Machiavelli's Analysis

Think of a relationship in life, one where there is a dominant person over a group of people. Is this dominant person more feared or more loved by the general population? Machiavelli states that it is better to be feared than it is to be loved when ruling over a group of people, because one of them is going to outweigh the other no matter what. This does show to be true, but not to the extreme Machiavelli describes. In modern day, for the United States, there is no ruler or president that has public shaming or public killings, that was deemed unnecessary multiple decades ago. There is a huge line between fear and respect. Respect is a balance between love and fear, and it shows to have better outcomes with more accuracy of people not rising against ‘the man.’ There must be a balance between fear and love, if there is just fear there will be hatred, if there is just love there will be chaos. Respect is the happy medium between the love and fear, and it shows to have more positive outcomes than just fearing a leader.
Even when a prince wishes to be merciful, the fear must overpower to insinuate the control over the people the ruler is watching over. Fear brings order in Machiavelli’s eyes. It is difficult to bring both fear and love into the same category, but a prince is better off being feared rather than being loved. Hannibal, a man who led an army against Rome, was known for his cruelty. Hannibal was in charge for more than fifteen years in 200 B.C.E. It was extremely necessary for Hannibal to be seen as cruel due to the fact that he was leading an army, and he must show no mercy against the opponent, this gives the entire army strength and hatred for the opponent also. Hannibal’s inhuman cruelty brought the community together as one (Jacobus,