====== The Prince ======
Good Lord this is one of the most works of political [[philosophy]] I've read. Why does every shithead fall in love with it? These are the kinds of people who used to love Fight Club and American Psycho and Taxi Driver and all those other "sigma male" kind of shits isn't it? 

Anyway... let's get on with the review. The work is interesting historically because it's kind of abrasive to a man in a position of power! "It's better to be feared than to be loved." If someone wrote me a book with this in it, I would be offended. Many people think it's subversive -- meant to be satirical or even something dangerous to employ. I appreciate that it's pragmatic/materialist than older works 

The Prince is fun to read for a weekend. If you're a teenager, it's fun to try and apply the principles of this book to Discord trolling. You can watch movies with bastardly villains and say, "wow, he's just like Machiavelli!". But do not treat this book as an instruction manual; it will not bring you or others happiness, and will probably not bring you and your comrades success. 

If you want to read a more serious and interesting work of early Modern political philosophy, you really can't go wrong reading [[Leviathan]] by Thomas Hobbes. Or if you want something else that's short, silly, and fun, read Voltaire's Candide -- it's a real barrel of monkeys! 

* [[https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/niccolo-machiavelli/the-prince/w-k-marriott|Free download]]

{{tag>philosophy}}