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Supreme Government

It remains now to be seen how a government should manipulate their people, their allies
and their foes. I know that the subject has been interpreted a great number of times, and Im
afraid people will overlook my ideas and not regard them for their true value as for I have
interpreted what a powerful Government should be in a whole different perspective. I write this
in hope that a scholar reads this and values the truth on maintaining power rather than reading
something clich that has been repeated constantly. Many have imagined ultimate power and
turned those imaginations into actual attempts, but have disregarded how humans influence
society and what the people governing have to do, eventually leading to their ruins. Being moral
was a goal within their power, but it has always backfired on them. Therefore a leader who
whats to keep his reign must learn how to control his subjects and use that knowledge
depending on the requirements of his reign.

A country isn't a country unless it has laws guiding its people for the better. Without a set
constitution the country as a whole falls apart. Machiavelli would agree that a country needs a
government in order to prosper. In the Morals of a Prince, Machiavelli claims that, "You should
consider then, that there are two ways of fighting, one with laws, and the other with force."
(Machiavelli, 227) Machiavelli is saying that there are two ways of fighting and two ways only,
those ways being with laws and the other with violent acts, one being more moral than the other.
However, in Thoreau's "On Civil Disobedience" he would argue otherwise. He claims, "Unjust
laws exist, shall we content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them
until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?" (Thoreau, 7) Thoreau asks a
rhetorical question because he wants to make it obvious that one should not obey laws that they
believe to be unjust. But if people decide that they want to rebel against their government soon
everyone would and that would lead to total chaos. People will do as they please even if it is
against the law, but chaos is not what we need. Our country has suffered far enough in the past
but we are past that now. We shall expand and we shall have ultimate power. Our government
punishes those who go against us. Rebelling would absolutely be the wrong decision to make.
We will give out any punishment that is necessary to get our point across. A ruler must do
whatever he must do in order to keep hold of the power that he has. Do not test our patience.

The distribution of wealth is essential to the makeup of a government. Social status is a
concept in which a persons status is determined by how much money they have and make
yearly. History has made a precedent that money is power. Therefore, in a government, the
amount of money each person has should determine their rank in society, their opportunities and
the amount of power they have.
How should a society be structured when there is distribution of wealth? Well you have an upper
class which consists of the rich, you have the middle class which consists of the people who get
taxed (ill get further into this later) and you have the lower class which consists of the workers
who do the hard labor. This separation benefits the government in one particular, powerful way.

When there is a social structure, the government, without difficulty, receives the power to
use each class in a certain way. They can use every class for a particular purpose and can change
that purpose as they please. Machiavelli believed that liberality with citizens has to be chosen
wisely. Every ruler has to decide wisely who he helps and who he doesnt to prevent reputations
that can harm his position. He explains he will be acting liberally toward all those people
from whom he takes nothing (and there are an immense number of them), and in a stingy way
toward those people on whom he bestows nothing (and they are very few Machiavelli is saying
that you have to choose the people you help wisely as long as it helps you create an image that
helps your power. Social structures allow the one in power to do exactly that. The government
can help the majority (working class) keep him in power by providing them with whatever they
need. Then there is the upper class. Remember, the upper class has money so they have power.
Thoreau explains in his work how the people with money supposedly created the Mexican
American war. He says Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few
individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not
have consented to this measure. Thoreau believes that the rich were able to start a war for
expansion by using the government. Its the complete opposite! The government wanted to
expand and they put the blame on a few individuals to not be seen as misers. In the end, having
a well set social structure opens many paths for manipulation how people perceive the
government.

A government is very expensive to run. Many parts of the government require large
amounts of money. For example, sometimes you need to bribe people to vote for you and you
have to eat in the finest places in the country every evening and hide all the criminal activity you
commit daily. More on the serious note, maintaining power is very, very expensive. You have to
be able to control everything and anything that surrounds you, you have to have an army and
subdivisions in your government that help you maintain power. Therefore, taxes are essential!

Machiavelli believed that generosity could only describe a ruler when he taxed citizens
and gave some (a VERY small percent) of that money back to the people. He states in the
end, if he [the ruler] wants to keep a name for generosity, he will have to load his people with
exorbitant taxes and squeeze money out of them in every way he can. Essentially Machiavelli is
saying that the only way you can be generous is by taxing your subjects and manipulating them
by thinking that youre giving them your money when in reality its theirs. When taxing citizens
you want to tax everyone, but you want to target the middle class the most. The middle class will
usually represent the least amount of people. Taxing them will be profitable and they cant affect
your power. Such people will take positions like Thoreau. They will say When I meet a
government which says to me, your money or your life, why should I be in a haste to give it
my money? Taxing is oppression, but its necessary. You may get the cold shoulder for some
time but you got money and remember that money is power. People will oppose and those
people will get punishments. You will get temporary hatred, but the rewards of taxing will make
up for it.

In order for our government to succeed we need to have an army, not just any army but
the toughest and scariest one there is. If you do something bad, the army will come find you and
take you away; they will show no mercy towards those who commit crimes. If you decide to act
out against our government the army will be there to protect us and even start a war if they have
to. Only then will you truly feel our wrath. Only then will we truly be feared. So is it better to be
loved than feared, or vise versa? The answer is obvious. It is better to be feared than loved; if we
are loved people will not take our government seriously. Its simple to understand, is it not? We
do not play childish games, our government is the heart of our country and we are working hard
to keep our system strong.

A prince should make himself feared in such a way that, even if he gets no love, he gets
no hate either (Machiavelli, 226). Though our government is scary and tough, we only act out
when we see fit. We will not wreck your houses, touch your belongings nor touch your family;
only if you rebel against us, or act heinously will we act upon you. We will send you to jail,
where you will be fed nothing for three days, but we will provide you with a small amount of
water for the three days. We will not allow you to use the washroom, if you need to use it, you
will have to go in your pants. After the three-day period we will then send you to No Mans
Land, where you will be held in confinement with other pitiful rebels who try to fight our
government. No matter what you do, we will catch you. Were too strong for you; dont try to
fight our armies.

If one does not want to be humiliated in front of the entire country then one must not go
against us. Our government wants what is best our people but we cannot give this to our country
when people decide to rebel against us. If a public display of punishment is what people need in
order to understand that we are not to be played with then a public display of punishment is what
they shall receive. There are no limits as to what we will do in order for you to understand that
rebelling against us is the wrong decision to make. In the Morals of a Prince, Machiavelli states,
"People thought Cesare Borgia was cruel, but that cruelty of his reorganized the Romagna,
united it, and established it in peace and loyalty... Thus, no Prince should mind being called cruel
for what he does to keep his subjects united and loyal. (Machiavelli, 224) It is evident that other
great leaders too believe cruelty is necessary for the better of the country. Therefore we must too
in order to thrive. Though it may seem immoral at first the outcome is what makes it worth it for
everyone. The people will not seize to go against us, ever. We are your leaders; you give us your
loyalty.

Hence a government must always have ultimate power so that its people may thrive as a
whole, or thrive overall even if the people dont agree. The government must do whatever it
needs to do to have this power, whether one may view it as moral or immoral, power usually
doesnt take those aspects into consideration. There will always be someone who will disagree
with us but as your leaders we will take care of them because as your leaders, we believe the
people come first. We are your leaders. You respect us. You obey us. You love us. You trust us.
Most importantly, you never go against us. In our government we all trust.

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