WEBVTT NOTE The Politics of Obedience: Part II 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 The Politics of Obedience, The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, by Etienne de la Boétie, Part 2 2 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Liberty is the natural condition of the people. Servitude, however, is fostered when people are raised in subjection. 3 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:29.000 People are trained to adore rulers. While freedom is forgotten by many, there are always some who will never submit. 4 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:50.000 Doctors are no doubt correct in warning us not to touch incurable wounds, and I am presumably taking chances in preaching as I do to a people which has long lost all sensitivity and no longer conscience of its infirmity, is plainly suffering from mortal illness. 5 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:58.200 Let us therefore understand by logic, if we can, how it happens that this obstinate willingness 6 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:05.960 to submit has become so deeply rooted in a nation that the very love of liberty now seems 7 00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:09.000 no longer natural. 8 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:14.460 In the first place, all would agree that if we led our lives according to the ways intended 9 00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:22.860 by Nature and the Lessons Taught by Her, we should be intuitively obedient to our parents. 10 00:01:22.860 --> 00:01:30.140 Later, we should adopt reason as our guide and become slaves to nobody. Concerning the 11 00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:36.220 obedience given instinctively to one's father and mother, we are in agreement, each one 12 00:01:36.220 --> 00:01:43.220 admitting himself to be a model. As to whether reason is born with us or not, that is a question 13 00:01:43.220 --> 00:02:13.220 is being loudly discussed by academicians and treated by all schools of philosophers, for the present I think I do not err in stating that there is in our souls some native seed of reason which if nourished by good counsel and training flowers into virtue, but which on the other hand if unable to resist the vices surrounding it is stifled and blighted. 14 00:02:13.220 --> 00:02:35.220 Surely, if there is anything in this world clear and obvious to which one cannot close one's eyes, it is the fact that Nature, handmaiden of God, governess of men, has cast us all in the same mold, in order that we may behold in one another companions, or rather brothers. 15 00:02:35.220 --> 00:02:40.820 If in distributing her gifts nature has favored some more than others with respect to body 16 00:02:40.820 --> 00:02:47.620 or spirit, she has nevertheless not planned to place us within this world as if it were 17 00:02:47.620 --> 00:02:54.040 a field of battle, and is not endowed the stronger or the cleverer in order that they 18 00:02:54.040 --> 00:03:00.020 may act like armed brigands in a forest and attack the weaker. 19 00:03:00.020 --> 00:03:05.140 One should rather conclude that in distributing larger shares to some and smaller shares to 20 00:03:05.140 --> 00:03:16.140 Nature has intended to give occasion for brotherly love to become manifest, some of us having the strength to give help to others who are in need of it. 21 00:03:16.140 --> 00:03:34.140 Hence, since this kind mother has given us the whole world as a dwelling place, has lodged us in the same house, has fashioned us according to the same model, so that in beholding one another we might almost recognize ourselves, 22 00:03:34.140 --> 00:04:04.140 Since she has bestowed upon us all the great gift of voice and speech for fraternal relationship, thus achieving by the common and mutual statement of our thoughts a communion of our wills, and since she has tried in every way to narrow and tighten the bond of our union and kinship, since she has revealed in every possible manner her intention not so much to associate us as to make us one organic whole, 23 00:04:04.140 --> 00:04:11.140 I have no further doubt that we are all naturally free inasmuch as we are all comrades. 24 00:04:11.140 --> 00:04:22.140 Accordingly, it should not enter the mind of anyone that nature has placed some of us in slavery, since she has actually created us all in one likeness. 25 00:04:22.140 --> 00:04:32.140 Therefore, it is fruitless to argue whether or not liberty is natural, since none can be held in slavery without being wronged. 26 00:04:32.140 --> 00:04:40.140 and in a world governed by a nature which is reasonable, there is nothing so contrary as an injustice. 27 00:04:40.140 --> 00:04:48.140 Since freedom is our natural state, we are not only in possession of it, but have the urge to defend it. 28 00:04:48.140 --> 00:04:59.140 Now, if perchance some cast it out on this conclusion and are so corrupted that they are not able to recognize their rights and inborn tendencies, 29 00:04:59.140 --> 00:05:05.880 I shall have to do them the honor that is properly theirs, and place, so to speak, brute 30 00:05:05.880 --> 00:05:10.560 beast in the pulpit to throw light on their nature and condition. 31 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:19.000 The very beast, God help me, if men are not too deaf, cry out to them, long live liberty! 32 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:24.200 Many among them die as soon as captured, just as the fish loses life as soon as he leaves 33 00:05:24.200 --> 00:05:33.200 So do these creatures close their eyes upon the light and have no desire to survive the loss of their natural freedom. 34 00:05:33.200 --> 00:05:41.200 If the animals were to constitute their kingdom by rank, their nobility would be chosen from this type. 35 00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:51.200 Others, from the largest to the smallest, when captured, put up such a strong resistance by means of claws, horns, beak, and paws 36 00:05:51.200 --> 00:06:21.200 The Theory of Money and Credit 37 00:06:21.200 --> 00:06:25.640 Manifesting himself to the last ounce of his strength and knowing himself on the point 38 00:06:25.640 --> 00:06:33.360 of being taken, dashes his jaws against the trees and breaks his tusks, thus manifesting 39 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:39.240 his longing to remain free as he has been and proving his wit and ability to buy off 40 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:44.660 the huntsman in the hope that through the sacrifice of his tusks he will be permitted 41 00:06:44.660 --> 00:06:48.900 to offer his ivory as a ransom for his liberty. 42 00:06:48.900 --> 00:06:54.160 We feed the horse from birth in order to train him to do our bidding, yet he is tamed with 43 00:06:54.160 --> 00:07:01.140 such difficulty that when we begin to break him in he bites the bit, he rears at the touch 44 00:07:01.140 --> 00:07:08.420 of the spur as if to reveal his instinct and show by his actions that if he obeys he does 45 00:07:08.420 --> 00:07:15.980 so not of his own free will but under constraint. What more can we say? Even the oxen under 46 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:21.920 With the weight of the yoke complain, and the birds in their cage lament, as I expressed 47 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:25.480 it some time ago, toying with our French posy. 48 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:31.460 For I shall not hesitate in writing to you, O Langa, to introduce some of my verses, which 49 00:07:31.460 --> 00:07:36.500 I never read to you because of your obvious encouragement, which is quite likely to make 50 00:07:36.500 --> 00:07:38.340 me conceded. 51 00:07:38.340 --> 00:07:47.880 Why now, since all beings, because they feel, suffer misery in subjection and long for liberty? 52 00:07:47.880 --> 00:07:52.980 Since the very beast, although made for the service of man, cannot become accustomed to 53 00:07:52.980 --> 00:08:01.060 control without protest, what evil chance has so denatured man that he, the only creature 54 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:07.700 really born to be free, lacks the memory of his original condition and the desire to return 55 00:08:07.700 --> 00:08:21.700 There are three kinds of tyrants. Some receive their proud position through elections by the people, others by force of arms, others by inheritance. 56 00:08:21.700 --> 00:08:31.700 Those who have acquired power by means of war act in such wise that it is evident they rule over a conquered country. 57 00:08:31.700 --> 00:08:48.700 Those who are born to kingship are scarcely any better, because they are nourished on the breast of tyranny, suck in with their milk the instincts of the tyrant, and consider the people under them as their inherited serfs. 58 00:08:48.700 --> 00:08:56.700 And according to their individual disposition, miserly or prodigal, they treat their kingdom as their property. 59 00:08:56.700 --> 00:09:03.980 He who has received the state from the people, however, ought to be, it seems to be, more 60 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:11.620 bearable and would be so, I think, were it not for the fact that as soon as he sees himself 61 00:09:11.620 --> 00:09:19.860 higher than the others, flattered by that quality which we call grandeur, he plans never 62 00:09:19.860 --> 00:09:22.940 to relinquish his position. 63 00:09:22.940 --> 00:09:27.860 Such a man usually determines to pass on to his children the authority that the people 64 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:30.340 have conferred upon him. 65 00:09:30.340 --> 00:09:36.860 And once his heirs have taken this attitude, strange it is how far they surpass other tyrants 66 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:44.320 in all sorts of vices, and especially in cruelty, because they find no other means to impose 67 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:50.980 this new tyranny than by tightening control and removing their subjects so far from any 68 00:09:50.980 --> 00:09:58.980 and the notion of liberty that even if the memory of it is fresh, it will soon be eradicated. 69 00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:05.980 Yet, to speak accurately, I do perceive that there is some difference among these three types of tyranny, 70 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:13.980 but as for stating a preference, I cannot grant there is any, for although the means of coming into power differ, 71 00:10:13.980 --> 00:10:17.980 Still the method of ruling is practically the same. 72 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:22.980 Those who are elected act as if they were breaking in bullocks. 73 00:10:22.980 --> 00:10:26.980 Those who are conquerors make the people their prey. 74 00:10:26.980 --> 00:10:33.980 Those who are heirs plan to treat them as if they were their natural slaves. 75 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:38.980 In connection with this, let us imagine some newborn individuals, 76 00:10:38.980 --> 00:10:42.980 neither acquainted with slavery nor desirous of liberty, 77 00:10:42.980 --> 00:10:55.980 Ignorant indeed of the very words. If they were permitted to choose between being slaves and free men, to which would they give their vote? 78 00:10:55.980 --> 00:11:04.980 There can be no doubt that they would much prefer to be guided by reason itself than to be ordered about by the whims of a single man. 79 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:14.980 The only possible exception might be the Israelites who, without any compulsion or need, appointed a tyrant. 80 00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:24.980 I can never read their history without becoming angered and even inhuman enough to find satisfaction in the many evils that befell them on this account. 81 00:11:24.980 --> 00:11:38.980 But certainly all men, as long as they remain men, before letting themselves become enslaved, must either be driven by force or led into it by deception, 82 00:11:38.980 --> 00:11:47.980 conquered by foreign armies, as were Sparta and Athens, by the forces of Alexander, or by political factions, 83 00:11:47.980 --> 00:12:02.980 As when, at an earlier period, the control of Athens had passed into the hands of Pisistratus, when they lose their liberty through deceit, they are not so often betrayed by others as misled by themselves. 84 00:12:02.980 --> 00:12:32.980 This was the case when the people of Syracuse, chief city of Sicily, when, in the throes of war and heedlessly planning only for the present danger, they promoted Dennis, their first tyrant, by entrusting to him the command of the army, without realizing that they had given him such power that on his victorious return this worthy man would behave as if he had vanquished not his enemies but his compatriots, transforming them into 85 00:12:32.980 --> 00:13:02.980 It is incredible how, as soon as a people becomes subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and so willingly that one is led to say, unbeholding such a situation, that this people has not so much lost its liberty, 86 00:13:02.980 --> 00:13:09.020 has won its enslavement. It is true that in the beginning men submit under 87 00:13:09.020 --> 00:13:14.900 constraint and by force, but those who come after them obey without regret and 88 00:13:14.900 --> 00:13:20.180 perform willingly what their predecessors had done because they had to. 89 00:13:20.180 --> 00:13:27.220 This is why men born under the yoke and then nourished and reared in slavery are 90 00:13:27.220 --> 00:13:42.220 are content, without further effort, to live in their native circumstance, unaware of any other state or right, and considering as quite natural the condition into which they were born. 91 00:13:42.220 --> 00:13:56.220 There is, however, no heir so spendthrift or indifferent that he does not sometimes scan the account books of his father in order to see if he is enjoying all the privileges of his legacy 92 00:13:56.220 --> 00:14:02.220 or whether, perchance, his rights and those of his predecessor have not been encroached upon. 93 00:14:02.220 --> 00:14:14.220 Nevertheless, it is clear enough that the powerful influence of custom is in no respect more compelling than in this, namely, habituation to subjection. 94 00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:36.220 It is said that Mithridates trained himself to drink poison. Like him, we learn to swallow and not to find bitter the venom of servitude. It cannot be denied that nature is influential in shaping us to her will and making us reveal our rich or meager endowment. 95 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:42.860 Yet it must be admitted that she has less power over us than custom, for the reason 96 00:14:42.860 --> 00:14:49.360 that native endowment, no matter how good, is dissipated and less encouraged, whereas 97 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:55.260 environment always shapes us in its own way, whatever that might be in spite of nature's 98 00:14:55.260 --> 00:14:56.260 gifts. 99 00:14:56.260 --> 00:15:02.500 The good seed that nature plants in us is so slight and so slippery that it cannot withstand 100 00:15:02.500 --> 00:15:06.140 the least harm from wrong nourishment. 101 00:15:06.140 --> 00:15:12.740 When it flourishes less easily, becomes spoiled, withers and comes to nothing. 102 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:18.420 Fruit trees retain their own particular quality if permitted to grow undisturbed, but lose 103 00:15:18.420 --> 00:15:24.580 it promptly and bear strange fruit not their own when ingrafted. 104 00:15:24.580 --> 00:15:29.380 Every herb has its peculiar characteristics, its virtues and properties. 105 00:15:29.380 --> 00:15:36.740 Yet frost, weather, soil, or the gardener's hand increase or diminish its strength. 106 00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:41.780 The plant seen one spot cannot be recognized in another. 107 00:15:43.060 --> 00:15:49.700 Whoever could have observed the early Venetians, a handful of people living so freely that the 108 00:15:49.700 --> 00:15:56.100 most wicked among them would not wish to be king over them, so born and trained that they would 109 00:15:56.100 --> 00:16:02.220 not buy with one another, except as to which one could give the best counsel and nurture 110 00:16:02.220 --> 00:16:07.660 their liberty most carefully, so instructed and developed from their cradles that they 111 00:16:07.660 --> 00:16:13.220 would not exchange for all the other delights of the world an iota of their freedom. 112 00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:20.540 Who, I say, familiar with the original nature of such a people, could visit today the territories 113 00:16:20.540 --> 00:16:27.740 of the Man known as the Great Doge, and there contemplate with composure a people unwilling 114 00:16:27.740 --> 00:16:35.120 to live except to serve him, and maintaining his power at the cost of their lives. 115 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:40.340 Who would believe that these two groups of people had an identical origin? Would one 116 00:16:40.340 --> 00:16:45.420 not rather conclude that upon leaving a city of men he had chanced upon a menagerie of 117 00:16:45.420 --> 00:16:51.500 Beast? Lysergius, the lawgiver of Sparta, is reported to have reared two dogs of the 118 00:16:51.500 --> 00:16:56.860 same litter by fattening one in the kitchen and training the other in the fields to the 119 00:16:56.860 --> 00:17:03.860 sound of the bugle and the horn, thereby to demonstrate to the Lacedaemonians that men 120 00:17:03.860 --> 00:17:10.740 too develop according to their early habits. He set the two dogs in the open market place, 121 00:17:10.740 --> 00:17:16.300 In between them he placed a bowl of soup and a hair. One ran to the bowl of soup, the other 122 00:17:16.300 --> 00:17:23.220 to the hair. Yet they were, as he maintained, born brothers of the same parents. In such 123 00:17:23.220 --> 00:17:30.500 manner did this leader, by his laws and customs, shape and instruct the Spartans so well that 124 00:17:30.500 --> 00:17:36.380 any one of them would sooner have died than acknowledge any sovereign other than law and 125 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:37.940 reason. 126 00:17:37.940 --> 00:17:43.260 It gives me pleasure to recall a conversation of the olden time between one of the favorites 127 00:17:43.260 --> 00:17:50.460 of Xerxes, the great king of Persia, and two Lacedaemonians. When Xerxes equipped his great 128 00:17:50.460 --> 00:17:56.900 army to conquer Greece, he sent his ambassadors into the Greek cities to ask for water and 129 00:17:56.900 --> 00:18:03.940 earth. That was the procedure the Persians adopted in summoning the cities to surrender. 130 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:10.460 Neither to Athens nor to Sparta, however, did he dispatch such messengers because those 131 00:18:10.460 --> 00:18:17.220 who had been sent there by Darius his father had been thrown by the Athenians and Spartans 132 00:18:17.220 --> 00:18:23.340 some into ditches and others into wells with the invitation to help themselves freely there 133 00:18:23.340 --> 00:18:28.220 to water and soil to take back to their prince. 134 00:18:28.220 --> 00:18:34.500 Those Greeks could not permit even the slightest suggestion of encroachment upon their liberty. 135 00:18:34.500 --> 00:18:39.380 The Spartans suspected, nevertheless, that they had incurred the wrath of the gods by 136 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:45.100 their action, and especially the wrath of Talthybios, the god of the heralds. 137 00:18:45.100 --> 00:18:50.940 In order to appease him, they decided to send Xerxes, two of their citizens, in entombment 138 00:18:50.940 --> 00:18:55.280 for the cruel death inflicted upon the ambassadors of his father. 139 00:18:55.280 --> 00:19:01.200 Two Spartans, one named Spurta and the other Bullis, volunteered to offer themselves as 140 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:07.640 a sacrifice. So they departed, and on the way they came to the palace of the Persian named 141 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:15.400 Hidarnes, lieutenant of the king, in all the Asiatic cities situated on the seacoast. He 142 00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:21.600 received them with great honor, feasted them, and then, speaking of one thing and another, 143 00:19:21.600 --> 00:19:27.200 He asked them why they refused so obdurately his king's friendship. 144 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:35.560 Consider well, O Spartans, said he, and realize by my example that the king knows how to honor 145 00:19:35.560 --> 00:19:42.180 those who are worthy and believe that if you were his men he would do the same for you. 146 00:19:42.180 --> 00:19:48.280 If you belonged to him and he had known you, there is not one among you who might not be 147 00:19:48.280 --> 00:19:51.640 be the Lord of some Greek city. 148 00:19:51.640 --> 00:19:58.800 By such words, Hydarnes, you give us no good counsel, replied the Lacedaemonians. 149 00:19:58.800 --> 00:20:03.800 Because you have experienced merely the advantage of which you speak, you do not know the privilege 150 00:20:03.800 --> 00:20:05.320 we enjoy. 151 00:20:05.320 --> 00:20:11.100 You have the honor of the king's favor, but you know nothing about liberty, what relish 152 00:20:11.100 --> 00:20:17.040 it has and how sweet it is, for if you had any knowledge of it, you yourself would advise 153 00:20:17.040 --> 00:20:24.040 as well as us to defend it, not with lance and shield, but with our very teeth and nails. 154 00:20:24.040 --> 00:20:30.040 Only Spartans could give such an answer, and surely both of them spoke as they had been trained. 155 00:20:30.040 --> 00:20:36.040 It was impossible for the Persian to regret liberty not having known it, 156 00:20:36.040 --> 00:20:43.040 nor for the Lacedaemonians to find subjection acceptable after having enjoyed freedom. 157 00:20:43.040 --> 00:20:48.520 Plato the eutachan, while still a child under the rod, could come and go in the house of 158 00:20:48.520 --> 00:20:54.760 Silla the despot. Because of the place and family of his origin, and because he and Silla 159 00:20:54.760 --> 00:21:01.240 were close relatives, the door was never closed to him. He always had his teacher with him 160 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:06.840 when he went there, as was the custom for children of noble birth. He noticed that in 161 00:21:06.840 --> 00:21:13.800 In the house of Silla, in the dictator's presence or at his command, some men were imprisoned 162 00:21:13.800 --> 00:21:20.800 and others sentenced. One was banished, another was strangled. One demanded the goods of another 163 00:21:20.800 --> 00:21:29.800 citizen, another his head. In short, all went there, not as to the house of a city magistrate, 164 00:21:29.800 --> 00:21:36.700 but as to the people's tyrant. And this was therefore not a court of justice, but rather 165 00:21:36.700 --> 00:21:44.560 a resort of tyranny, whereupon the young lad said to his teacher, Why don't you give me 166 00:21:44.560 --> 00:21:50.740 a dagger? I will hide it under my robe. I often go into Silla's room before he is risen 167 00:21:50.740 --> 00:21:58.260 and my arm is strong enough to rid the city of him. There is a speech truly characteristic 168 00:21:58.260 --> 00:22:05.360 of Cato. It was a true beginning of this hero so worthy of his end, and should one not mention 169 00:22:05.360 --> 00:22:12.240 in his name or his country, but state merely the fact as it is, the episode itself would 170 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:19.240 speak eloquently and anyone would divine that he was a Roman born in Rome at the time when 171 00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:21.640 she was free. 172 00:22:21.640 --> 00:22:23.920 And why all this? 173 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:29.680 Certainly not because I believe that the land or the region has anything to do with it, 174 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:38.120 For in any place, and in any climate, subjection is bitter, and to be free is pleasant. But 175 00:22:38.120 --> 00:22:44.360 merely because I am of the opinion that one should pity those who at birth arrive with 176 00:22:44.360 --> 00:22:50.480 the yoke upon their necks. We should exonerate and forgive them, since they have not seen 177 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:57.120 even the shadow of liberty, and being quite unaware of it, cannot perceive the evil endured 178 00:22:57.120 --> 00:22:59.600 through their own slavery. 179 00:22:59.600 --> 00:23:04.560 If there were actually a country like that of the Sumerians mentioned by Homer, where 180 00:23:04.560 --> 00:23:11.400 the sun shines otherwise than on our own, shedding its radiance steadily for six successive 181 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:17.320 months and then leaving humanity to drowse in obscurity until it returns at the end of 182 00:23:17.320 --> 00:23:22.480 another half year, should we be surprised to learn that those born during this long 183 00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:27.960 Long Night do grow so accustomed to their native darkness that unless they were told 184 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:32.860 about the sun, they would have no desire to see the light. 185 00:23:32.860 --> 00:23:36.480 One never pines for what he has never known. 186 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:42.620 Longing comes only after enjoyment and constitutes amidst the experience of sorrow the memory 187 00:23:42.620 --> 00:23:43.920 of past joy. 188 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:51.140 It is truly the nature of man to be free and to wish to be so, yet his character is such 189 00:23:51.140 --> 00:23:56.980 that he instinctively follows the tendencies that his training gives him. 190 00:23:56.980 --> 00:24:02.940 Let us therefore admit that all those things to which he is trained and accustomed seem 191 00:24:02.940 --> 00:24:10.360 natural to man, and that only that is truly native to him which he receives with his primitive 192 00:24:10.360 --> 00:24:13.420 untrained individuality. 193 00:24:13.420 --> 00:24:18.320 Thus custom becomes the first reason for voluntary servitude. 194 00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:24.560 Men are like handsome racehorses who first bite the bit and later like it, and rearing 195 00:24:24.560 --> 00:24:31.040 under the saddle a while soon learn to enjoy displaying their harness and prance proudly 196 00:24:31.040 --> 00:24:33.240 beneath their trappings. 197 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:39.920 Similarly, men will grow accustomed to the idea that they have always been in subjection, 198 00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:42.960 that their fathers lived in the same way. 199 00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:48.280 They will think they are obliged to suffer this evil and will persuade themselves by 200 00:24:48.280 --> 00:24:54.920 example and imitation of others, finally investing those who order them around with proprietary 201 00:24:54.920 --> 00:25:00.040 rights based on the idea that it has always been that way. 202 00:25:00.040 --> 00:25:05.240 There are always a few better endowed than others who feel the weight of the yoke and 203 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:10.360 cannot restrain themselves from attempting to shake it off. 204 00:25:10.360 --> 00:25:16.980 These are the men who never become tamed under subjection and who always, like Ulysses on 205 00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:23.280 land and sea, constantly seeking the smoke of his chimney, cannot prevent themselves 206 00:25:23.280 --> 00:25:29.400 from peering about for their natural privileges and from remembering their ancestors and their 207 00:25:29.400 --> 00:25:31.620 former ways. 208 00:25:31.620 --> 00:25:37.040 These are in fact the men who, possessed of clear minds and farsighted spirit, are not 209 00:25:37.040 --> 00:25:43.340 Not satisfied, like the brutish mass, to see only what is at their feet, but rather look 210 00:25:43.340 --> 00:25:50.140 about them, behind and before, and even recall the things of the past in order to judge those 211 00:25:50.140 --> 00:25:55.080 of the future and compare both with their present condition. 212 00:25:55.080 --> 00:25:59.700 These are the ones who, having good minds of their own, have further trained them by 213 00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:01.940 study and learning. 214 00:26:01.940 --> 00:26:08.820 Even if liberty had entirely perished from the earth, such men would invent it. For them, 215 00:26:08.820 --> 00:26:14.260 slavery has no satisfactions, no matter how well disguised. 216 00:26:14.260 --> 00:26:22.020 The Grand Turk, the Ottoman Sultan of Constantinople, was well aware that books and teaching, more 217 00:26:22.020 --> 00:26:28.540 than anything else, give men the sense to comprehend their own nature and to detest 218 00:26:28.540 --> 00:26:36.540 I understand that in his territory there are few educated people, for he does not want many. 219 00:26:36.540 --> 00:26:45.540 On account of this restriction, men of strong zeal and devotion, who in spite of the passing of time have preserved their love of freedom, 220 00:26:45.540 --> 00:26:52.540 still remain ineffective because, however numerous they may be, they are not known to one another. 221 00:26:52.540 --> 00:27:19.540 Under the tyrant they have lost freedom of action, of speech, and almost of thought. They are alone in their aspiration. Indeed, Momus, god of mockery, was not merely joking when he found this to criticize in the man fashioned by Vulcan, namely, that the maker had not set a little window in his creature's heart to render his thoughts visible. 222 00:27:19.540 --> 00:27:47.540 It is reported that Brutus, Cassius and Casca, on undertaking to free Rome, and for that matter the whole world, refused to include in their band Cicero, that great enthusiast for the public welfare if ever there was one, because they considered his heart too timid for such a lofty deed. They trusted his willingness, but they were none too sure of his courage. 223 00:27:47.540 --> 00:28:05.540 Yet whoever studies the deeds of earlier days and the annals of antiquity will find practically no instance of heroes who failed to deliver their country from evil hands when they set about their task with a firm, wholehearted and sincere intention. 224 00:28:05.540 --> 00:28:12.540 Liberty, as if to reveal her nature, seems to have given them new strength. 225 00:28:12.540 --> 00:28:27.540 Hermodius and Aristegitten, Thrasybalus, Brutus the Elder, Valerianus and Dion achieved successfully what they planned virtuously, for hardly ever does good fortune fail a strong will. 226 00:28:27.540 --> 00:28:39.540 Brutus the Younger and Cassius were successful in eliminating servitude, and although they perished in their attempt to restore liberty, they did not die miserably. 227 00:28:39.540 --> 00:28:47.540 What blasphemy it would be to say there was anything miserable about these men, either in their death or in their living. 228 00:28:47.540 --> 00:28:56.540 Their loss worked great harm, everlasting misfortune and complete destruction of the Republic, which appears to have been buried with them. 229 00:28:56.540 --> 00:29:07.540 Other and later undertakings against the Roman emperors were merely plottings of ambitious people, who deserved no pity for the misfortunes that overtook them. 230 00:29:07.540 --> 00:29:18.540 For it is evident that they sought not to destroy, but merely to usurp the crown, scheming to drive away the tyrant, but to retain tyranny. 231 00:29:18.540 --> 00:29:30.540 For myself I could not wish such men to prosper, and I am glad they have shown by their example that the sacred name of liberty must never be used to cover a false enterprise. 232 00:29:30.540 --> 00:29:44.540 But to come back to the threat of our discourse, which I have practically lost, the essential reason why men take orders willingly is that they are born serfs and are reared as such. 233 00:29:44.540 --> 00:29:52.540 From this cause there follows another result, namely that people easily become cowardly and submissive under tyrants. 234 00:29:52.540 --> 00:30:04.540 For this observation, I am deeply grateful to Hippocrates, the renowned father of medicine, who noted and reported it in a treatise of his entitled Concerning Diseases. 235 00:30:04.540 --> 00:30:18.540 This famous man was certainly endowed with a great heart and proved it clearly by his reply to the great king, who wanted to attach him to his person by means of special privileges and large gifts. 236 00:30:18.540 --> 00:30:37.540 Hippocrates answered frankly that it would be a weight on his conscience to make use of his science for the cure of barbarians who wished to slay his fellow Greeks, or to serve faithfully by his skill anyone who undertook to enslave Greece. 237 00:30:37.540 --> 00:30:46.540 The letter he sent the king can still be read among his other works and will forever testify to his great heart and noble character. 238 00:30:46.540 --> 00:31:16.540 By this time it should be evident that liberty once lost, valor also perishes. A subject people shows neither gladness nor eagerness in combat. Its men march sullenly to danger, almost as if in bonds and stultified. They do not feel throbbing within them that eagerness for liberty which engenders scorn of peril and imparts readiness to acquire honor, 239 00:31:16.540 --> 00:31:24.240 and Glory by a Brave Death Amidst One's Comrades. Among free men there is competition as to 240 00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:31.240 who will do most, each for the common good, each by himself, all expecting to share in 241 00:31:31.240 --> 00:31:38.180 the misfortunes of defeat or in the benefits of victory. But an enslaved people loses in 242 00:31:38.180 --> 00:31:45.180 addition to this warlike courage all signs of enthusiasm, for their hearts are degraded, 243 00:31:45.180 --> 00:31:51.580 Submissive and incapable of any great deed. Tyrants are well aware of this, and in order 244 00:31:51.580 --> 00:31:58.940 to degrade their subjects further, encourage them to assume this attitude and make it instinctive. 245 00:31:58.940 --> 00:32:05.620 Xenophon, grave historian of first rank among the Greeks, wrote a book in which he makes 246 00:32:05.620 --> 00:32:14.020 amenities speak with Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, concerning the anxieties of the tyrant. This 247 00:32:14.020 --> 00:32:20.940 This book is full of fine and serious remonstrances, which in my opinion are as persuasive as words 248 00:32:20.940 --> 00:32:21.940 can be. 249 00:32:21.940 --> 00:32:27.100 Would to God that all despots who had ever lived might have kept it before their eyes 250 00:32:27.100 --> 00:32:29.620 and used it as a mirror. 251 00:32:29.620 --> 00:32:34.820 I cannot believe they would have failed to recognize their warts and to have conceived 252 00:32:34.820 --> 00:32:37.440 some shame for their blotches. 253 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:42.860 In this treatise is explained the torment in which tyrants find themselves when obliged 254 00:32:42.860 --> 00:32:48.300 To Fear Everyone Because They Do Evil Unto Every Man 255 00:32:48.300 --> 00:32:52.820 Among other things, we find the statement that bad kings employ foreigners in their 256 00:32:52.820 --> 00:33:00.060 wars and pay them, not daring to entrust weapons in the hands of their own people whom they 257 00:33:00.060 --> 00:33:02.340 have wronged. 258 00:33:02.340 --> 00:33:08.060 There have been good kings who have used mercenaries from foreign nations, even among the French, 259 00:33:08.060 --> 00:33:13.860 Although more so formerly than today, but with the quite different purpose of preserving 260 00:33:13.860 --> 00:33:19.200 their own people, considering as nothing the loss of money in the effort to spare French 261 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:20.780 lives. 262 00:33:20.780 --> 00:33:25.260 That is, I believe, what Scipio the Great African meant when he said he would rather 263 00:33:25.260 --> 00:33:31.720 save one citizen than defeat a hundred enemies, for it is plainly evident that the dictator 264 00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:37.120 does not consider his power firmly established until he has reached the point where there 265 00:33:37.120 --> 00:33:44.700 There is no man under him who is of any worth. Therefore, there may be justly applied to 266 00:33:44.700 --> 00:33:52.220 him the reproach to the master of the elephants made by Thrasen and reported by Terence. Are 267 00:33:52.220 --> 00:34:00.260 you indeed so proud because you command wild beasts? This method Tyrant's use of stultifying 268 00:34:00.260 --> 00:34:22.780 When news was brought to him that the people of Sardis had rebelled, it would have been 269 00:34:22.780 --> 00:34:26.260 easy for him to reduce them by force. 270 00:34:26.260 --> 00:34:32.260 But being unwilling either to sack such a fine city or to maintain an army there to 271 00:34:32.260 --> 00:34:40.260 police it, he thought of an unusual expedient for reducing it. He established in it brothels, 272 00:34:40.260 --> 00:34:48.160 taverns and public games, and issued the proclamation that the inhabitants were to enjoy them. He 273 00:34:48.160 --> 00:34:54.180 found this type of garrison so effective that he never again had to draw the sword against 274 00:34:54.180 --> 00:35:00.980 the Lydians. These wretched people enjoyed themselves inventing all kinds of games so 275 00:35:00.980 --> 00:35:07.580 that the Latins have derived the word from them and what we call pastimes they called 276 00:35:07.580 --> 00:35:14.580 ludi, as if they meant to say lidi. Not all tyrants have manifested so clearly their intention 277 00:35:15.220 --> 00:35:22.220 to effeminize their victims, but in fact what the aforementioned despot publicly proclaimed 278 00:35:22.220 --> 00:35:43.220 It is indeed the nature of the populace, whose density is always greater in the cities, to be suspicious toward one who has their welfare at heart, and gullible toward one who fools them. 279 00:35:43.220 --> 00:35:49.220 Do not imagine that there is any bird more easily caught by decoy, nor any fish sooner 280 00:35:49.220 --> 00:35:56.660 fixed on the hook by wormy bait than are all these poor fools neatly tricked into servitude 281 00:35:56.660 --> 00:36:04.360 by the slightest feather past, so to speak, before their mouths. Truly, it is a marvelous 282 00:36:04.360 --> 00:36:09.060 thing that they let themselves be caught so quickly at the slightest tickling of their 283 00:36:09.060 --> 00:36:18.220 are fancy. Plays, verses, spectacles, gladiators, strange beasts, medals, pictures and other 284 00:36:18.220 --> 00:36:25.580 such opiates, these were for ancient peoples the bait towards slavery, the price of their 285 00:36:25.580 --> 00:36:33.220 liberty, the instruments of tyranny. By these practices and enticements the ancient dictators 286 00:36:33.220 --> 00:36:40.500 so successfully lulled their subjects under the yoke that the stupefied people, fascinated 287 00:36:40.500 --> 00:36:47.280 by the pastimes and vain pleasures, flashed before their eyes, learned subservience as 288 00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:55.080 naively but not so creditably as little children learn to read by looking at bright picture 289 00:36:55.080 --> 00:37:02.980 books. Roman tyrants invented a further refinement. They often provided the city wards with feast 290 00:37:02.980 --> 00:37:09.100 to cajole the rabble, always more readily tempted by the pleasure of eating than by 291 00:37:09.100 --> 00:37:11.500 anything else. 292 00:37:11.500 --> 00:37:16.860 The most intelligent and understanding amongst them would not have quit his soup bowl to 293 00:37:16.860 --> 00:37:21.020 recover the liberty of the Republic of Plato. 294 00:37:21.020 --> 00:37:27.420 Tyrants would distribute largesse, a bushel of wheat, a gallon of wine, and a cisterci, 295 00:37:27.420 --> 00:37:32.240 and then everybody would shamelessly cry, Long live the King! 296 00:37:32.240 --> 00:37:37.680 The fools did not realize that they were merely recovering a portion of their own property 297 00:37:37.680 --> 00:37:42.640 and that their ruler could not have given them what they were receiving without having 298 00:37:42.640 --> 00:37:47.000 first taken it from them. 299 00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:53.960 A man might one day be presented with a cisterci and gorge himself at the public feast lauding 300 00:37:53.960 --> 00:38:00.580 Tiberius and Nero for handsome liberality, who on the morrow would be forced to abandon 301 00:38:00.580 --> 00:38:06.580 In his property to their avarice, his children to their lust, his very blood to the cruelty 302 00:38:06.580 --> 00:38:12.680 of these magnificent emperors, without offering any more resistance than a stone or a tree 303 00:38:12.680 --> 00:38:19.980 stump, the mob has always behaved in this way, eagerly open to bribes that cannot be 304 00:38:19.980 --> 00:38:28.580 honorably accepted, and dissolute callous to degradation and insult that cannot be honorably 305 00:38:28.580 --> 00:38:37.300 Nowadays I do not meet anyone who, on hearing the mention of Nero, does not shudder at the 306 00:38:37.300 --> 00:38:44.900 very name of that hideous monster, that disgusting and vile pestilence. Yet when he died, when 307 00:38:44.900 --> 00:38:53.020 this incendiary, this executioner, this savage beast died as vilely as he had lived, the 308 00:38:53.020 --> 00:39:04.020 The noble Roman people, mindful of his games and his festivals, were saddened to the point of wearing mourning for him. 309 00:39:04.020 --> 00:39:11.020 Thus wrote Cornelius Tacitus, a competent and serious author and one of the most reliable. 310 00:39:11.020 --> 00:39:19.020 This will not be considered peculiar in view of what this same people had previously done at the death of Julius Caesar 311 00:39:19.020 --> 00:39:43.020 who had swept away their laws and their liberty, in whose character, it seems to me, there was nothing worthwhile, for his very liberality, which is so highly praised, was more baneful than the cruelest tyrant who ever existed, because it was actually this poisonous immubility of his that sweetened servitude for the Roman people. 312 00:39:43.020 --> 00:39:56.020 After his death, that people, still preserving on their palates the flavor of his banquets and in their minds the memory of his prodigality, vied with one another to pay him homage. 313 00:39:56.020 --> 00:40:06.020 They piled up the seats of the forum for the great fire that reduced his body to ashes and later raised a column to him as to the father of his people. 314 00:40:06.020 --> 00:40:09.020 Such was the inscription on the capital. 315 00:40:09.020 --> 00:40:15.100 Capital. They did him more honor, dead as he was, than they had any right to confer 316 00:40:15.100 --> 00:40:21.380 upon any man in the world except perhaps on those who had killed him. They didn't even 317 00:40:21.380 --> 00:40:27.640 neglect these Roman emperors to assume generally the title of tribune of the people, partly 318 00:40:27.640 --> 00:40:33.960 because this office was held sacred and inviolable and also because it had been founded for the 319 00:40:33.960 --> 00:40:39.240 in the defense and protection of the people and enjoyed the favor of the state. 320 00:40:39.240 --> 00:40:45.280 By this means they made sure that the populace would trust them completely, as if they merely 321 00:40:45.280 --> 00:40:48.840 used the title and did not abuse it. 322 00:40:48.840 --> 00:40:53.160 Today there are some who do not behave very differently. 323 00:40:53.160 --> 00:40:58.880 They never undertake an unjust policy, even one of some importance, without prefacing 324 00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:07.040 and it with some pretty speech concerning public welfare and common good. 325 00:41:07.040 --> 00:41:15.280 You well know, O Lange, this formula which they use quite cleverly in certain places, 326 00:41:15.280 --> 00:41:19.840 although for the most part to be sure there cannot be cleverness where there is so much 327 00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:22.040 impudence. 328 00:41:22.040 --> 00:41:27.520 The kings of the Assyrians and even after them those of the Medes showed themselves 329 00:41:27.520 --> 00:41:33.800 is in public as seldom as possible in order to set up a doubt in the minds of the rabble 330 00:41:33.800 --> 00:41:40.800 as to whether they were not in some way more than man and thereby to encourage people to 331 00:41:41.320 --> 00:41:47.360 use their imagination for those things which they cannot judge by sight. Thus a great many 332 00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:54.320 nations who for a long time dwelt under the control of the Assyrians became accustomed 333 00:41:54.320 --> 00:42:01.520 with all this mystery to their own subjection, and submitted them more readily for not knowing 334 00:42:01.520 --> 00:42:07.720 what sort of master they had, or scarcely even if they had one, all of them fearing 335 00:42:07.720 --> 00:42:11.240 by reports someone they had never seen. 336 00:42:11.240 --> 00:42:17.100 The earliest kings of Egypt rarely showed themselves without carrying a cat, or sometimes 337 00:42:17.100 --> 00:42:23.600 a branch, or appearing with fire on their heads, masking themselves with these objects 338 00:42:23.600 --> 00:42:30.440 and Parading Like Workers of Magic. By doing this, they inspired their subjects with reverence 339 00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:37.240 and admiration, whereas with people neither too stupid nor too slavish, they would merely 340 00:42:37.240 --> 00:42:43.720 have aroused, it seems to me, amusement and laughter. It is pitiful to review the list 341 00:42:43.720 --> 00:42:50.400 of devices that early despots used to establish their tyranny, to discover how many little 342 00:42:50.400 --> 00:43:13.620 What comment can I make concerning another fine counterfeit that ancient peoples accepted 343 00:43:13.620 --> 00:43:15.600 as true money? 344 00:43:15.600 --> 00:43:22.700 They believed firmly that the great Toe of Pyrrhus, king of the Pyrrhus, performed miracles 345 00:43:22.700 --> 00:43:27.960 and cured diseases of the spleen. They even enhanced the tale further with the legend 346 00:43:27.960 --> 00:43:34.560 that this toe, after the corpse had been burned, was found among the ashes untouched by the 347 00:43:34.560 --> 00:43:43.360 fire. In this wise a foolish people itself invents lies and then believes them. Many 348 00:43:43.360 --> 00:43:48.580 Many men have recounted such things, but in such a way that it is easy to see that the 349 00:43:48.580 --> 00:43:55.260 parts were pieced together from idle gossip of the city and silly reports from the rabble. 350 00:43:55.260 --> 00:44:01.100 When Vespation, returning from Assyria, passes through Alexandria on his way to Rome to take 351 00:44:01.100 --> 00:44:05.640 possession of the empire, he performs wonders. 352 00:44:05.640 --> 00:44:12.380 He makes the crippled straight, restores sight to the blind, and does many other fine things 353 00:44:12.380 --> 00:44:20.220 Concerning which the credulous and undiscriminating were in my opinion more blind than those cured. 354 00:44:20.220 --> 00:44:26.220 Tyrants themselves have wondered that men could endure the persecution of a single man. 355 00:44:26.220 --> 00:44:31.940 They have insisted on using religion for their own protection and where possible have borrowed 356 00:44:31.940 --> 00:44:36.860 a stray bit of divinity to bolster up their evil ways. 357 00:44:36.860 --> 00:44:49.860 If we are to believe the Sybil of Virgil, Salmonius, in torment for having paraded as Jupiter in order to deceive the populace, now atones in nethermost hell. 358 00:44:49.860 --> 00:44:57.860 He suffered endless torment for having dared to imitate the thunderbolts of heaven and the flames of Jupiter. 359 00:44:57.860 --> 00:45:01.220 Upon a chariot drawn by four chargers he went, 360 00:45:01.220 --> 00:45:06.180 Unsteadily riding loft, in his fist a great shining torch, 361 00:45:06.180 --> 00:45:10.660 Among the Greeks and into the marketplace, In the heart of the city of Ellis, 362 00:45:10.660 --> 00:45:15.140 He had ridden boldly, and displaying thus his vainglory, 363 00:45:15.140 --> 00:45:19.380 He assumed an honor which undeniably belongs to the gods alone. 364 00:45:20.340 --> 00:45:26.420 This fool who imitated storm and the inimitable thunderbolt by clash of brass, 365 00:45:26.420 --> 00:45:34.060 and with his dizzying charge on horn-hoofed steeds, the all-powerful father beheld, hurled 366 00:45:34.060 --> 00:45:40.060 not a torch nor the feeble light from a waxen taper with its smoky fumes, but by the furious 367 00:45:40.060 --> 00:45:47.240 blast of thunder and lightning he brought him low, his heels above his head. 368 00:45:47.240 --> 00:45:53.020 If such a one, who in his time acted merrily through the folly of insolence, is so well 369 00:45:53.020 --> 00:46:04.020 I think that those who have used religion as a cloak to hide their vileness will be even more deservedly lodged in the same place. 370 00:46:04.020 --> 00:46:16.020 Our own leaders have employed in France certain similar devices such as toads, fleur-de-lis, sacred vessels, and standards with flames of gold. 371 00:46:16.020 --> 00:46:27.020 However that may be, I do not wish for my part to be incredulous since neither we nor our ancestors have had any occasion up to now for skepticism. 372 00:46:27.020 --> 00:46:37.020 Our kings have always been so generous in times of peace and so valiant in time of war that from birth they seem not to have been created by nature like many others, 373 00:46:37.020 --> 00:46:45.020 but even before birth to have been designated by Almighty God for the government and preservation of this kingdom. 374 00:46:45.020 --> 00:46:58.020 Even if this were not so, yet should I not enter the tilting ground to call in question the truth of our traditions or to examine them so strictly as to take away their fine conceits? 375 00:46:58.020 --> 00:47:10.020 Here is such a field for our French poetry, now not merely honored, but, it seems to me, reborn through our rosnard, our baif, our belay. 376 00:47:10.020 --> 00:47:23.020 These poets are defending our language so well that I dare to believe that very soon neither the Greeks nor the Latins will, in this respect, have any advantage over us, except possibly that of seniority. 377 00:47:23.020 --> 00:47:38.020 And I should assuredly do wrong to our posy. I like to use that word despite the fact that several have rhymed mechanically, for I still discern a number of men today capable of ennobling poetry and restoring it to its first luster. 378 00:47:38.020 --> 00:47:44.140 But, as I say, I should do the muse great injury if I deprived her now of those fine 379 00:47:44.140 --> 00:47:49.260 tales about King Clovis, amongst which, it seems to me, I can already see how agreeably 380 00:47:49.260 --> 00:47:55.980 and how happily the inspiration of our Ronsard in his Franciade will play. 381 00:47:55.980 --> 00:47:58.020 I appreciate his loftiness. 382 00:47:58.020 --> 00:48:02.580 I am aware of his king spirit, and I know the charm of the man. 383 00:48:02.580 --> 00:48:07.780 He will appropriate the aura flame to his use much as did the Romans, their sacred bucklers 384 00:48:07.780 --> 00:48:13.980 and the Shields Cast from Heaven to Earth according to Virgil. He will use our vial 385 00:48:13.980 --> 00:48:21.100 of holy oil much as the Athenians used the basket of Eric Thonius. He will win applause 386 00:48:21.100 --> 00:48:25.820 for our deeds of valor as they did for their olive wreath, which they insist can still 387 00:48:25.820 --> 00:48:32.260 be found in Minerva's Tower. Certainly I should be presumptuous if I tried to cast slurs on 388 00:48:32.260 --> 00:48:38.780 on our records and thus invade the realm of our poets, but to return to our subject, the 389 00:48:38.780 --> 00:48:44.540 thread of which I have unwittingly lost in this discussion, it has always happened that 390 00:48:44.540 --> 00:48:51.940 tyrants, in order to strengthen their power, have made every effort to train their people 391 00:48:51.940 --> 00:48:59.940 not only in obedience and servility toward themselves, but also in adoration. 392 00:48:59.940 --> 00:49:15.940 Therefore, all that I have said up to the present concerning the means by which a more willing submission has been obtained applies to the dictators in their relationship with the inferior and common classes.