I Have To Hate You For Your Own Good

So if you consider leadership as a virtue then Machiavelli is on the right track although I don't agree with him completely. If you look at leadership like any other virtue, it should fall in the middle ground between the two extremes, one being the extremely merciful, people-pleaser, and the other being the tyrant who has anyone who says anything remotely offensive killed. There should be a nice mixture of cruelty and mercy. With being a people-pleaser you risk being indecisive and weakening the government to the point of the risk of being seized by another nation or a rebellion. With being an extremely cruel tyrant you risk a rebellion of the people or possibly a division of the people which could lead to civil war. So in order to be a great ruler, the people and their needs should be important but making them happy should not necessarily be the primary motive.