This time after reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson I decided to read The Prince by Machiavelli. I have to say that reading a book that is based on having a tyrannical government and then The Prince really helps you connect better to ideas. This was not my idea. TJEd High has their reading program set up to read these two books together, so I was curious. The government in Mistborn lines up with several ideas that Machiavelli addressed in his writings.
Mistborn is a story about Revolutionaries (although they did not start as revolutionaries) who end up over throwing a very old government that was repressive to the common people and created slaves out of most of the population (even those that were considered nobles). We can see the corruption, suffering, destruction and power struggles of the people in general. But when the country as been ruled this way for centuries the people are accustomed to it with no real effort on doing something different because revolution seems impossible to the people, yet a small group of determined people end up succeeding at bringing down their ruler.
Now they have to re-establish a government. Machiavelli says this: "there is nothing more difficult in taking hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things". (p. 9) What will Brandon Sanderson do with the rest of the series? Are they good ideas or not?
Mistborn is a story about Revolutionaries (although they did not start as revolutionaries) who end up over throwing a very old government that was repressive to the common people and created slaves out of most of the population (even those that were considered nobles). We can see the corruption, suffering, destruction and power struggles of the people in general. But when the country as been ruled this way for centuries the people are accustomed to it with no real effort on doing something different because revolution seems impossible to the people, yet a small group of determined people end up succeeding at bringing down their ruler.
Now they have to re-establish a government. Machiavelli says this: "there is nothing more difficult in taking hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things". (p. 9) What will Brandon Sanderson do with the rest of the series? Are they good ideas or not?
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