Virtue and Fortune: Is Machiavelli Still Relevant Today?
The strategies advocated by Niccolò Machiavelli need not only apply to rulers, political affairs and war. There is at the bottom of all success, a way by which it is seized and maintained, either by that of our own hands, or that of chance. Understood broadly, it is these central themes that occur within ‘The Prince’ that I wish to discuss, namely, ‘Virtue’, understood generally as ability or prowess, and ‘Fortune’, characterised by luck or chance. I will argue that these ideas and Machiavelli’s view of human nature, are just as relevant today as they were five hundred years ago, and that they apply equally to the everyday as well as the magnificent.
Let us look at Machiavelli’s claim that people should rely on virtue, above that of others or fortune. He describes the Romans as exemplars of virtue, never stalling in order to avoid war, because war ‘cannot be avoided’, only put off to the advantage of others.¹ And what we take him to mean here is that when you wait for something to come upon you through fortune, the remedy may be too late, since your movements are constrained if you are cornered. Acting quickly, not endlessly deliberating, ensures the best chance of success. He likens this to a consumptive illness recognised promptly and therefore easier to cure. This may just as readily correspond to the effects of procrastination and delay through laziness. People put off what they do not see as an immediate benefit or are unmotivated to act for. They miss out on opportunity because they cannot see its value in the present. But the only way to secure what is on offer in the present, he thinks, is to move upon it swiftly, because ‘time brings with it all things’, both the good and the bad.² What is here today may be stolen tomorrow.
Machiavelli’s view of human nature has an abundance of explanatory power when considering virtue and fortune, because people are predictable. To be successful today, as then, a leader, business owner, military commander, or even salesman must know the nature of their target or audience. People, Machiavelli says, are ‘fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, and greedy for gain’, they may be corrupted easily and change their allegiance as it suits them.³ And in all avenues throughout history exist those who would benefit themselves whilst your hands are turned to other tasks. This is true, as when times are hard, people look out for themselves and turn inwards to self-concern. Ad yet even in times of prosperity people are still greedy and not satisfied with their share. In considering this, one can never look to others or fortune to maintain their position because people are predictably self-orientated. Those who you depend on will not come to your aid when they are infatuated with their own interests, and likewise, waiting for good luck will ruin you when it does not show. Thus, it need not require an army to take away your success or your position, only those you depend on for it — or perhaps a twist of chance, undoing the seeds of success. It is clear then: those who rely less on fortune have the optimal stance.⁴
What he further recommends in acquiring and preserving success, is that people should fear you, or fear your power.⁵ A wise employer does not wince when their employee talks down to them, as this would remove any fear of punishment and forfeit the employers position of power. To clarify this Machiavelli says virtue is knowing how to be ‘the fox and the lion’, namely, the cunning to see threat arise and the power to instil fear.⁶ And this is surely true of any business strategy that succeeds above others. Greed, betrayal and self-interest surround us, as unequivocally as the air. People take advantage of the kind employer, the nice guy, they don’t when they fear him — nor if he intercepts the self-interested plots of others before they reach fruition and threaten him.
Machiavelli recognises that people may achieve success through different means, he says the person who adapts to the nature of the times will prosper, and we can take him to mean that someone of great virtue is flexible and adaptive.⁷ What good is it to possess great prowess in only selective domains? For we know that with fortune comes unforeseen events. For every person now, as throughout history, the day is full of change, both welcome and unwelcome. The person who is unprepared for those unforeseen consequences is less likely to move in accordance with them when they arise. So, it may be seen that virtue is also one’s capacity to act with fortune rather than against it, to be ready, since it cannot be stopped. He describes fortune as a destructive river, ‘everyone yields to its impetus’, he says, and though it is futile to oppose, those with virtue are best placed to defend themselves as they have constructed ‘dikes and damns’ whilst the weather was calm.⁸ Here the metaphor is clear, tomorrow may bring misfortune, and if you do not have the means to deal with it when it arises, then it will take what you cannot defend. If someone’s reputation is based solely on the good word of others and not of their own virtue, then, when the time comes that their friends or colleagues decide it no longer necessary to support them, their reputation crumbles, since they have earned their position through the favour of others, not through virtue.
It may be said, that whilst renaissance architects were not as advanced, whose tools as technologically supreme, what was wrought and built then must also be today, and all foundations are either solid or weak. Respectively, Machiavelli says that for things that are born and grow rapidly, they get wiped out as soon as the first bad weather, as they do not yet have strong roots or branches.⁹ So too do the rushed designs quickly propped up by fast and cheap labour. The need for secure foundations is thus paramount. The same may also be said with knowledge. People can posses a façade of knowledge, thinking they have it in their grasp, without truly understanding how it is they actually know something. We can treat knowledge instrumentally, as if the right words are sufficient in our being said to know something. Because of this, it it is possible to mistake a simple recollection of facts and propositions for actual knowledge. But knowledge is more than that. One can have access to all the facts of the world, and yet not have the wisdom to discern the good from the bad — or right action from wrong. Knowledge must also be how we are in relationship to the facts of the world. This requires understanding our understanding — what is now referred to in the sciences of mind as meta-cognition. And I think Machiavelli would agree: this is a better foundation to inoculate against the winds of fortune.
So where should we look today, how do we secure virtue? Machiavelli advises us to look to history, at the exemplars of virtue who wielded fortune as opportunity. Because people will almost always follow in other’s footsteps.¹⁰ From this can be inferred, at least in part, that we can look within his book, The Prince. What makes Machiavelli’s words a perennially applicable is the universal value of them, irrespective of time and place. The landscape may have changed, this he would acknowledge, but human nature does not. Therefore, the narrative of success and power is often one with recursive premises.
References
- Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 12–13
- Ibid.
- Ibid, p. 58.
- Ibid, p. 21.
- ibid, p. 58.
- Ibid, pp. 60–61.
- Ibid, p. 85.
- Ibid, p. 84.
- Ibid, p. 24.
- Ibid, pp. 20–21.
