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A warning from 1548 by Étienne de la Boétie

by   Nicholas de Lioncourt on September 22 2021 00:57 zulu

As society wanes into a perpetual childhood; spiraling into willing authoritarianism in exchange for promises of safety and welfare, consider both this guidance and a warning from 1548... yes, 1548:

 

'…Obviously there is no need of fighting to overcome this single tyrant, for he is automatically defeated if the country refuses consent to its own enslavement: it is not necessary to deprive him of anything, but simply to give him nothing; there is no need that the country make an effort to do anything for itself provided it does nothing against itself.

It is therefore the inhabitants themselves who permit, or, rather, bring about, their own subjection, since by ceasing to submit they would put an end to their servitude…'

 

:: Excerpt taken from 'The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude' by Étienne de la Boétie (1548), translated by Harry Kurz, New York: Free Life Editions, 1975

 

In modern vernacular: BECOME UNGOVERNABLE

tags:

categories: government | individualism | opinion | personal | rights

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