Discourse on Voluntary Servitude

Book Review:

Title: Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
Author: Etienne De La Boetie
Translated by Harry Kurz

 By Leo Kee Chye

Timeless and timeliness are what I have chosen to greet this magnificent work by a man for mankind: Timeless as in its relevance now as when it was first penned four hundreds years ago; timeliness as we continue to witness the same incomprehension he faced in his time. In this essay, he sought to examine how men could have consented to their own enslavement to tyranny. Not tyranny that subjugates men, he realised, but men choose bondage over freedom.

If we think that mankind has grown wiser since his time, think again, for the today’s world is still very much a breeding ground for tyrants and tyrannies.

“For the present I should like merely to understand how it happens that so many men, so many villages…consent to suffer under a single tyrant who has no other power than the power they give him; who is able to harm them only to the extent to which they have the willingness to bear with him; who could do them absolutely no injury unless they preferred to put up with him rather than contradict him.”
Etienne De La Boetie, 1546

Etienne De La Boetie, a law student, barely eighteen, wrote this stirring words in a quest to delve into the psychology of masses. Unbeknowst to him, his essay was to become the most passionate rallying cry for freedom and to the end of subjugation when four hundred years later, in 1942, the Colombia University Press resurrected his essay as a war propaganda to denounce Hitler and Mussolini, no mention of ironman Stalin though.

Propaganda was his least motivation when writing his discourse. Nor was his intention to foment unrest and riot with his words. Though fiery was his spirit in pursuing freedom, he abhorred nothing more than violence. In fact, he never advocated spilling blood for freedom in his essay nor in his life. His aim was more peaceful and scholarly — to understand the source of tyrant’s power and men’s willing subservience to tyranny.

Born in 16th century France, Boetie witnessed the rise of absolute monarchy whose absolute power usurped freedom from men, instilled terrors in their hearts, thereby degenerating human beings into serfs. Yet, some refused to be subjugated and died as martyrs. His friends, many of them, Huguenots (French Protestants), did just that. Perplexed at the subservience of the majority of his countrymen, he set forth to investigate how was it possible or even conceivable that the power of a mere mortal could wield life and death over countless souls. Whether the absolute monarch is benevolent or despotic is besides the point, for no power should ever be granted to so few a man to dictate so many a life.

Boetie loved and treasured liberty per se and deemed that to be rightfully and naturally men’s. Even animals, without innate capacity to reason, fight to their end to resist captivity. Men shall not be considered worthy of being human beings if they choose captivity over liberty. Yet, history saw countless tyrannies and tyrants. The problem lies not the source of power of the tyrant, Boetie argued, but men’s consent to their enslavement. History has also shown us the other side where countless cases of mere human beings who chose spilling their blood than to have their freedom encroached by their invaders. If not cowardice, then what consents men into serfdom.

Boetie attributed men’s willingness to serfdom to three main machinations wield by tyranny: 1. Customs, 2. Diversion, and 3.Institutionalism.

Customs
The first generation under the rule of tyranny puts up with tyranny only to the extent to bide a propitious time to regain whatever they had lost; their memory of freedom’s still recent and fresh, like nectar, once savoured, will never be forgotten and will not exchange anything in its place. Later generation however have never tasted liberty, thinking their lives are as natural as those of their fathers’, if not better, or at least that what tyrants want them to think. By customs and habits, they have lost their natural instinct, like wild horses domesticated, complete with reins, bridle and blinkers. Men – born, bred and fed under tyranny – are wild horses domesticated, unwittingly come to sanction tyranny as natural and legitimate.

Diversion
The Roman tyrants were the most creative masters of such tactics. Rather than maintaining huge and expensive armies to quell unrest and riots, would not it easier to lull the senses of the people with spectacles of gladiators, strange beasts, and lavish feasts. Unknown to these feasters and spectators, all these did not come free but at their expense of their freedom. When one is intoxicated and preoccupied with the excesses of life, he has forgotten the one and only staple food that any human being needs – his freedom.

Institutionalism
What power can a tyrant wield when he is but a mere mortal? His sights is only as far as his horizon; his reach can go no farther than the length of his arms. His power is present only as long as there are people willing to be his extension of his eyes and arms. A tyrant understand that perfectly and therefore creates an elaborate network of institutions and tying people, especially those most undomesticated, to his payroll and generosity. With their livelihoods strapped his rise and fall, these people are more than willing to further his whims than to plot his downfall. They are made his accomplices in pillaging the rights of other men as well as themselves.

All is not doom and gloom as Boetie maintained: “There are the ones who, having good minds of their, have further trained them by study and leaning. Even if liberty had entirely perished from the earth, such men would invent it. For them slavery has no satisfactions, no matter no well disguised.”

As one who abhorred violence, Boetie did not advocate that people rise up against their tyrants but only resolve to serve no more. Tyrants feed on no power than the power the people grant upon them. Once that power is removed, the tyrants will fall under their weight. One historical exemplary is the collapse of the Berlin Wall, where the people simply refused to cooperate anymore. The Wall finally collapsed not by tanks or bombs but by the will of the people who consented no more.

His powerful and eloquent arguments found ready disciples in the modern century. This essay, a precursor of non-violent civil resistance, deeply influenced Leo Tolstoy, who in turn inspired Mohandas Gandhi to defy the British and gain independence for India, and of course galvanised Martin Luther King Jr. to fight for equal rights for the Blacks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Comments

Perplexed was Leo Tolstoy when he wrote how could it even be conceivable that a commercial company (East India Company) could have enslaved a nation comprised of two hundred millions. It was not the English who had enslaved the Indians but the Indians who had enslaved themselves, he said.

Even in today’s world, countries under the dictatorship of one man or a small group of men are not uncommon. East India Company, Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein form nicely a continuation of this tradition. And why men chose to serve them, the answers are with Boetie.

Coming back to a place nearer home, I could not but notice some uncanny similarities between Boetie’s three machinations when placed in the context of the island republic. Of course, there are no tyrants or tyrannies here but what I seek is to examine the general apathy of Singaporeans towards politics. By no faults of anyone, this situations may have arisen as a by-product of the system.

Customs
The later generations of Singaporeans, including yours truly, unlike our forefathers, have not known anything that come close to the bestial Japanese occupation and the despicable rule under the British. Born, bred and fed under a sheltered environment, we scarcely know what liberty means, let alone to treasure it. By habits and customs, we place our freedom and decisions in the hands of some higher authority, thinking it will be for the best in our interests and we fail to comprehend why there are always some who risk everything — their fortunes, family and even their freedom — in order to find an alternative voice for us.

Diversion
What could have caused Singaporeans’ obsessions with the so-called 5 Cs – condominium, cash, credit cards, car, career – that leave us hardly any time for anything? What distraction this rat-race environment have caused us? How did this come about? What, who and how have these made us the way we are now? The CPF? The rising land prices? The education system?

Institutionalism
With the government being the biggest employer in town, many livelihoods are closely tied to the fortunes of the state. The stakes are indeed high. One needs no second guess to know the possible consequences stemming from this peculiar situation. Any reasons why generous scholarships are being offered to the finest young minds in schools, who are identified at an early age, with no conditions than the condition that they serve the state sectors upon completion of their studies.

I leave you no answers because I don’t know them myself but I can leave you a quote.

“Liberty, lose it, seldom makes its way back again.”

Leo Kee Chye

Monday, April 26, 2004