would Machiavelli approve of Hitler and the Holocaust?

Sat Sep 01, 2018

i took a european advance placement (AP) course. it covered modern history, after 1500

we had a textbook, and we had a reader.

the reader had excepts from classic texts of thinkers after 1500 from Hobbes and Locke to Voltaire.

we didn't read these works in their entirety, but we did read 5-10 page excepts.

one 10 page except was Machiavelli The Prince

the question that our AP teacher asked us was

would Machiavelli approve of Hitler and the Holocaust?

a couple of my classmates objected to the question so he changed it to Stalin. unfortunately we don't know much about Stalin so we weren't sure.

so we never got to answer the question would Machiavelli approve of Hitler and the Holocaust?

I think the goal of the prince to get power, then maintain power.

so Machiavelli approve of Hitler rise to power. but Hitler didn't maintain power.

i don't think Machiavelli would object to the holocaust if that's what hitler had to do to gain and hold power.

Hitler thought of the jews as the enemy, in part, bc he is an far right ultranationalists, and many jews were and are now far left politically communist

but hitler lost power.

it is, after all, better to be feared than loved.

Stalin gained power by murdering "reactionaries", which i see as the flip side to the holocaust