"It is better to be feared than loved"

[Objective]

"It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both." Is one of the most cited quotes from 16th-century political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli's (in)famous book The Prince. What do you think about this quote? Is it more important for authority figures and leaders to be feared or loved?

I can definitely agree with Machiavelli. All societies are based on the citizens fear of law and authority, without it we wouldn't see much order in the society.

 

[woolfe9998]

I can't cast a vote because there is fatal ambiguity in the meaning of the word "better" in this context. If I have to answer though, then I'll say its neither. Machiavelli was talking about leaders needing to be either fear or loved. I posit that what a leader requires is neither. A leader doesn't need to be feared or loved. He needs to be respected and, above all, trusted.

This should be in the Discussion Club.

 

[sandorski]

If you are a Dictator this saying might have merit. Otherwise, it's just a saying, don't read too much into it.

 

[mizzou]

leaders who are effective only with fear are inneffective

 

[Rakehellion]

If you're feared, people just want to kill you.

 

[Newell Steamer]

No thank you on both - I don't care if people fear me, love me, respect me, pity me, worship me or loath me.

Furthermore, I don't care for any leadership or authority. I don't want to be a leader or an authority. Sure, I follow them, but that is solely for the purposes of giving them enough for them to leave me alone as well as following their rules to be flagged as a non-threat.

From then on, I live my life.

This concept of fighting authority is nothing more than spinning one's own wheels. Plus, it's a sign of feeling unfulfilled, worthless and impotent.

10 times out of 10, whatever misery you are feeling is a result of you; you let external forces and ideas get into you. You let external forces affect your mood, mind and soul. And you let external forces control you like a puppet... through your very own emotions. It is sad.

 

[brianmanahan]

totally depends on your role.

are you a grandmother? better to be loved

are you an executioner? better to be feared

 

[zinfamous]

Machiavelli was writing a stark criticism of the Medici family and what he saw as their tyrannical leadership over Firenze and Toscana. "The Prince" is a satire and that phrase and all of those attributed to him inappropriately over the centuries by admirers, were written in irony.

He was banished for writing The Prince. Amazing how well this one work of his is known and repeated; and yet so few people understand a thing about it.

 

[Linux23]

feared. it's nothing worse than being loved while someone is twisting a knife in your back.

 

[werepossum]

I can't cast a vote because there is fatal ambiguity in the meaning of the word "better" in this context. If I have to answer though, then I'll say its neither. Machiavelli was talking about leaders needing to be either fear or loved. I posit that what a leader requires is neither. A leader doesn't need to be feared or loved. He needs to be respected and, above all, trusted.

This should be in the Discussion Club.

Agreed. And if extended beyond leaders and/or beyond one's own people, then it becomes even more problematic. My answer in reference to ISIS would be much different than in reference to, say, Mormons or transsexuals or Eagle Scouts. I would much, much rather our leaders be feared by ISIS, whereas if our leaders are feared by Mormons or transsexuals or Eagle Scouts then something is bad wrong. And as far as being feared, that is as much a reason to take up arms against a leader as to obey him. The whole of Western civilization is based on citizens obeying the laws because there are a common covenant, not because of fear.

 

[werepossum]

Machiavelli was writing a stark criticism of the Medici family and what he saw as their tyrannical leadership over Firenze and Toscana. "The Prince" is a satire and that phrase and all of those attributed to him inappropriately over the centuries by admirers, were written in irony.

He was banished for writing The Prince. Amazing how well this one work of his is known and repeated; and yet so few people understand a thing about it.

lol I read that almost forty years ago and had totally forgotten that point. Thanks.

Hey, I guess you really are never too old to learn new things you've forgotten . . .

 

[Darwin333]

Saddam Huessien ruled by feared and yes, it's quite effective when done properly. Just because it's effective doesn't mean it's necessary or good though. In a civilized society you shouldn't fear those in authority because we are civilized. Ruling by fear is basically, if not outright, oppression.

 

[alcoholbob]

If you are loved after you die people will use your name against things you believed in, just like how Lyndon B Johnson snuck stuff into bills that John F Kennedy proposed (and would have totally opposed the amendments) and used American's love of Kennedy to pass the bills. I wouldn't want to be loved knowing that leaders after me would extract the goodwill from the populace by using my name for things I don't believe in.

 

[senseamp]

Is it better to be North Korea or Japan?

 

[Nebor]

It depends on the people you're trying to lead. The western species of human responds better to charisma. The middle eastern types and Fox News viewers respond better to fear.

 

[Moonbeam]

"It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both." Is one of the most cited quotes from 16th-century political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli's (in)famous book The Prince. What do you think about this quote? Is it more important for authority figures and leaders to be feared or loved?

I can definitely agree with Machiavelli. All societies are based on the citizens fear of law and authority, without it we wouldn't see much order in the society.

Geez, do you really think that Machiavelli was interested in advising the Prince. He was interested in ingratiating himself into power by telling the Price what he thought the Prince wanted to hear. But the fact is that such use of power and threat will always fail because it will propel sociopath, psychopaths, and sadists to work for such a government. You wind up something like where we are today with our government with a psychopathic sick sexually deviant bunch of little Nazis vying for power to the point where the whole thing will eventually collapse. You yourself are just a symptom of the problem, grown to adulthood without the slightest notion of common sense and any sense of social responsibility, basically absent a sense of morality. The only real basis for good citizenship is the desire to be a good citizen that comes from within. These things are a natural function of self pride and self love.

 

[Zorkorist]

It's obviously better to be loved, rather than feared.

-John

 

[zinfamous]

lol I read that almost forty years ago and had totally forgotten that point. Thanks.

Hey, I guess you really are never too old to learn new things you've forgotten . . .

For some reason, it's difficult for the high school reader that is assigned this (let alone the "AP" teacher that is presenting the book off of some print-out lesson plan) to understand that "the prince" in the book is a character.

If would be as if the reader attributed this line:
"and I looked and I looked at her and knew as clearly as I know I am to die, that I loved her more than anything I had ever seen or imagined on earth"

to the true nature of Nabokov simply because he wrote it and not because it was spoken by Humbert Humbert. That Nabokov, such a perv! That Machiavelli, what a cunning and evil jerk!

But this is pretty much the only reputation that exists for Machiavelli in popular culture and even for much of academia, which is very strange. It's a long-running, and also very nice example of how we collectively fail to learn rather important lessons because we are too lazy to bother about context.
Hard to blame any one individual for not "getting it," though, because failing to understand many of those authors is so hilariously pervasive.

Machiavelli is admired by sociopaths because they see truth in what he wrote--they don't understand that his words are a strong rebuke; not an endorsement.