Discourse on Voluntary Servitude by E. La Boetie

Bea Cardea has a substack blog and I just now read her quote on Paul Krugman’s substack blog. The 16th century philosopher she quotes from wrote it better then I could ever attempt.

“Came across this essay by a 16th century philosopher, LaBoetie, whose writing seems so relevant to the crisis we are facing today. How I wish all leaders in all industries, nationally and internationally, heeded his advice: "We simply will give the tyrant nothing"!

Discourse on Voluntary Servitude:

Why People Enslave Themselves to Authority

By E. LaBoetie (Philosopher and Writer, 1530-1563)

(A 3-part essay. Excerpts with some adaptation for readability)

“How does it happen that an entire nation suffers under a single tyrant?

People suffer plundering, wantonness, cruelty on account of a single little man. Too frequently this same little man is the most cowardly in the nation, a stranger to the powder of battle and hesitant on the sands of the tournament, and with hardly enough virility to bed with a common woman. Who could really believe that one man alone may mistreat millions and deprive them of their liberty?

The answer? We let ourselves be deprived before our own eyes of the best part of our liberties. This misfortune, this ruin descends upon us not from alien foes but from the one enemy whom we ourselves render as powerful as he is.

The more a tyrant pillages, the more he craves, the more he ruins and destroys. And the more we yield to him and obey him, the mightier and more formidable he becomes, the readier he is to annihilate and destroy us.

But if not one thing is yielded to him, if without any violence he is simply not obeyed, he becomes naked and undone and nothing, just as when the root receives no nourishment, the branch withers and dies.

He has indeed nothing more than the power that we confer upon him to destroy us.

He does not have any power over us except through us.

Let’s not grow accustomed to the idea of subjection.

Let’s not lose warlike courage, all signs of enthusiasm because our hearts are degraded, submissive, and incapable of any great deed. A tyrant is well aware of this, and in order to degrade his subjects further, he will do what he can for us to assume this attitude and make instinctive.

The tyrant may reduce our freedom of action, of speech, and almost of thought, but in spite of this we will stand together in our aspiration. Our love for liberty and valor will not perish.

The desire for True Liberty must give us new strength. Not the notion of ‘liberty’ that is used to cover a false enterprise.

If things are to change, we must also realize the extent to which the foundation of tyranny lies in the vast networks of corrupted people with an interest in maintaining tyranny.

Such men must not only obey orders, they must anticipate his wishes, to satisfy him they must foresee his desires; they must wear themselves out, torment themselves, kill themselves with work in his interest, and accept his pleasure as their own, neglecting their preference for his, distorting their character and corrupting their nature; they must pay heed to his words, to his intonation, to his gestures, and to his glance. Can this be called a happy life? Can it be called living? Is there anything more intolerable than that situation … for anyone having the face of a man?

Still, men accept servility in order to acquire wealth and personal power.

The fact is that the tyrant is never truly loved, nor does he love.

There can be no friendship where there is cruelty, where there is disloyalty, where there is injustice. And in places where the wicked gather there is conspiracy only, not companionship. They have no affection for one another. Fear holds them together. They are not friends, they are merely accomplices.

We simply will give the tyrant nothing.

We will not weaken ourselves in order to make him the stronger and the mightier to hold us in check.

We are resolved to serve him no more and aim to regain your freedom.

We will simply no longer support him.

Like the great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, he will fall of this own weight and break into pieces.”