After examining the tone of the book I discovered that Machiavelli isn't just simply writing his thoughts as expressed opinions but more along the lines of facts or laws. While providing possible roads that a prince can travel within each different conflict, sarcasm is heavily conveyed through the choices or roads that he views as being the wrong ones. More often than not he leaves his ideal Prince with no middle ground to travel with statements such as "Men must either be pampered or annihilated." .
This statement also reveals that Machiavelli feels that men are simple creatures whose desires can be easily met. Further into this section of the reading he says , "People are by nature changeable. It is easy to persuade them about some particular matter, but it is hard to hold them to that persuasion. Hence it is necessary to provide that when they no longer believe, they can be forced to believe." .
This statement as well as others shows that throughout the book, Machiavelli makes a lot of assumptions about what people will do as oppose to what they might do. I feel that a large area of his writing is in error because human nature cannot be generalized. Of course one can speculate on what majorities will or will not do but in the end there will be a few to step up and break molds. Then again, he wrote hi book in a time where people had less options than what exist today. With these limitations it might be possible for one to predict the actions of people. .
Machiavelli's ideal prince is an individual that is emotionless. He must be an individual with little temptations and few distractions. "A prince must have no other objective, no other thought, nor take up any profession but that of war, its methods and its discipline, for that is the only art expected of a ruler. And it is of such great value that it not only keeps hereditary princes in power, but often raises men of lowly condition to that rank.
