What is it that inspires such cravenness in people that they cower before the tyrant? This is the question that sticks with me after reading Etienne de la Boetie’s The Discourse Of Voluntary Servitude with the Liberty Reading Group in October. I can understand fear of physical harm from a greater power but why do people allow their minds to be dominated as well? I have encountered folks who are against taxation, for example, but who refuse to think and speak the truth. It is disgusting, subhuman cowardice. How do we make sense of this?
Handing Kids Off to the Tyrant
Here are some passages I especially enjoyed.
You bring up your children in order that he [the tyrant] may confer upon them the greatest privilege he knows— to be led into his battles, to be delivered to butchery, to be made the servants of his greed and the instruments of his vengeance
We see this today in folks who send their kids off to Iraq or Afghanistan. And you can often see how nervous they are about it. The realizations are bubbling under the surface and all it takes is a death and some courage for the pot to boil over.
One Person CAN Do it
The Grand Turk was well aware that books and teaching more than anything else give men the sense to comprehend their own nature and to detest tyranny. I understand that in his territory there are few educated people, for he does not want many. On account of this restriction, men of strong zeal and devotion, who in spite of the passing of time have preserved their love of freedom, still remain ineffective because, however numerous they may be, they are not known to one another; under the tyrant they have lost freedom of action, of speech, and almost of thought; they are alone in their aspiration. Indeed Momus, god of mockery, was not merely joking when he found this to criticize in the man fashioned by Vulcan, namely, that the maker had not set a little window in his creature’s heart to render his thoughts visible. It is reported that Brutus, Cassius, and Casca, on undertaking to free Rome, and for that matter the whole world, refused to include in their band Cicero, that great enthusiast for the public welfare if ever there was one, because they considered his heart too timid for such a lofty deed; they trusted his willingness but they were none too sure of his courage. Yet whoever studies the deeds of earlier days and the annals of antiquity will find practically no instance of heroes who failed to deliver their country from evil hands when they set about their task with a firm, whole-hearted, and sincere intention. Liberty, as if to reveal her nature, seems to have given them new strength. Harmodios and Aristogiton, Thrasybulus, Brutus the Elder, Valerianus, and Dion achieved successfully what they planned virtuously: for hardly ever does good fortune fail a strong will. Brutus the Younger and Cassius were successful in eliminating servitude, and although they perished in their attempt to restore liberty, they did not die miserably (what blasphemy it would be to say there was anything miserable about these men, either in their death or in their living!).
Let this serve as inspiration to us. We CAN do it!
Diversion Stultifies
This method tyrants use of stultifying their subjects cannot be more clearly observed than in what Cyrus did with the Lydians after he had taken Sardis, their chief city, and had at his mercy the captured Croesus, their fabulously rich king. When news was brought to him that the people of Sardis had rebelled, it would have been easy for him to reduce them by force; but being unwilling either to sack such a fine city or to maintain an army there to police it, he thought of an unusual expedient for reducing it. He established in it brothels, taverns, and public games, and issued the proclamation that the inhabitants were to enjoy them. He found this type of garrison so effective that he never again had to draw the sword against the Lydians. These wretched people enjoyed themselves inventing all kinds of games, so that the Latins have derived the word from them, and what we call pastimes they call ludi, as if they meant to say Lydi. Not all tyrants have manifested so clearly their intention to effeminize their victims; but in fact, what the aforementioned despot publicly proclaimed and put into effect, most of the others have pursued secretly as an end. It is indeed the nature of the populace, whose density is always greater in the cities, to be suspicious toward one who has their welfare at heart, and gullible toward one who fools them. Do not imagine that there is any bird more easily caught by decoy, nor any fish sooner fixed on the hook by wormy bait, than are all these poor fools neatly tricked into servitude by the slightest feather passed, so to speak, before their mouths.
Look at all the diversions we have, starting with radio and TV. Xbox, online gaming, movies, TV series, sports, the list is endless and they all serve to occupy folks and make them think everything is AOK.
Integrity, and True Friendship
The fact is that the tyrant is never truly loved, nor does he love. Friendship is a sacred word, a holy thing; it is never developed except between persons of character, and never takes root except through mutual respect; it flourishes not so much by kindnesses as by sincerity. What makes one friend sure of another is the knowledge of his integrity: as guarantees he has his friend’s fine nature, his honor, and his constancy. 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: these have no affection for one another; fear alone holds them together; they are not friends, they are merely accomplices.
This is what we have going for us: friendship, integrity, trust, goodwill. It reminds me of the scene in a Harry Potter movie where Voldemort is in his head and Harry gets him out by telling him he feels sorry for him because he will never have friends, never know love.
What do YOU Think of la Boetie’s Discourse?
In short, la Boetie rocks! What did you think of his Discourse? But don’t talk about it here. Head on over to the Liberty Reading Group and join in the discussion.
Photo credit: SuperFantastic. Photo license.
