The End Justifies The Means.

An enterprise can succeed only if it has a goal. To achieve that goal an effective method should be adopted. The method can be harmless with no violence in it. Or it can be hard and cruel which calls for a lot of violence. In both cases the goal is the same. Only the method of achieving it is different. The proverb, a very disputable one, means that if the goal is good the methods adopted for achieving it do not matter. It can be good or bad. The Florentine statesman, Machiavelli, in his book THE PRINCE advocated this doctrine. According to him, it is justifiable to go to any extent for achieving a good cause. It may be necessary to use violence sometimes. It will be harmful to some people. But all that can be justified if the goal is good. Some great Indian leaders and thinkers like Gandhi have opposed this doctrine. According to them it is not only necessary that goal should be good but the means adopted for achieving it should also be good. In some countries governments resort to anything for suppressing riots. When peaceful requests and talk fail to bring about the desired result, they use sheer force to suppress such riots. They argue that it is for the common good of the public. Whatever be the truth, the doctrine ‘the end justifies the means’ happens to be a very controversial one which provokes much thinking and dispute.