"<a href=""https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExcXnQ1th6c&amp;t=24m06s"">24:06</a> Just so you know", Niccolo Machiavelli himself wasn't a prince, he was an renaissance philosopher who talked about the nature of politics from the point of view of princely rulers. I'm actually happy to see more people reference his work in a pragmatic context like this because The Prince often gets a bad rap as a handbook for genocidal dictators.