WEBVTT NOTE The Politics of Obedience: Part III 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 The Politics of Obedience, The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, by Etienne de la Poitite 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Part 3 3 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:23.000 If things are to change, one must realize the extent to which the foundation of tyranny lies in the vast networks of corrupted people with an interest in maintaining tyranny. 4 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:30.440 I come now to a point which is, in my opinion, the main spring in the secret of domination, 5 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:36.940 the support and foundation of tyranny. Whoever thinks that halberds, sentries, the placing 6 00:00:36.940 --> 00:00:44.200 of the watch, serve to protect and shield tyrants is, in my judgment, completely mistaken. 7 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:49.880 These are used, it seems to me, more for ceremony and a show of force than for any reliance 8 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:59.880 The archers forbid the entrance to the palace to the poorly dressed who have no weapons, not to the well-armed who can carry out some plot. 9 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:09.880 Certainly it is easy to say of the Roman emperors that fewer escaped from danger by aid of their guards than were killed by their own archers. 10 00:01:09.880 --> 00:01:18.880 It is not the troops on horseback. It is not the companies afoot. It is not arms that defend the tyrant. 11 00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:26.400 This does not seem credible on first thought, but it is nonetheless true that there are 12 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:33.760 only four or five who maintain the dictator, four or five who keep the country in bondage 13 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:34.760 to him. 14 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:40.800 Five or six have always had access to his ear and have either gone to him of their own 15 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:48.080 accord or else have been summoned by him to be accomplices in his cruelties, companions 16 00:01:48.080 --> 00:01:55.960 in his pleasures, panders to his lust, and sharers in his plunders. These six manage their 17 00:01:55.960 --> 00:02:04.080 chiefs so successfully that he comes to be held accountable not only for his own misdeeds, 18 00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:12.440 but even for theirs. The six have six hundred who profit under them, and with the six hundred 19 00:02:12.440 --> 00:02:42.440 The 600 maintain under them 6000, whom they promote and rank, upon whom they confer the government of provinces or the direction of finances, in order that they may serve as instruments of avarice and cruelty, executing orders at the proper time and working such havoc all around that they could not last except under the shadow of the 600. 20 00:02:42.440 --> 00:03:05.440 The consequence of all this is fatal indeed, and whoever is pleased to unwind this scheme will observe that not the six thousand, but a hundred thousand, and even millions, cling to the tyrant by this cord to which they are tied. 21 00:03:05.440 --> 00:03:13.440 According to Homer, Jupiter boasts of being able to draw to himself all the gods when he pulls a chain. 22 00:03:13.440 --> 00:03:21.440 Such a scheme caused the increase in the Senate under Julius, the formation of new ranks, the creation of offices. 23 00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:30.440 Not really if properly considered to reform justice, but to provide new supporters of despotism. 24 00:03:30.440 --> 00:03:37.640 In short, when the point is reached, through big favors or little ones, that large profits 25 00:03:37.640 --> 00:03:44.460 or small are obtained under a tyrant, there are found almost as many people to whom tyranny 26 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:52.400 seems advantageous as those to whom liberty would seem desirable. Doctors declare that 27 00:03:52.400 --> 00:04:00.000 if, when some part of the body has gangrene, a disturbance arises in another spot, it immediately 28 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:06.560 flows to the troubled spot. Even so, whenever a ruler makes himself a dictator, all the 29 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:13.000 wicked dregs of the nation, I do not mean the pack of petty thieves and earless ruffians 30 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:19.640 who in a republic are unimportant in evil or good, but all those who are corrupted by 31 00:04:19.640 --> 00:04:26.880 burning ambition or extraordinary avarice, these gather around him and support him in 32 00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:34.880 in order to have a share in the booty and to constitute themselves petty chiefs under the big tyrant. 33 00:04:34.880 --> 00:04:38.880 This is the practice among notorious robbers and famous pirates. 34 00:04:38.880 --> 00:04:42.880 Some scour the country, others pursue voyagers. 35 00:04:42.880 --> 00:04:49.880 Some lie in ambush, others keep a lookout, some commit murders, others robbery. 36 00:04:49.880 --> 00:04:52.880 And although there are among them differences in rank, 37 00:04:52.880 --> 00:04:58.840 Bank, some being only underlings while some are chieftains of gangs, yet is there not 38 00:04:58.840 --> 00:05:05.300 a single one among them who does not feel himself to be a sharer, if not of the main 39 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:08.880 booty, at least in the pursuit of it. 40 00:05:08.880 --> 00:05:14.720 It is dependably related that Sicilian pirates gathered in such great numbers that it became 41 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:21.600 necessary to send against them Pompey the Great, and that they drew into their alliance 42 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:27.600 It's fine towns and great cities in whose harbors they took refuge on returning from 43 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:33.600 their expeditions, paying handsomely for the haven given their stolen goods. 44 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:41.000 Thus the despot subdues his subjects, some of them by means of others, and thus is he 45 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:47.920 protected by those from whom, if they were decent men, he would have to guard himself. 46 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:53.520 Just as, in order to split wood, one has to use a wedge of the wood itself. 47 00:05:53.520 --> 00:05:58.880 Such are his archers, his guards, his halberters. 48 00:05:58.880 --> 00:06:04.640 Not that they themselves do not suffer occasionally at his hands, but this riffraff, abandoned 49 00:06:04.640 --> 00:06:13.160 alike by God and man, can be led to endure evil, if permitted to commit it, not against 50 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:19.520 First him who exploits them but against those who like themselves submit but are helpless. 51 00:06:19.520 --> 00:06:25.760 Nevertheless, observing those men who painfully serve the tyrant in order to win some profit 52 00:06:25.760 --> 00:06:32.860 from his tyranny and from the subjection of the populace, I am often overcome with amazement 53 00:06:32.860 --> 00:06:38.820 at their wickedness and sometimes by pity for their folly. 54 00:06:38.820 --> 00:06:45.740 For in all honesty, can it be in any way except in folly, that you approach a tyrant, withdrawing 55 00:06:45.740 --> 00:06:52.660 further from your liberty and, so to speak, embracing with both hands your servitude? 56 00:06:52.660 --> 00:06:59.540 Let such men lay aside briefly their ambition, or let them forget for a moment their avarice 57 00:06:59.540 --> 00:07:07.020 and look at themselves as they really are. Then they will realize clearly that the townspeople, 58 00:07:07.020 --> 00:07:13.220 The peasants whom they trample underfoot and treat worse than convicts or slaves, they 59 00:07:13.220 --> 00:07:21.420 will realize, I say, that these people, mistreated as they may be, are nevertheless, in comparison 60 00:07:21.420 --> 00:07:27.420 with themselves, better off and fairly free. 61 00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:33.780 The tiller of the soil and the artisan, no matter how enslaved, discharge their obligation 62 00:07:33.780 --> 00:07:40.060 Man when they do what they are told to do. But the dictator sees men about him wooing 63 00:07:40.060 --> 00:07:48.060 and begging his favor and doing much more than he tells them to do. Such men must not 64 00:07:48.060 --> 00:07:56.420 only obey orders, they must anticipate his wishes. To satisfy him, they must foresee 65 00:07:56.420 --> 00:08:13.420 They must be his desires. They must wear themselves out, torment themselves, kill themselves with work in his interest, and accept his pleasure as their own, neglecting their preference for his, distorting their character and corrupting their nature. 66 00:08:13.420 --> 00:08:21.420 They must pay heed to his words, to his intonation, to his gestures and to his glance. 67 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:31.420 Let them have no eye nor foot nor hand that is not alert to respond to his wishes or to seek out his thoughts. 68 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:38.420 Can that be called a happy life? Can it be called living? 69 00:08:38.420 --> 00:08:42.420 Is there anything more intolerable than that situation? 70 00:08:42.420 --> 00:08:47.540 I won't say for a man of metal, nor even for a man of high birth, but simply for a man 71 00:08:47.540 --> 00:08:54.100 of common sense, or to go even further, for anyone having the face of a man. 72 00:08:54.100 --> 00:09:01.020 What condition is more wretched than to live thus, with nothing to call one's own, receiving 73 00:09:01.020 --> 00:09:09.880 from someone else one's sustenance, one's power to act, one's body, one's very life? 74 00:09:09.880 --> 00:09:16.600 Real men accept servility in order to acquire wealth, as if they could acquire anything 75 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:22.800 of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves, or as if anyone 76 00:09:22.800 --> 00:09:27.520 could possess under a tyrant a single thing in his own name. 77 00:09:27.520 --> 00:09:33.400 Yet they act as if their wealth really belonged to them, and forget that it is they themselves 78 00:09:33.400 --> 00:09:40.400 They notice that nothing makes men so subservient to a tyrant's cruelty as property, that the possession of wealth is the worst of crimes against him, punishable even by death, that he loves nothing quite so much as money and ruins own property. 79 00:10:03.400 --> 00:10:09.400 Only the rich who come before him is before a butcher, offering themselves so stuffed 80 00:10:09.400 --> 00:10:14.840 and bulging that they make his mouth water. These favorites should not recall so much 81 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:21.680 the memory of those who have won great wealth from tyrants as of those who, after they had 82 00:10:21.680 --> 00:10:28.480 for some time amassed it, have lost to him their property as well as their lives. They 83 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:34.260 They should consider not how many others have gained a fortune, but rather how few of them 84 00:10:34.260 --> 00:10:36.540 have kept it. 85 00:10:36.540 --> 00:10:42.280 Whether we examine ancient history or simply the times in which we live, we shall see clearly 86 00:10:42.280 --> 00:10:49.220 how great is the number of those who, having by shameful means won the ear of princes, 87 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:54.580 who either profit from their villainies or take advantage of their naivete, were in the 88 00:10:54.580 --> 00:11:01.820 The end reduced to nothing by these very princes. And although at first such servitors were 89 00:11:01.820 --> 00:11:08.060 met by a ready willingness to promote their interest, they later found an equally obvious 90 00:11:08.060 --> 00:11:14.660 inconstancy which brought them to ruin. Certainly among so large a number of people who have 91 00:11:14.660 --> 00:11:22.000 at one time or another had some relationship with bad rulers, there have been few or practically 92 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:29.000 Most often, after becoming rich by despoiling others, under the favor of his protection, they find themselves, at last, enriching him with their own spoils, even men of character, if it sometimes happens that a tyrant likes such a man well enough to hold him in his good grace. 93 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:58.400 Mises, because in him shine forth the virtue and integrity that inspire a certain reverence 94 00:11:58.400 --> 00:12:06.720 even in the most depraved. Even men of character, I say, could not long avoid succumbing to 95 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:12.800 the common malady and would early experience the effects of tyranny at their own expense. 96 00:12:12.800 --> 00:12:20.040 A Seneca, a Burris, a Thracia, this triumphant of splendid men will provide a sufficient 97 00:12:20.040 --> 00:12:21.040 ." 98 00:12:21.040 --> 00:12:48.520 These three, by their cruel death, give sufficient evidence of how little faith one can place 99 00:12:48.520 --> 00:12:54.960 in the Friendship of an Evil Ruler. Indeed, what friendship may be expected from one whose 100 00:12:54.960 --> 00:13:01.960 heart is bitter enough to hate even his own people, who do not else but obey him. It is 101 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:07.880 because he does not know how to love that he ultimately impoverishes his own spirit 102 00:13:07.880 --> 00:13:14.560 and destroys his own empire. Now, if one would argue that these men fell into disgrace because 103 00:13:14.560 --> 00:13:20.320 as they wanted to act honorably, let him look around boldly at others close to that same 104 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:27.000 tyrant and he will see that those who came into his favor and maintained themselves by 105 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:31.520 dishonorable means did not fare much better. 106 00:13:31.520 --> 00:13:37.520 Who has ever heard tell of a love more centered, of an affection more persistent? 107 00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:44.960 Who has ever read of a man more desperately attached to a woman than Nero was to Papea? 108 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:52.080 Yet she was later poisoned by his own hand. Agrippina, his mother, had killed her husband, 109 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:59.560 Claudius, in order to exalt her son. To gratify him, she had never hesitated at doing or bearing 110 00:13:59.560 --> 00:14:07.360 anything, and yet this very son, her offspring, her emperor, elevated by her hand, after 111 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:12.320 failing her often, finally took her life. 112 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:18.480 It is indeed true that no one denies she would have well deserved this punishment if only 113 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:24.760 it had come to her by some other hand than that of the son she had brought into the world, 114 00:14:24.760 --> 00:14:32.160 Who was ever more easily managed, more naive, or, to speak quite frankly, a greater simpleton 115 00:14:32.160 --> 00:14:39.120 than Claudius the Emperor? Who was ever more wrapped up in his wife than he in Messalina, 116 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:45.440 whom he delivered finally into the hands of the executioner? Stupidity in a tyrant always 117 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:51.960 renders him incapable of benevolent action, but in some mysterious way by dint of acting 118 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:58.040 And cruelly, even toward those who are his closest associates, he seems to manifest what 119 00:14:58.040 --> 00:15:01.240 little intelligence he may have had. 120 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:06.680 Quite generally known is the striking phrase of that other tyrant who, gazing at the throat 121 00:15:06.680 --> 00:15:13.440 of his wife, a woman he dearly loved and without whom it seemed he could not live, caressed 122 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:20.440 her with this charming comment, This lovely throat would be cut at once if I but gave 123 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:26.040 of the Order. That is why the majority of the dictators of former days were commonly 124 00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:34.360 slain by their closest favorites, who, observing the nature of tyranny, could not be so confident 125 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:42.160 of the whim of the tyrant as they were distrustful of his power. Thus was Domitian killed by 126 00:15:42.160 --> 00:16:12.160 The fact is that the tyrant is never truly loved, nor does he love. Friendship is a sacred word, a holy thing. It is never developed except between persons of character, and never takes root except through mutual respect. It flourishes, not so much by nature, as it flourishes in society. 127 00:16:12.160 --> 00:16:18.360 My kindnesses is by sincerity. What makes one friend sure of another is the knowledge 128 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:25.360 of his integrity, as guarantees he has his friend's fine nature, his honor and his constancy. 129 00:16:26.140 --> 00:16:31.560 There can be no friendship where there is cruelty, where there is disloyalty, where 130 00:16:31.560 --> 00:16:38.560 there is injustice. And in places where the wicked gather, there is conspiracy only, not 131 00:16:38.560 --> 00:16:45.560 not companionship. These have no affection for one another. Fear alone holds them together. 132 00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:52.940 They are not friends. They are merely accomplices. Although it might not be impossible, yet 133 00:16:53.920 --> 00:17:00.320 it would be difficult to find true friendship in a tyrant. Elevated above others and having 134 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:06.820 no companions, he finds himself already beyond the pale of friendship, which receives its 135 00:17:06.820 --> 00:17:12.900 This real sustenance from an equality that to proceed without a limp must have its two 136 00:17:12.900 --> 00:17:15.260 limbs equal. 137 00:17:15.260 --> 00:17:20.140 That is why there is honor among thieves, or so it is reported, in the sharing of the 138 00:17:20.140 --> 00:17:21.140 booty. 139 00:17:21.140 --> 00:17:23.900 They are peers and comrades. 140 00:17:23.900 --> 00:17:29.220 If they are not fond of one another, they at least respect one another and do not seek 141 00:17:29.220 --> 00:17:32.420 to lessen their strength by squabbling. 142 00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:37.980 But the favorites of a tyrant can never feel entirely secure, and the less so because he 143 00:17:37.980 --> 00:17:45.940 has learned from them that he is all-powerful and unlimited by any law or obligation. 144 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:53.420 Thus it becomes his want to consider his own will as reason enough and to be master of 145 00:17:53.420 --> 00:17:56.820 all with never a compere. 146 00:17:56.820 --> 00:18:02.680 Therefore it seems a pity that with so many examples at hand, with the danger always present, 147 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:09.020 no one is anxious to act the wise man at the expense of the others, and that among so many 148 00:18:09.020 --> 00:18:15.500 persons fawning upon their ruler, there is not a single one who has the wisdom and the 149 00:18:15.500 --> 00:18:23.260 boldness to say to him what, according to the fable, the fox said to the lion, who feigned 150 00:18:23.260 --> 00:18:24.260 illness. 151 00:18:24.260 --> 00:18:32.020 I should be glad to enter your lair to pay my respects, but I see many tracks of beasts 152 00:18:32.020 --> 00:18:40.200 that have gone toward you, yet not a single trace of any who have come back. 153 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:45.020 These wretches see the glint of the despot's treasures and are bedazzled by the radiance 154 00:18:45.020 --> 00:18:46.660 of his splendor. 155 00:18:46.660 --> 00:18:52.420 Drawn by this brilliance they come near, without realizing they are approaching a flame that 156 00:18:52.420 --> 00:18:59.620 cannot fail to scorch them. Similarly attracted the indiscreet satyr of the old fables on 157 00:18:59.620 --> 00:19:06.700 seeing the bright fire brought down by Prometheus found it so beautiful that he went and kissed 158 00:19:06.700 --> 00:19:15.220 it and was burned. So as the Tuscan poet reminds us, the moth intent upon desire seeks the 159 00:19:15.220 --> 00:19:23.020 The flame because it shines and also experiences its other quality, the burning. Moreover even 160 00:19:23.020 --> 00:19:28.200 admitting that favorites may at times escape from the hands of him they serve, they are 161 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:34.820 never safe from the ruler who comes after him. If he is good, they must render an account 162 00:19:34.820 --> 00:19:42.900 of their past and recognize at last that justice exists. If he is bad and resembles their late 163 00:19:42.900 --> 00:19:49.780 Master, he will certainly have his own favorites who are not usually satisfied to occupy in 164 00:19:49.780 --> 00:19:57.660 their turn merely the post of their predecessors, but will more often insist on their wealth 165 00:19:57.660 --> 00:19:59.980 and their lives. 166 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:06.300 Can anyone be found then who under such perilous circumstances and with so little security 167 00:20:06.300 --> 00:20:14.180 will still be ambitious to fill such an ill-fated position and serve, despite such perils, so 168 00:20:14.180 --> 00:20:22.240 dangerous a master. Good God, what suffering, what martyrdom all this involves, to be occupied 169 00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:29.340 night and day in planning to please one person, and yet to fear him more than anyone else 170 00:20:29.340 --> 00:20:36.060 in the world, to be always on the watch, ears open, wondering whence the blow will come, 171 00:20:36.060 --> 00:20:42.120 to search out conspiracy, to be on guard against snares, to scan the faces of companions for 172 00:20:42.120 --> 00:20:48.880 signs of treachery, to smile at everybody and be mortally afraid of all, to be sure 173 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:56.160 of nobody, either as an open enemy or as a reliable friend, showing always a gay countenance 174 00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:04.680 despite an apprehensive heart, unable to be joyous, yet not daring to be sad. However, 175 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:09.520 There is satisfaction in examining what they get out of all this torment, what advantage 176 00:21:09.520 --> 00:21:15.240 they derive from all the trouble of their wretched existence. Actually, the people never 177 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:20.760 blame the tyrant for the evils they suffer, but they do place responsibility on those 178 00:21:20.760 --> 00:21:27.760 who influence him. Peoples, nations, all compete with one another, even the peasants, even 179 00:21:27.760 --> 00:21:33.080 the tillers of the soil, in mentioning the names of the favorites, in analyzing their 180 00:22:03.080 --> 00:22:22.080 and the Wild Beast. This is the glory and honor heaped upon influential favorites for their services, by people who, if they could tear apart their living bodies, would still clamor for more, only half satiated by the agony they might behold. 181 00:22:22.080 --> 00:22:27.920 For even when the favorites are dead, those who live after are never too lazy to blacken 182 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:34.660 the names of these man-eaters with the ink of a thousand pens, tear their reputations 183 00:22:34.660 --> 00:22:41.840 into bits in a thousand books and drag, so to speak, their bones past posterity, forever 184 00:22:41.840 --> 00:22:48.240 punishing them after their death for their wicked lives. 185 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:57.040 Let us therefore learn while there is yet time. Let us learn to do good. Let us raise 186 00:22:57.040 --> 00:23:05.160 our eyes to heaven for the sake of our honor, for the very love of virtue, or to speak wisely 187 00:23:05.160 --> 00:23:11.440 for the love and praise of God Almighty, who is the infallible witness of our deeds and 188 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:18.600 and the Just Judge of Our Faults. As for me, I truly believe I am right, since there is 189 00:23:18.600 --> 00:23:26.880 nothing so contrary to a generous and loving God as tyranny. I believe He has reserved 190 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:33.920 in a separate spot in Hell some very special punishment for tyrants and their accomplices.