Over the centuries, the world has encountered several leaders whose leaderships are different from each other. But, what most state dislike is to have a leader who has the qualities of Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and Thomas Hobbes’ The Leviathan. Well, who certainly possessed these characteristics?
It is but an accepted statement that Adolf Hitler of Germany was a dictator and an iron-fist ruler. Many hated him that, in fact, the world seemed to even hate the whole of Germany during the Second World War because of having him as their ruler. Undoubtedly, he manifested The Prince and The Leviathan.
One famous Machiavellian quotation was “The Prince must be tricky as fox and as strong as lion.” If we will be pondering on it, Machiavelli wanted to say that the ruler must be as wise as fox and as strong as lion. It was like a wise and cunning politician and a strong, brave and feared military leader. An ideal leader must possess both these two or else, he would not be stable in power. Machiavelli also asserted that a leader was better to be feared than loved though he also said that he must gain the sympathy of his people by being ‘seemingly’ good. He must not forget the importance of religion. It was also a must for the Prince to be cruel and he must not think twice to be such because it is for the unity of his people. Injury must be inflicted all at once as long as it is for unity. The Prince must also provide a constant readiness to war and he must establish his fortress against the internal threat than the external. And, he should entertain the people so that he can delude their attention from what he is doing.
To lay all of these on the qualities of Hitler as a leader, we can say that he was exactly the Prince who was created by Machiavelli.
First, he was outstandingly a wise politician (and cunning especially when deceived Josef Stalin and attempted to conquer USSR) and a military officer. He established people’s fear towards him when he put the whole Germany under a civil war. He drove the Jews out of their land believing that the Aryans was the supreme race and also giving an account to his religion as a Christian. He was very cruel in killing the Jews that this injury was inflicted in a great sudden where every second in Germany, at that time, was a peril to them. All of these, he believed, were to establish a fortress against the Jews who, he also thought, was the internal threat to their race and to his power and also to unify the Aryans (real Germans, according to him) in his seemed to be “owned” country. Furthermore, since he had once been in military grounds, he knew the importance of readiness to war as he was also sure that many countries were at anger with him, particularly when he sent his troops and tried to conquer France, Greece, Yugoslavia, USSR, and Great Britain which was against the Treaty of Versailles. And of course, the military was his tool to extinguish the Jews, especially, if ever they rebelled.
Indeed, Hitler made his people believe that he was doing all of these for their unity and stability. He garnered sympathy and praise from his people that many of them even cooperated in hunting the Jews.
Likewise, Hobbes’s The Leviathan also created a clear picture of Hitler during his cruelty in Germany. According to Hobbes’ writing, the Leviathan is assumed to be working for the protection of his people and so, he claims sovereign power. His sovereignty is irreversible, indivisible and limitless. He is the supreme legislator and enactor inspired by his subjects. He is not bound by the civil law because he is much powerful than it in a sense that he can amend it based on his interest.
The same went with Hitler. He assumed that he existed to protect his people, his co-Aryans and so, he claimed the sovereign power- irreversible, indivisible and limitless. He acted as the supreme of all that he relentlessly extinguished the Jews. According to him, he did this because he was inspired by his supreme race. Moreover, as history shows, it is evident that Hitler acted as much powerful to their law that he actually amended it in his own way, passing several anti-Jewish laws. He generated his own definition of nationality which means, a nationality based on his interests.
With all of these, the characters of The Prince and The Leviathan can be surely sought in the life of Hitler. It is therefore possible that these cruel images of a leader can exist. But, hopefully, no more Hitler will come out on the next genres.
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