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The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
Series: ERIS gems
Brief Description
"There are only four or five who maintain the dictator… not the six thousand but a hundred thousand, and even millions, cling to the tyrant by this cord to which they are tied." Tyranny is not imposed; it is invited. La Boétie maps how power metastasizes...
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The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
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See moreLa Boétie maps how power metastasizes through favors, flattery, and fear.
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Description
"There are only four or five who maintain the dictator… not the six thousand but a hundred thousand, and even millions, cling to the tyrant by this cord to which they are tied."
Tyranny is not imposed; it is invited. La Boétie maps how power metastasizes through favors, flattery, and fear-how millions bend the knee so a few can rise. A cold, lucid anatomy of submission, and a quiet, devastating call to end it.
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The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
"There are only four or five who maintain the dictator… not the six thousand but a hundred thousand, and even millions, cling to the tyrant by this cord to which they are tied." Tyranny is not imposed; it is invited. La Boétie maps how power metastasizes through favors, flattery, and fear-how millions bend the knee so a few can rise....Paperback$1499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781967751112
Publisher: ERIS
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 18 November 2025
Country: United States
Imprint: ERIS
Contributors:
- Translated by Harry Kurz
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 109.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 28g
Pages: 20
About the Author
Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563) was a French magistrate, political theorist, and close friend of Michel de Montaigne. Best known for The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, written when he was just eighteen, La Boétie posed a radical question that still echoes today: why do people submit to power that exploits them? Though he died young, his work quietly seeded the modern tradition of civil disobedience.
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