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Étienne de La Boétie anticipated our pudgy, old inept dictator hundreds of years ago.
“Too frequently this same little man is the most cowardly and effeminate in the nation, a stranger to the powder of battle and hesitant on the sands of the tournament; not only without energy to direct men by force, but with hardly enough virility to bed with a common woman! Shall we call subjection to such a leader cowardice?”
—Excerpt From The Politics of Obedience, by Étienne de La Boétie
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President Bone Spurs evaded the draft, pays for sex and cheats at golf. He is a singularly unimpressive man, a thin skinned pampered, privileged slouch of no discernible abilities.
This isn’t news. It wouldn’t have been news to Montaigne’s friend Étienne de La Boétie back in the 1500s. The weak character and cruel behavior of our current dictator goes way back—and so does the emerging strategy of effective opposition.
La Boétie didn’t see authoritarians—more specificially in his time and perhaps ours, “kings”—as powerful frightening forces of evil. He saw small-minded clueless little men who, for some strange reason, millions fear and serve and worship.
This was the mystery that he tried to and succeeded in solving. Why do kings and tyrants exist? How can one man dominate and control thousands or millions of others?
Why People Do—and Don’t—Fear and Serve Dictators
People are creatures of habit. And they like to get along, not cause disturbances. They, by their affable natures, embrace cooperation and embody obedience.
This can be a positive quality, but is turned on its head when a tyrant emerges.
La Boétie lists and describes all the forces at work today that serve to enslave millions of us to a single otherwise insignificant and genuinely stupid old man.
- Habit. Here in the United States, we have systems in place that justify the consolidation of power—provided you squint and ignore core ideas like “unalienable rights” and “checks and balances.” We elect a leader who is supposed to actually be a public servant. We know this but it would be impolite to point it out.
- Bribery and Threats. The tyrant dispenses favors—both financial and “rules”—to benefit people who have influence to support him. The money that is used is actually stolen from the people who produce things. The tyrant and his high level stooges produce nothing, being both incapable of and unwilling to work. Favors are strategically distributed though a network of cultivated supporters, extended from the top down.
- Division. The society is transformed into a battle between those seeking favors from the tyrant, and those seeking to restore liberty. The paid enforcers of the previous society become paid enforcers for the tyrant. Thus, today we see FBI, Homeland Security, Federal Marshals and others who historically were (imperfectly) guided and restrained by law now committing unspeakable acts of violence and cruelty at the behest of the tyrant.
- Psychological Warfare. The entire culture is transformed into shallow patriotism centered on the tyrant, and a projected invincibility—the idea that resistance is futile. This lie is a strangely effective tactic to deny liberty. Exposing this lie, and the concealed but profound weakness of the tyrant that is the key to effective opposition.
We are never helpless against a tyrant. His power and our weakness are a lie, and exposing this lie in a visible and dramatic way is the key to every tyrant’s defeat. The tyrant is 100% dependent on our willingness to not only subjugate ourselves to him, but to do everything he asks. For WE are the actual power and can remove him instantly by simply not obeying him.
No other opposition is necessary. This is why so many tyrants have been defeated by The People without firing a shot.
Today, we are on the path to defeating our current menace. With the repeated nationwide protests—from big cities to the smallest towns in “Red” states, along with ordinary citizens demanding to see warrants and badges from violent ICE and FBI agents, to open expressions of fearlessness from people everywhere, we are building the awareness and disobedience that will restore our freedom.
But we must continue to do these things to win. Please do your part.
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“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.”
—Excerpt From The Politics of Obedience, by Étienne de La Boétie
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