The Peking Opera "Famen Temple" features a character named Jia Gui. When he meets the eunuch Liu Jin, Liu Jin asks Jia Gui to sit down and talk, but Jia Gui refuses to sit and says, "I am used to standing, I don't want to sit." This reflects the servility developed by habit; in front of the powerful Liu Jin, how could Jia Gui dare to sit on equal footing?
In Europe in 1548, the French royal family ordered a salt tax on sea salt. In a short time, over twenty thousand fishermen, salt farmers, artisans, small merchants, helpers, and workers in southwestern France rose up in resistance. Six tax collectors and the governor of Bordeaux were killed, and they once controlled Bordeaux. The French royal family was furious and sent troops multiple times to suppress the uprising, resulting in hundreds of deaths and sentencing over 140 participants to death. Ultimately, the French royal family abolished the salt tax, which quelled the uprising.
A young man witnessed this bloody and brutal riot firsthand, which had a profound impact on him. He subsequently wrote a book that would have a lasting influence on future generations—"Discourse on Voluntary Servitude." This young man was Étienne de La Boétie, a foundational figure in French political philosophy and an important representative of the theory of resistance against tyranny.
Since ancient times, tyranny has always existed, from ancient Greece and Rome to the fascism of the 20th century and Stalin's totalitarianism. Why do these tyrants, who are overbearing, violent, oppressive, intimidating, inhumane, foolish, and corrupt, manage to arise and maintain their existence? La Boétie poses the question in his book: "Why do thousands of people willingly tolerate the whims of a tyrant? Moreover, this tyrant's power precisely comes from their endowment. Why do people live miserably in servitude yet refuse to rise up and change?" This is the famous "La Boétie Question" regarding tyranny.
La Boétie argues in his book that we must first acknowledge a fact: every tyranny is necessarily built upon the general acceptance of the populace, meaning that most people tacitly consent to their state of servitude. For example, under the Soviet regime, the wealth of the entire nation was nominally owned by all, but in reality, it was monopolized by one party. The Communist Party officials had complete control over taxation and spending, whether wasteful or corrupt, and ordinary people had no voice. Countless individuals not only complied with such a monopolistic system but were also driven into a state of slavery.
La Boétie states that a few individuals may fear and be oppressed by a tyrant, and we might believe that they lack courage. But if millions of people, even hundreds of cities, silently obey, that is a vice that does not deserve to be called cowardice. What they lack is not courage, but the desire to resist. Their easy submission seems as if they have not lost their freedom but have gained servitude.
La Boétie believes that there are three main reasons why people willingly become enslaved. 1. Habit. La Boétie argues that, like animals and plants, humans are born free; personal dignity and freedom are natural rights that should not and cannot be relinquished. Voluntary servitude is thus unnatural, pathological, and therefore a vice. Animals, when captured by humans, instinctively use their forepaws, hind legs, mouths, teeth, and horns to resist desperately until they escape or die. "Cows groan under heavy burdens, and birds chirp in protest in cages." Animals refuse to submit, while self-proclaimed superior humans abandon and destroy their natural nature to become enslaved.
The reason for this, La Boétie believes, is due to the customs and habits of generations. Tyrants gain high positions through elections, force, and blood relations, consolidating their power through various means, becoming increasingly enduring. Initially, there may be resistance, but over time, many will begin to accept and become accustomed to the tyranny's rule and humiliation. The first generation may be forced, but the second and third generations will take this servitude for granted.
Their methods of consolidating tyranny include: 1. Quickly erasing the people's memory of freedom, as subjects without memories of freedom are easier to govern. 2. "Having great scholars debate for me," where the discipline and propaganda of tyranny, through violence, education, and bribery, cause people to lose their natural freedom and willingly become enslaved, to the point where they no longer realize they are living in a state of servitude. They will use means to weaken public intelligence, tame public opinion, create confusion, and entertain and corrupt the populace to consolidate their rule.
In Homer's epic "The Odyssey," in the land of the Cimmerians, there are only six months of daylight in a year. Those accustomed to darkness have never sought the light. Tyranny can form habits through education, leading to a habit of servitude. Because people do not yearn for what they do not know, those accustomed to darkness will never have the desire to seek light. For ordinary people, the most effective tactic of a tyrant is to lead them into degradation; those who are degraded are the most cowardly and submissive. La Boétie warns us that to consolidate its rule, tyranny will certainly train the populace to worship the tyrant. All tyrants need to create a cult of personality and must severely suppress those who do not forget freedom.
- Accomplices and henchmen: the little tyrants. Surrounding the tyrant are five or six trusted individuals who share power and wealth with them. The tyrant uses these individuals to control the entire nation, and these five or six people will serve the tyrant comfortably, while turning around to use even more brutal means against those below them to demonstrate their loyalty to the tyrant. Beneath these five or six individuals, there form groups of six hundred, six thousand, one hundred thousand, and millions of cruel officials, who maintain layers of loyalty, mutual protection, and exploitation, instilling fear and completing the surveillance, abuse, and control of society, all regions, provinces, villages, and individuals. Thousands of little tyrants flatter and assist the main tyrant, harming the populace to please the greatest tyrant.
La Boétie's arguments still awaken us five hundred years later. As Lu Xun said, "Is it right just because it has always been this way?"