Life is like House of Cards though and I'm not even prelaw. If you haven't been betrayed by friends you've trusted, snaked, and just generally fucked over by people, I envy you. Also, apparently Machiavelli is understood and he actually was trying to teach Princes to defend themselves and be preemptive against actual snakes instead of being a snake for the sake of being one. Basically, Machiavelli was trying to go against the Church's " Christ" notion of how a leader should be and concluded that if you acted like that you'd be fucked over quick. The church would never sponsor his work so he decided to get it from the medicis of florence, I think?