 then acted in a grandiose scale keeping his subjects minds in a state of amazement and anxiety

00:29:29.180 about what was going to happen next and his actions uh have followed one another so quickly

00:29:35.700 that there's never been a quiet time in which men could work steadily against him so this is

00:29:42.340 this is Machiavelli saying shock and awe baby always be doing great things always be doing

00:29:49.960 impressive things. He's got this king who comes in, he's not really well known, but he becomes

00:29:55.740 this great king because he's constantly pushing to do great things. He's constantly pushing to

00:30:01.700 conquer, to overthrow things, to take great acts. And because people are always amazed at the

00:30:07.880 accomplishments he's created and are anxious about what he'll do next, they never have time

00:30:12.460 to think about turning on him. They never think about how they could ultimately take him out of

00:30:18.140 power. So if you're worried, you want to secure power, you want to make yourself safer, constantly

00:30:22.340 be doing great, amazing things. Cover yourself in glory, right? The power of glory is it can protect

00:30:28.580 you against schemes of people who would otherwise want to overthrow you. And again, we can connect

00:30:33.720 this directly to Donald Trump. Look at those first few months when he came into office.

00:30:39.980 Nothing but shock and awe. The glory of what he was doing, even though the libs were in terror,

00:30:45.040 right the glory and the terror that's what kept him not having to face any real backlash because

00:30:51.420 he was acting so fast he was getting so much done he was uh achieving so many things that nobody

00:30:57.040 thought was going to be possible that there was no time to second guess him there was no time

00:31:01.420 ultimately to say oh uh maybe he's doing it wrong maybe there's a way to stop him maybe he shouldn't

00:31:07.120 be doing this anymore no because you're so everything was bang bang bang and the left was

00:31:11.520 completely um you know in disarray they were so anxious about what he's going to do next the right

00:31:16.940 was just in awe everything was amazing everything was getting done and that just gave him this

00:31:21.920 unquestioned uh ability to rule his supporters uh didn't question because they loved it his enemies

00:31:28.100 didn't question because he seemed so powerful and he was getting so much done that they felt

00:31:32.100 dispirited and anxious but that constant action that constant achievement of glory that's really

00:31:38.340 powerful right that's what people want to see or even if they don't want to see it they respect so

00:31:44.400 much they're so terrified they're not going to take any action against you

00:31:47.340 now you can see that this is also something that differentiates Donald Trump's first major

00:31:58.900 military action from a second so we saw the strike in Venezuela and that Venezuela strike

00:32:06.000 was so successful and so quick and so overwhelming that even people who were hesitant about it who

00:32:12.980 weren't sure who had questions ultimately it was done boom impressive over nothing to argue about

00:32:19.160 nothing to take back trump wins right that decisive quick uh overpowering victory meant that there

00:32:26.700 was simply no questions left to ask and then we look at iran where we had a much larger scope

00:32:33.160 mission one that wasn't prepared for one that i think ultimately we weren't really looking for at

00:32:37.040 the time and ultimately because that was slow because it was not immediately successful because

00:32:43.200 there were immediately additional consequences that slowed down it created questions it allowed

00:32:49.160 people to attack trump for what he was doing that's the key right it's that momentum that glory

00:32:54.920 that constantly winning if you just keep winning people won't ask questions that's what machiavelli

00:33:00.800 sank you can talk about principles you can talk about limitations on government but if you just

00:33:05.980 keep winning fdr style lincoln style people are not going to ask questions that's the key

00:33:12.200 a prince can be greedy uh a prince can be greatly helped by striking acts of government in eternal

00:33:20.900 internal affairs king ferdinand did well on this score also and there's a striking example of this

00:33:26.540 in the report in the reported acts of bernard bernabo visconti prince of milan whenever uh

00:33:34.580 any civilian did something extraordinary whether good or bad bernardo uh would devise a reward or

00:33:41.880 punishment that everyone talked about a prince ought to above all try to get through all of his

00:33:47.560 actions the reputation of being great and being a great and remarkable man so he says okay look

00:33:53.420 when people did great things, this king rewarded them in this lavish and amazing way that made

00:33:57.900 everybody talk. And when they did bad things, they were punished in this horrible way that was so

00:34:02.240 horrible that people talked. But the key is people were always talking. They were always in awe of

00:34:06.840 his action. Action is the key. Action is what brings respect, which brings honor, which makes

00:34:14.860 your rule look secure. If you're acting confidently and consistently and successfully, people will pay

00:34:21.020 attention. So always look to act swiftly and decisively. Always look to be successful and

00:34:28.060 always look to be striking awe into people when you act. Make it grandiose. Make it significant.

00:34:34.540 Trump's good at this, actually. This is something that Trump has a gift for in many scenarios.

00:34:39.580 He's good at talking it up, selling it, making it seem like it's a big deal. Maybe it's not always.

00:34:44.100 You fail on that too often. You can get a reputation for that too. Maybe some people

00:34:47.820 think Trump has acquired that, but ultimately the point is that decisive ability, that awe-inspiring

00:34:53.320 ability, that constant action, that's what you need to be doing. A prince also gains prestige

00:34:58.340 from being either a true friend or an outright enemy, i.e. says openly which side he favors in

00:35:05.780 any conflict. This will always serve you better than staying neutral. Here's why. Suppose the two

00:35:13.040 of your powerful neighbors are at war and you are wondering what to do either the combatants

00:35:18.020 power levels makes it the case that if you stay neutral when the winner then the winner will be

00:35:23.580 a threat to you or their power level isn't as high as that when you travel well your klm royal dutch

00:35:30.720 airlines ticket takes you to more than just your destination it takes you to front row views

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00:35:51.400 klm royal dutch airlines when you travel travel well either way you'll be you'll be best not to

00:36:01.840 stay, uh, not staying neutral, but rather picking a side and fighting hard for it. Because in case

00:36:08.300 you will, uh, inevitably fall prey to the winner and you'll have no excuses, uh, no defense and

00:36:15.120 nowhere to hide and how, and how that loser in the conflict will enjoy this. Neither side will

00:36:20.200 befriend you. The winner won't hold you as a friend whom you can't, uh, who you can't depend

00:36:24.900 on in times of trial. And the loser won't receive you because you didn't take sword in hand and

00:36:30.900 share his danger with him. So he says, look, if there is a conflict, it's better to just commit

00:36:36.640 one way or another, man. Like that indecisive need to straddle is not going to do you any favors.

00:36:42.520 Just biding your time and trying to see who wins out, that's not good. Because if you sat around

00:36:48.420 and didn't help the winner, they're going to have all the power. They're going to be ascendant.

00:36:52.820 They're going to have these trained soldiers who are already on the march, and they're going to

00:36:57.140 look at you and say, oh, you're a liability because you didn't come to my aid when I needed

00:37:01.140 you. And if you didn't side with the loser, they're not ultimately going to like side with

00:37:08.580 you again. They're not going to receive you. They're not going to try to make common cause

00:37:12.400 with you because you were not there when they needed you. So it's just better to pick a side

00:37:18.100 and fight rather than sit there and bide your time and try to see if you can be on whatever side

00:37:24.320 is ultimately the winner because no one's going to trust you when you do that. That fickle

00:37:28.900 friendship, that only siding with the winner after the fact, that is always going to make

00:37:33.180 you a distrustful person and people are not going to want to work with you or they might actually

00:37:39.080 actively want to take revenge on you for not siding with them or they might see you as an

00:37:44.040 easy target now that they eliminated their competition. Anyway, it's always better to

00:37:49.120 side and take action. Thus, it will always happen that one who isn't your friend will ask you to

00:37:56.340 keep out of it, and while your friend will ask you to fight on their side. Indecisive princes

00:38:02.260 usually try to avoid immediate danger by taking the neutral route, and they are usually ruined

00:38:07.700 by that choice. But when a prince briskly declares himself in favor of one side, if the side you

00:38:13.280 choose is the winner, then you have a good friend, and he's indebted to you. It's true that the

00:38:17.760 winner may be powerful enough to have you at his mercy but he won't use it against you if he did

00:38:22.940 he would be a monument of ingratitude and men are never as low as that victories are never so

00:38:29.640 complete that the victor has no need to be careful about anything no need especially to be careful

00:38:34.920 about justice but if the side you chose loses you will receive they will receive you and help you as

00:38:41.360 long as they can so that you become companions and fortune uh companions in a fortune that may

00:38:46.820 rise again so it says look i get it that most princes want to just play the middle play it safe

00:38:52.380 avoid conflict but if you side with the winner then obviously you'll be in a good place because

00:38:58.440 he'll be indebted to you or at the very least if if he didn't need you to win entirely at the very

00:39:04.580 least he's not going to turn on you because he's going to look deeply ungrateful to everybody else

00:39:08.620 and that's going to make it very hard for him to rule he needs to look just even in victory and if

00:39:14.240 you sided with the loser then if they're not totally annihilated they're still going to want

00:39:19.120 to work with you because you were there for them when they needed your help and ultimately uh they

00:39:24.740 you might end up hitching your wagon to somebody who comes back and your fortunes could rise

00:39:29.040 together but there there's just no advantageous advantageous position in cowardice if you avoid

00:39:35.780 siding with someone they're always going to blame you it's better to pick a side and whether you win

00:39:41.160 or lose yes losing is always bad you will always pay a price it could be disastrous but failing to

00:39:48.080 act is even more disastrous because that way you're always the subject of the winner and they

00:39:53.140 always look down on you and then you don't even have the ally of the loser that at least you would

00:39:57.460 have had had you back them up if they're not completely annihilated at least you still have

00:40:01.740 a friend somebody who can help you at the end of the day and who knows maybe they'll bounce back

00:40:06.060 and ultimately be successful and then you'll be the guy that stuck stuck with them thick and thin

00:40:11.180 in the second case when the power level of the combatants is such that you have nothing to fear

00:40:16.660 from either there's an even stronger prudential reason that you should choose a side why because

00:40:22.000 the side you choose is certain to win so that your help in the destruction of one prince prince x

00:40:27.680 with the help of another prince prince y who if you had any sense would have protected x against

00:40:33.740 you and why having with having your assistants won a war uh that he couldn't have won without you

00:40:40.300 is now at your mercy so he says look you might think that you know okay i should side with one

00:40:46.580 side or the other unless they're basically even in which case i don't need to i could they can

00:40:51.600 be neutral he says no that's even a more of a case to side with somebody because if they truly are

00:40:56.680 completely equal if they really are basically just the same in power level then wherever you

00:41:02.720 throw your sword in they're going to be the victor and then you're the guy that helped tip the balance

00:41:07.600 you're the guy who decided you're the king maker and so they're going to owe you they're they're

00:41:11.620 at your mercy because you're the one who made them a winner so it's basically he's just saying

00:41:16.660 again he's reiterating it's always worth throwing in yes when the power levels are mismatched uh you

00:41:21.840 know it's worth throwing in but even when they're even it's even more worth fighting because then

00:41:27.280 you get to be the decider you get to be the deciding factor which gives you more of the power

00:41:31.020 and here i should point out as a reproach to prince y that a prince should be careful never

00:41:37.520 to make an alliance with a more powerful prince for the purpose of attacking others unless

00:41:42.000 circumstances force him into this if he wins you'll be at his mercy and princes should do

00:41:48.420 everything they can to avoid being anyone's mercy no government should ever think that in

00:41:54.240 that it can choose perfectly safe courses of action every government should expect to have

00:41:59.820 to run risks because in the ordinary course of events, one never tries to avoid one trouble

00:42:05.020 without running into another. Prudence consists in knowing how to weigh up troubles and choose

00:42:10.280 the lesser one. So he says, look, in this world, there will be trouble and you're going to have

00:42:17.060 to fight it. So it's better to be decisive and take bold action and look for the advantage

00:42:22.660 than to sit back and hope things break in your direction. Machiavelli is constantly telling

00:42:28.080 the ruler to take action be decisive don't hesitate it you're yes you might be in a bad

00:42:37.260 situation you might be uh with your back up against the wall but that is just life and you

00:42:42.980 have to choose the best of the worst outcomes you have to do that it is never worth hesitating

00:42:49.020 this is just good life advice like yes this is good advice for rulers but this is just good life

00:42:54.080 advice right it's the people who sit around forever and basically just hope that things

00:42:59.400 will work out for them that just never have a good time they're always the ones that are in

00:43:05.780 trouble they're always the ones that are like kind of subject to other people it's just better to

00:43:10.960 take the action to to to recognize that there are no safe choices don't sit around always looking

00:43:18.000 for the safest choice don't optimize for safety and that's a lot of what our society has done

00:43:22.640 that's what we tell people to do today be as safe as possible don't take risks don't put yourself

00:43:28.040 out there but if you meet most people who have been successful in life they are risk takers yeah

00:43:35.840 there are people who get it handed to them on a platter and yeah the great for them right but

00:43:40.200 ultimately people who are climbing the ladder who are making their way in the world who are

00:43:44.580 improving their situation are those who recognize there's always risk and there is no perfect or

00:43:49.880 safe situation. And Machiavelli says this is true for rulers as well. There's no, it makes no sense

00:43:56.820 to constantly be sitting on the fence and hoping things work out for you. Ultimately, you need to

00:44:01.980 take action. A prince ought to show, a prince ought to also show himself a patron of virtue

00:44:08.800 and honor those who are talented in any art or craft. He should encourage his citizens to carry

00:44:13.840 steadily on with their ordinary occupations in commerce, agriculture, and so on, so that no one

00:44:19.880 is deterred from increasing his holding by fear that they'll be confiscated. They're deterred from

00:44:25.020 starting up businesses as a trader for fear of dues of taxes. Rather, the prince should create

00:44:30.180 incentives for this, these things, for doing these things, and for doing anything else that improves

00:44:36.460 his city or state. Also, he should entertain the people with banquets and shows at appropriate

00:44:41.740 times of the year and as every citizen is divided into guilds or clans he should treat such bodies

00:44:47.080 with respect go to some of their meetings and present himself as a model of courtesy and

00:44:52.060 generosity through all though always maintaining the majesty of his rank which he must never allow

00:44:58.860 to be diminished all right so oftentimes people will say Machiavelli is just a teacher of evil

00:45:06.640 and there's truth to that there's some level of truth to that however you'll notice that

00:45:11.640 Machiavelli recognizes that it is advantageous to be a good ruler most of the time. Most of the time

00:45:18.160 he is telling the prince, act with the good of your people in mind. Not just because it helps

00:45:24.600 the people, because it helps you. It helps you maintain power. When you act in that way, you will

00:45:30.800 always be heading towards a position of strength. When you are searching to find these things that

00:45:37.940 can ultimately benefit your people that's going to be good so when you see someone acting in uh

00:45:43.020 you know a positive way for your society reward them you see someone in arts or crafts when you

00:45:48.280 see someone making money or in some way improving the quality of life or the standing of your

00:45:54.180 civilization support that person honor them and show up to these guild meetings look generous

00:46:00.820 look like you're courteous look like you're interested but remember still stay majestic

00:46:07.280 act like a ruler don't become a commoner right this is a very common thing with our ruling class

00:46:13.640 today they love to look like an average person oh i'm not i'm not elite i'm not some uh you know a

00:46:19.400 guy uh who who's above it all i'm like you i'm a multi-billionaire who's like wearing sneakers

00:46:25.040 and a track suit right like that's very common today but he says no stay prestigious that doesn't

00:46:30.200 mean you shouldn't mix with the common man you should show up you should honor them you should

00:46:34.900 honor them especially when they're doing good things for the for the nation but always keep

00:46:39.980 this air of majesty always keep this air of being in control and showing your rank it's okay to show

00:46:46.400 up to these places you should show up to these places you should be courteous you should be a

00:46:50.100 model citizen when you're there you should be generous but always maintain your separation

00:46:55.200 and your majesty as the ruler remember that so we see this from Machiavelli over and over again

00:47:00.920 right yes he is telling you to do the things that are advantageous to you as a ruler he is very

00:47:08.200 clear about that he'll tell you to lie when you need to to break oaths when you need to to kill

00:47:13.680 people when you need to but most of the time he says be a good king see notice when people are

00:47:19.880 doing things that help your society who make your society great and honor them entertain the people

00:47:25.640 with banquets show you know give them feasts give them these uh these shows at the appropriate times

00:47:31.820 be a good part of the community so again Machiavelli is talking about the advantage of the ruler he is

00:47:38.680 giving very very um nakedly uh uh naked advice in favor of power however that doesn't mean he's

00:47:48.040 always telling you to hurt the people it's not telling you he's always to be a tyrant in fact

00:47:51.760 most of the time he's telling you be a good king don't take your people's stuff don't abuse the

00:47:56.220 women uh don't you know honor the people when they do good things uh make sure to do glorious

00:48:01.520 things that make people want to follow you you know these are things that are good for the ruler

00:48:06.580 and the people when it's only good for the ruler Machiavelli will say you know you need to stay in

00:48:12.300 power do what you need to to stay in power but most of the time he's saying do things that help

00:48:17.020 you and the people because ultimately that will help you as king that will keep you in power

00:48:21.180 right the best defense against foreigners is not fortresses it's people who love or fear you it's

00:48:27.700 people who don't hate you that's the best defense so you hear this refrain over and over from

00:48:32.460 Machiavelli yes you are the king yes you need to look to your interests yes you need to care about

00:48:37.960 power yes sometimes you have to do immoral things to maintain it but most of the time try to do

00:48:44.500 stuff that makes you popular and stuff that makes you popular is being a good king

00:48:47.720 chapter 22 the ministers of princes a prince's choice of minister is important to him and it's

00:48:58.240 up to him to his intelligent foresight whether he has good ones the first opinion that one forms of

00:49:04.140 a prince a prince's intelligence comes from observing the men he has around uh surrounded

00:49:09.520 him or he has around him. When they are competent and loyal, he should be rewarded as shrewd because

00:49:16.980 he was, he has known how to spot competence in people and to keep them loyal. But when they are

00:49:23.760 otherwise mediocre or disloyal, one can't have a good opinion of him because of his choices of

00:49:30.000 ministers was his first big mistake. So he says, people are going to look, every king is going to

00:49:36.880 have ministers. Every prince is going to have ministers. Every president is going to have

00:49:42.360 secretaries, right? No one runs a kingdom or a country by themselves. And so if you're an

00:49:48.320 executive, if you're a prince, if you are a ruler, you need to surround yourself with competent and

00:49:53.800 impressive people because people's first impressions of you will be those you surround

00:49:58.780 yourself with. Again, classic advice in general, right? Surround yourself with good people because

00:50:03.820 it reflects on you. Show me a man's friends and I'll show you something about him, right? Like

00:50:08.500 this is classic life advice from your grandma. It's also the advice Machiavelli gives to the

00:50:14.760 prince. And again, we can look at Trump and, you know, the different secretaries he's surrounded

00:50:20.480 himself with. Some are impressive. Some have proved to be less impressive. And people tend to

00:50:26.200 have certain opinions on Trump depending on who he has placed in those positions. And so you have

00:50:31.840 to be very careful about who you put in these positions of authority because not only will

00:50:36.580 they give you good or bad advice but it will also alter the way that people think about you

00:50:40.420 uh let's see here anyone who knew antonio uh de uh denafro in his role as minister of

00:50:51.380 pandolfo petruchis uh prince of siena would regard pandolfo as a very clever man to have

00:50:58.140 such a minister there are three things of intellect a superb intellect which uh which understand

00:51:04.360 a superb intellect which understand things unaided a good intellect which understands things when

00:51:10.880 others explain them and a a useless intellect which doesn't understand anything with even with

00:51:18.720 help if pandolfo's intellect wasn't of type one therefore he was a type two someone with enough

00:51:25.200 judgment to evaluate what others say and do even if he isn't capable of originality and can tell

00:51:31.500 them a minister of originality can tell when a minister is performing well and when he isn't

00:51:38.800 and can praise in one's case and scold in the other so the minister can't hope to deceive him

00:51:44.100 and is kept honest so he says look there are some people who are going to be like this top tier

00:51:48.900 intellect which they get it all they know it all they can see the board entirely they don't need

00:51:54.360 anyone to explain it to them they're smart enough they grasp everything immediately then there's

00:51:58.740 those with a good intellect they might under not understand everything on their own but they know

00:52:03.460 when it's being explained to them correctly they can see when someone's doing a good or bad job

00:52:07.800 so ideally you're the first one right and you're just like you get it all you're like this

00:52:11.700 philosopher king you understand all of these different uh aspects and you uh really only

00:52:17.660 have these ministers to kind of carry things out or maybe give you a few perspectives you didn't

00:52:21.940 normally have, but generally you grasp it. That's the best. However, there is an acceptable version

00:52:26.820 and most leaders fall into number two. I think Trump is very much a number two here where he's

00:52:32.120 smart enough to get things when they get explained to them. And then your talent really lies in being

00:52:37.840 able to discern whether you're being told the truth or not, whether the person giving you advice

00:52:43.200 is themselves grasping the situation enough. And you can kind of warn if the minister is like

00:52:50.620 trying to deceive you or that kind of thing. So you, even if you're not number one, even if you

00:52:55.000 aren't like this guy, who's a genius and understands everything and never needs anything

00:52:58.660 explained to them, even if you aren't that person, you can still be a good ruler, but then you need

00:53:02.820 to cultivate a different, uh, ability one to understand things when they're explained to you,

00:53:07.240 but two, to know when a minister is themselves, not really grasping what they're explaining,

00:53:13.400 right? There are probably people who have the discernment to say, I don't get this,

00:53:17.900 but i can look at two different people and say that expert is honest and is doing the right

00:53:22.740 thing and understands what they're talking about and that one is a fraud and he's trying to deceive

00:53:26.800 me even though i don't get it like i don't understand this particular subject i can still

00:53:31.600 see the difference between those two people and you need to have at least number two because the

00:53:36.560 third one is just your use your intellect is bad and you're not helpful with anything a prince has

00:53:41.660 a prince has one infallible test of the quality of a minister when you see the minister thinking

00:53:47.040 more for himself than for you keeping an eye on his own advantage in everything he does he'll

00:53:52.420 never be a good minister and you'll never be able to trust him someone who has another's a person's

00:53:57.860 stake his government in his hands ought to think never of himself but always of the prince spending

00:54:03.640 no time on anything in which the prince is not concerned on the other hand to keep this minister

00:54:09.440 honest the prince should think about his welfare honor him enrich him do him kindnesses uh and

00:54:16.600 confer honors and offices upon him. And at the same time, the prince should let the minister see

00:54:21.780 that he can't survive without the prince. He shouldn't, he should be so rich and so honored

00:54:27.000 that he doesn't want more either. And so, and has so many offices that'd be afraid of the change of

00:54:33.400 regime. So this is how a prince should handle his ministers, right? His employees, the, the,

00:54:41.360 his advisors because naturally if you're handing these people power there will be an incentive for

00:54:47.420 them to use it for themselves in modern like economics language game theory language we call

00:54:51.840 this the principal agent problem right where you have the principal which is a person who actually

00:54:56.740 owns the thing runs the thing and then you have an agent operating on their behalf and i write

00:55:01.980 about this in the total state this is a huge problem with our current managerial regime

00:55:05.460 because we have the principal and then we have the people actually running the organization the

00:55:09.980 managers and the capitalists who started like a company has actually a different set of incentives

00:55:16.160 than the managers inside it because they're not getting all the benefits that the capitalist is

00:55:21.860 from running the company so they start looking to build their own power their own control

00:55:26.900 that kind of thing and that makes them a bad manager because they're more interested in their

00:55:31.060 own power their own aggrandizement the increase of their own money and as we've seen with many

00:55:35.200 managerial organizations this ends up dooming the organization it eats itself from the inside

00:55:39.320 because the very people who are supposed to be running it are actually acting as conquest law

00:55:43.780 number three says as a cabal of its enemies because they are more interested in their own

00:55:48.820 aggrandizement their own power their own money than actually completing the mission of the

00:55:53.620 corporation or the organization Machiavelli says same thing here when it comes to kingdoms he's

00:56:00.380 recognizing the principal agent problem hundreds and hundreds of years before anyone has thought

00:56:05.240 up this economic theory to explain it. He's saying your ministers will naturally have an incentive

00:56:10.900 once you hand them power to want to use it for themselves. Be wary of that. If you see them

00:56:15.880 consistently doing that, you should be very worried they're not going to be a good minister.

00:56:19.720 If they're always trying to accrue advantage to themselves, if they're always thinking about how

00:56:22.980 they can maneuver or manipulate and gain more influence, that's not good. You want people who

00:56:28.140 are primarily worried about doing their job and delivering results. You don't want people who

00:56:33.320 playing court politics or trying to accrue power or glory or money themselves you want people who

00:56:38.260 are putting their eye on the ball all the time who are putting their shoulder to the grindstone

00:56:43.260 making sure that they benefit the organization and the and more importantly the prince that they

00:56:48.740 work for the kingdom and the prince that they work for and he says the way to do this is to

00:56:53.940 leave them no room to want for more so actually Machiavelli says be generous with these people

00:56:58.620 give them money honor honor them enrich them show them kindnesses give them offices so he said he

00:57:07.080 says treat your ministers well treat the people who you give power to well because this will allow

00:57:13.920 you to ultimately trust them they won't look to go somewhere else they won't see a need to fight

00:57:21.100 for their position because you're already making their lives the best they can be why fight for

00:57:26.280 more power when the king makes sure that i'm wealthy and i'm honored he gives me praise he

00:57:31.120 puts me in positions of power he uh elevates me in the in the in honor like why would i want to

00:57:37.400 leave this guy why would i want to backstab this guy why would i need to work for my own benefit

00:57:41.620 when this guy gives me everything i need in fact he says specifically he should be so rich and so

00:57:47.920 honored that he uh he won't want more of either and have so many offices that he's afraid of regime

00:57:54.240 change. So if your ministers are properly taken care of, they don't need more money. They don't

00:58:00.340 need more honor. And very importantly, they have no interest in betraying you because their whole

00:58:05.100 lifestyle, their rich, lavish lifestyle, their lifestyle of honor and privilege is based on you

00:58:10.580 being in power. And this is something again, that Machiavelli says over and over and over again,

00:58:15.520 it's about dependence. It's about dependence. You want the people who are working on you

00:58:21.100 to be dependent on you. So that if you're gone, if they betray you, if the situation changes,

00:58:28.260 they'll lose something. And that's so important. It's so important as a ruler to make sure that

00:58:35.600 the people who are under you would lose something if you're gone. Now, many times that means

00:58:40.540 being a good ruler, honoring people, doing good things, because then they'll miss you if you were

00:58:46.160 gone. But no matter what, you want to make it clear that your absence would hurt people, right?

00:58:53.120 And this is what most rulers do when they want to maximize their power. Now, there are good and

00:59:00.160 bad versions of this. There are more destructive versions of this. You could look at something

00:59:04.100 like Leninism. And Leninism, they're taking like the dregs of society, the bottom of society.

00:59:10.160 You might have heard bio-Leninism, which is kind of the NRX explanation of this, but they're taking the people who are those that have the least in society and elevating them into positions they would otherwise never hold, would never have a chance to hold.

00:59:25.220 And those people are so deeply, deeply dependent on the party, the communist party to stay in power, that they will fight to the death.

00:59:34.360 They will have total loyalty because they know in no other situation would natural hierarchy shake out so that they get that benefit.

00:59:42.560 So they are entirely loyal to the party.

00:59:44.820 Now, that is a system that is leaned so hard into this that it's almost that it's well, not almost.

00:59:50.360 It is destructive because you're putting the worst people in the world in charge.

00:59:54.500 and ultimately that does have a problem Machiavelli wouldn't say that he says you still need to put

00:59:59.480 powerful thoughtful valuable people in charge however once you do make them dependent on you

01:00:05.160 make them entirely dependent on you make them so thankful that you are the king and you are giving

01:00:10.820 them these positions of honor and you are making them rich and you are giving the prestige that

01:00:15.960 they would never think of betraying you and they would never even think of looking for more power

01:00:19.880 more wealth because they already have more than they could have ever imagined so once again you

01:00:24.200 see this moment where Machiavelli yes it's about your own power right like do things that help you

01:00:29.240 gain power but oftentimes the thing that helps you gain power is treating people well and in fact

01:00:35.120 being so generous being such a benefactor to these people that they would never want you gone

01:00:40.380 right like that's the key so always make it known that you are a force that is necessary whether

01:00:47.420 it's because you are great and generous and or because you are terror terrifying the point is

01:00:54.120 always make it clear that the people the ministers everyone is better with you in charge

01:01:00.380 that your rule is beneficial to everyone and that they need you in power because if they need you

01:01:06.700 they'll be loyal but when they don't need you that's when they walk away it's better to be

01:01:13.220 feared than love right you want people to know that if they turn against you if something happens

01:01:19.940 where they betray you when if you're gone their lives will get worse right like that that's

01:01:25.240 something you want people to understand all right guys well we're gonna go ahead and wrap this up

01:01:32.300 today i don't think i see any questions right away so we'll go ahead and wrap this one up thank you

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01:02:00.280 And my book, the total state is out in its second edition.

01:02:03.340 It's second printing it's in paperback and it's got that extra chapter.

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01:02:15.020 Thank you everybody for watching. And as always, I will talk to you next time.

The Auron MacIntyre Show - May 13, 2026

Machiavelli： The Power of Glory ｜ 5⧸13⧸26

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