Is It Better to Be Loved or Feared?
Niccolo Machiavelli raises the question if it is better to be loved or feared when in a position of power. Machiavelli states that it is better to have a relationship that is based on both love and fear but since you can rarely be both loved and feared it is better to have a relationship built on fear. I believe a leader shouldn’t seek to be loved nor feared but rather show themselves worthy of respect. He or she should be more concerned with whether or not they have the respect and trust of the people who they are leading. Being excellent in their field of work, modeling the performance they expect from their subordinates, showing themselves capable of making the necessary decisions that is in the best interest of the state or organization and being fair in their dealings.
Niccolo Machiavelli was an …show more content…
He thought that loving honorable people were at a disadvantage as a leaders in the real world. Machiavelli was impatient with the utopic idea of what men thought the world should be and chose to focus on how things really were. Machiavelli believed that public success and private morality were two separate things, for him the question was not what made a good human being but what made a good prince.
Machiavelli also had a very pessimistic viewpoint of the nature of man, he believed that men in general were ungrateful, fickle, dissembling, anxious to flee danger and covetous of gain. He said they would be faithful to you as long as you promoted their advantage but the second a need arises they would turn against you. His belief was that if you had a relationships built solely on love it would be easier for men to turn against you without any agony. If the relationship was built on fear however they would think twice about turning on you out of the fear of
Niccolo Machiavelli raises the question if it is better to be loved or feared when in a position of power. Machiavelli states that it is better to have a relationship that is based on both love and fear but since you can rarely be both loved and feared it is better to have a relationship built on fear. I believe a leader shouldn’t seek to be loved nor feared but rather show themselves worthy of respect. He or she should be more concerned with whether or not they have the respect and trust of the people who they are leading. Being excellent in their field of work, modeling the performance they expect from their subordinates, showing themselves capable of making the necessary decisions that is in the best interest of the state or organization and being fair in their dealings.
Niccolo Machiavelli was an …show more content…
He thought that loving honorable people were at a disadvantage as a leaders in the real world. Machiavelli was impatient with the utopic idea of what men thought the world should be and chose to focus on how things really were. Machiavelli believed that public success and private morality were two separate things, for him the question was not what made a good human being but what made a good prince.
Machiavelli also had a very pessimistic viewpoint of the nature of man, he believed that men in general were ungrateful, fickle, dissembling, anxious to flee danger and covetous of gain. He said they would be faithful to you as long as you promoted their advantage but the second a need arises they would turn against you. His belief was that if you had a relationships built solely on love it would be easier for men to turn against you without any agony. If the relationship was built on fear however they would think twice about turning on you out of the fear of