If someone asks you, "Would you like to be enslaved?" You would definitely say no.
The article "On Voluntary Servitude" by La Boétie, a 16th-century Frenchman, can give you the answer.
I. The Origin of Writing
La Boétie (1530-1563), an outstanding French humanitarian. He grew up in a family that loved ancient Greek and Roman culture. His uncle was a priest who loved law and classical literature. These all had a good influence on him. He became a member of the Bordeaux Parliament at the age of 24 and met the great writer Montaigne. The two became close friends. Montaigne always said that he and Boétie were "spiritually blended."
In 1548, a revolt against salt taxes broke out in Guyenne, which was brutally suppressed. Boétie was shocked, and his religious sentiment and kind nature prompted him to write the famous work "On Voluntary Servitude." The article expresses the confusion of a young scholar about authoritarian politics. It was first published in 1576 and later became a denunciation of autocracy and dictatorship, gaining worldwide fame.
II. Voluntary servitude is a "bad habit"
People usually think that being enslaved is forced, but Boétie believes that "it is the voluntary choice of the enslaved, because everyone is born free... One person cannot enslave everyone unless everyone first enslaves themselves."
Boétie believes that freedom is human nature, inherent from birth, so voluntary servitude is unnatural and pathological. However, "natural nature is fragile, while habit is powerful." People born in chains grow up in a state of enslavement and receive an education of enslavement. They mistakenly believe that enslavement is a normal state, and habit becomes natural. Therefore, he says, "this voluntary servitude is a 'bad habit'."
"On Voluntary Servitude" awakened many people. Yes, how capable can a tyrant be? Isn't it the people themselves who provide everything for the tyrant? Moreover, the more the people contribute, the more resources the power has to consolidate and destroy everything. "If you don't give your eyes to the tyrant, where does he get so many eyes to monitor? If you don't give your arms to the tyrant, where does he get so many arms to attack? If it weren't for the people themselves, how could the tyrant have power over the people? If the people don't betray themselves, what can the tyrant do?"
To strengthen their rule, tyrants often incite the people to inform on each other. The people's participation in informing is voluntarily "giving their eyes to the tyrant." Fascist Germany and the former Soviet Union loved to use this trick.
III. Creating Gods
Boétie tells us: Tyrants want to consolidate their rule and will train the people to worship them. All tyrants want to create gods.
The Nazi "Führer" Hitler, the Soviet "Father" Stalin, the North Korean "Sun of the Nation" Kim family, and the tyrant Gaddafi.
People lose themselves in the fanatical worship of tyrants and end up being enslaved by them.
IV. Corruption
Build various entertainment and pornography venues to immerse the people in them, corrode them, make them willingly give up their freedom, or make them forget about freedom altogether. This is another magic weapon for tyrants to consolidate their tyranny.
Boétie gave an example: In order to rule Lydia without using soldiers, Cyrus the Great developed the prostitution, gladiator, and tavern industries, creating a new term - "entertainment," allowing the enslaved people of Lydia to be content with pleasure, thus easily controlling them.
Today, there are various ways to corrupt the people, and many people are confused by it. There are all kinds of things for "entertainment," KTV, casinos, massages, saunas are everywhere; mobile phones use big data to push content that interests you, making people addicted to it, and ultimately enslaved by their phones; inciting people to shop crazily and overspend, causing many people to become slaves to houses and cars; when people are confused and don't know the meaning of "being born as a human," they are already enslaved without realizing it.
V. Dangerous Relationships
How do tyrants enslave the people? Boétie proposes an interesting and essential statement: "Tyrants generally control the people through the group of people they trust the least." Tyrants know that only those who have an extreme desire for power and wealth, even willing to give up everything, will willingly submit to them. But these people are loyal not to the monarch, but to their own interests. Therefore, the relationship between the tyrant and the team that collaborates with him is tense and dangerous: they cooperate and plot against each other - sometimes the tyrant will turn against his subordinates, such as Stalin's purges, and sometimes the subordinates will kill the tyrant, such as Zhao Gao and his son-in-law Yan Le killing Hu Hai, and An Qingxu's son Li Zhu'er killing An Lushan. These people who join the tyrant are also voluntary slaves. The more arrogant a person is, the more servile they become in front of their master. To win positions, trust, and more benefits, flatterers will do their best to show loyalty and praise the evil deeds of their master; on the other hand, they will intensify the exploitation and enslavement of the people.
Boétie believes that "friendship arises from equal personality and free choice." There is no true friendship around a tyrant, and even "love" does not exist there. "There is no doubt that a tyrant will never have a lover, nor will he ever be loved." His heart is like a desert. For example, the famous tyrant Nero personally poisoned his own mother; Ivan the Terrible killed his own son in a fit of rage; Qin II Hu Hai killed all his brothers and sisters. In a totalitarian society, no one has true happiness, only fear and vigilance.
Conclusion:
Under tyranny, everyone is an enemy, everyone is in danger, and everyone lives without joy.
How to end tyranny and live a free and dignified life? Boétie raises a profound question that deeply influences modern society: "Nonviolent non-cooperation." He repeatedly says, "The more people submit, the stronger the tyrant." "If no one submits, then there is no need for violence, and the tyrant will wither and die like a tree without nourishment."
La Boétie is recognized as the founder of the idea of "nonviolent non-cooperation." His idea of "nonviolent non-cooperation" greatly influenced Tolstoy, Thoreau, Gandhi...