Why is Machiavelli so overrated?

Why is Niccolo Machiavelli so incredibly overrated? I mean, this guy was a total loser, a loser's loser really, trying to set himself up as some kind of authority on ruling the world! He was probably really something of a nutcase, if you think about it. This guy actually got himself tortured and stretched out on the rack because he was so aggressive with potential noble employers to try to get a job, that they couldn't get rid of him any other way! Really! His role model for the "ideal prince", Cesare Borgia, managed to get himself slaughtered in his early thirties simply by getting ahead of his own army, and refusing to identify himself, so he died, in a situation in which he could readily have saved himself and been ransomed back for a healthy sum. Cesare Borgia achieved a brief period of military success under the kind patronage of his much, much older father, Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, while the two were attempting to establish a kind of military dictatorship throughout all of Italy. Possibly if Rodrigo Borgia hadn't died, or maybe been poisoned, they might have succeeded. Or, maybe not. In any case, it was downhill from that point on for poor Cesare Borgia. Maybe he effectively committed suicide in battle, intentionally, who knows? Now, to be fair -- and, I always want to be very fair, of course -- Machiavelli did write some interesting analyses on Livy in which he supports a balance of powers in democratic republics, and hence incorporates his cynicism into a kind of practical framework for ideal government that has some application. But, were any of Machiavelli's ideas really at all original? Obviously William Shakespeare was well aware of the need for deviousness at times in statecraft, and that pure virtue does not always win the day. For that matter, so was Geoffrey Chaucer, long before Machiavelli. Actually, if you really want to look at some "Machiavellian" statecraft at multiple levels, take a look at what happened to Thomas Becket. No real "Saint", he. What Becket was, really, was a middle class man on the make, trying to duke it out with Henry II of England, and Pope Alexander III, and getting outplayed by both of them, and ruthlessly used by both of them. When has there been any period in history when leadership did not involve some element of cynicism? There has never been one, ever. When Shakespeare has Richard III himself say he could "bring the murderous Machiavel to school" I think what he is saying is that Machiavelli actually was, himself, rather naive, and that's why he was such a total failure and screwup! Of course, some element of cynicism is necessary in leadership, but, not that exclusively! To read "The Prince", you would think that only murderous sociopaths have any success in politics, and the more damage they do, the better for everyone! This is patently ridiculous. Leaders like that end up dead rather shortly, or permanently imprisoned. People aren't stupid enough to be manipulated and fooled indefinitely, although, from time to time such actions may be useful, or even essential. Ultimately, unless political leaders deliver the goods, they are removed, one way, or another, quite consistently. So, what's the big fuss about Machiavelli, one way, or another? I think it's rather similar to the fuss about his younger contemporary Nostradamus. Machiavelli wasn't a political genius, and Nostradamus wasn't a prophet. However, both of them were highly literate men who had led a varied life, and were operating in the time of the exploding field of the mass production of books through modern printing. So, combining their knowledge of the world with their literary studies, and given that their works could be mass produced, they were able to expand their reputations and influence far beyond what would have been the case before the advent of printing and mass production of books. Put another way, both Machiavelli and Nostradamus were contemporary media stars, not because they were actually very unique, but, simply because they happened to appear at a time when the new medium of printing was looking for media stars, and they just happened to fit the bill. #machiavelli #torture #borgias #cesareborgia #renaissance #printing #history #philosophyofhistory #leadership #ethics #moralphilosophy #philosophy #italianhistory #shakespeare #chaucer #britishhistory #historyofphilosophy #papalhistory #churchhistory #thomasbecket #politics #polticalscience #nostradamus #media #massmedia