Is it better to be loved or feared?
“Is it better to be loved or feared? ” This is a subject heatedly debated among many people quite often. I am sure that I am right in thinking that it is much better to be loved than to be feared for a variety of reasons. Some may think and agree with me on the idea that it is better to be loved than feared but others argue that it is better to be feared than loved, and among them is the philsopher Niccolo Machiavelli, the person who came up with this question in the first place. Machiavelli says that “every sensible prince wishes to be considered merciful and not cruel. ” However, he goes on to say that a leader (“prince” in Machiavelli’s words) should care to not use that mercy in a way that works against him, citing Cesare Borgia, a man thought be cruel and was actually cruel, but who also managed to keep his city united and its citizens loyal to him. Likely, he suggests that even though “it is desirable to be both” loved and feared, it is very difficult to be so. As an answer to that unfortunate condition, he argues that it is then preferable to be feared than loved for a leader. If a leader uses minimal examples of cruelty to ensure that his sovereign is in peace and all are loyal to him, there will be less evil to exercise the cruelty on, which leads the leader into being more merciful than an actually ‘merciful’ and forgiving leader. In turn, if a prince is too merciful, he is then being ‘cruel’ because he is letting evils continue to flow, for example, murder.