What do Joseph Stalin, Richard Nixon, and Mark Zuckerberg all have in common? An unquenchable thirst for power. Although they come from different eras, educational and cultural backgrounds, they have all sought power and all fought to preserve it. What they share is their source of inspiration from the same book written in the mid-1500s – The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. The historical significance of The Prince lies in its philosophy about power that transcends time and place, as evidenced in its many disciples over the past five centuries. Machiavelli provided a revolutionary model for aspiring leaders to gain power and maintain control. Stalin, Nixon, and Zuckerberg illustrate three varied approaches to seeking and maintaining power through tyranny, democracy, and capitalism.
Joseph Stalin represents the tyrannical embodiment of the themes presented within The Prince. Stalin’s complete control of the Soviet Union was through the application of ideas and strategies that he read (and even annotated) within The Prince. Stalin’s iron fist was made stronger through convincing his people that it was within their best interest to surrender freedom, property, and their lives to the greater good. And those who opposed were met with swift and decisive punishment, effectively using fear to deter further resistance to his rule. In a time of political rule being hinged to religion and grounded in pious morality, Machiavelli’s observations were viewed as heretical by some and revolutionary to others: “it is much safer to be feared than loved because …love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”
Richard Nixon represents the Western Democratic manifestation of Machiavelli’s theories within The Prince. Nixon felt he was losing control of the Presidency approaching the 1972 election and ordered FBI and CIA agents to steal secret papers and to wire-tap the offices of the Democratic party. Upon discovery of what transpired, Nixon attempted to cover up and conceal the crimes by utilizing the power of the government. Nixon cheated, lied, and threw those beneath him under the bus in order to regain control. This concept of lying to retain power is captured within chapter 18 of The Prince when Machiavelli states.:
Everyone admits how praiseworthy it is in a prince to keep his word, and to behave with integrity rather than cunning. Nevertheless our experience has been that those princes who have done great things have considered keeping their word of little account, and have known how to beguile men’s minds by shrewdness and cunning. In the end these princes have overcome those who have relied on keeping their word.”
Mark Zuckerberg epitomizes the corporate personification of the concepts found within The Prince. Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from his college friends who developed a very similar idea called ConnectU. Outraged, they sued Zuckerberg for damages. Fully aware of his immoral actions, Zuckerburg settled out of court. To Mark Zuckerberg the loss of two friends over intellectual property and the financial cost of doing so was justified in the end because it meant he could grow Facebook into the company it is today. This idea of “the ends justifying the means” is central to Machiavellian philosophy and a key concept within The Prince. This is presented when Machiavelli opines:
“Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result.”
The Prince much like power is not inherently evil, but rather lies in the individuals who decide what to do with these tools when they acquire them. Stalin, Nixon, and Zuckerberg all read the same 90 pages, it was how they interpreted this information that dictated their actions. Michavelli wrote what he observed, that the pathway to power is riddled with difficult choices and morally questionable decisions and to maintain it is even more complex. What I believe he failed to understand is that men who seek power are rarely deserving of it and often misuse it. This is why history is riddled with terrible rulers who take his philosophy to the extreme and fail to realize that Machiavelli also understood the value in moderation.
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