The Politics of Obedience
A Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
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Narrated by:
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Bootsy Greenwood
About this listen
In this seminal work of political philosophy, Boétie asks one of the most obvious questions of political theory: Why is it that a minority of rulers can remain in power over a majority of subjects who pay all the taxes?
The answer might be quite surprising to us all. The conclusion is that the people tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants.
Liberty is the natural condition of the people. Servitude, however, is fostered when people are raised in subjection. People are trained to adore rulers. While freedom is forgotten by many, there are always some who will never submit.
What is the answer, then?
The author brilliantly and obviously outlines these points in the minutes that follow in a way that is illuminating and also simple. It is we who enslave ourselves at the beck and call of "authority". Enjoy this classic work that roots sovereignty into philosophy and demonstrates how simply the tides can change.
A note by the translator:
La Boétie's essay against dictators makes stirring listening.
A clear analysis of how tyrants get power and maintain it, its simple assumption is that real power always lies in the hands of the people and that they can free themselves from a despot by an act of will unaccompanied by any gesture of violence. The astounding fact about this tract is that in 1948 it will be 400 years old.
One would seek hard to find any writing of current times that strips the sham from dictators more vigorously. Better than many modern political thinkers, its author not only reveals the contemptible nature of dictatorships, but he goes on to show, as is aptly stated by the exiled Borgese, "that all servitude is voluntary and the slave is more despicable than the tyrant is hateful". No outraged cry from the past or present points the moral more clearly that Rome was worthy of her Nero, and by inference, Europe of her present little strutters and the agony in which they have engulfed their world.
So appropriate to our day is this courageous essay that one's amazement is aroused by the fact that a youth of 18 really wrote it four centuries ago, with such far-sighted wisdom that his words can resound today as an ever-echoing demand for what is still dearest to mankind.
(Harry Burz, 1942)
©1942 Columbia University Press (P)2022 Owen HuntListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
A bloody revolt by a North African prince and a plot to seize control of Rome are the subjects of two short masterpieces of ancient history by the illustrious Roman chronicler, Sallust. He could not have chosen two more dramatic episodes in the long history of this city.
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Excellent Production
- By cbrann on 04-22-05
By: Sallust, and others
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Oroonoko
- By: Aphra Behn
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A vivid love story and adventure tale, Oroonoko is a heroic slave narrative about a royal prince and his fight for freedom. The eponymous hero, Oroonoko, deemed royalty in one world and slave in another, is torn from his noble status and betrayed into slavery in Surinam, where he is reduced to chains, fetters, and shackles. But his high spirit and admirable character will not be suppressed.
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Outstanding Narration, Story Less So
- By Carsley on 07-14-18
By: Aphra Behn
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I
- By: Edward Gibbon
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Some 250 years after its first publication, Gibbon's Decline and Fall is still regarded as one of the greatest histories in Western literature. He reports on more than 1,000 years of an empire which extended from the most northern and western parts of Europe to deep into Asia and Africa and covers not only events but also the cultural and religious developments that effected change during that time.
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DAVID TIMSON IS AMAZING!
- By Allen L. Harris on 04-23-14
By: Edward Gibbon
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Utopia
- By: Sir Thomas More
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Utopia is the name given by Sir Thomas More to an imaginary island in this political work written in 1516. Book I of Utopia, a dialogue, presents a perceptive analysis of contemporary social, economic, and moral ills in England. Book II is a narrative describing a country run according to the ideals of the English humanists, where poverty, crime, injustice, and other ills do not exist.
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More's unobtainable vision of the ideal society
- By Darwin8u on 06-12-13
By: Sir Thomas More
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Tyrant
- Shakespeare on Politics
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over, Stephen Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution.
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Too Close for Comfort
- By C. Gross on 05-10-18
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization
- By: Anthony Esolen
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Western civilization is under attack. At universities and in the media, professors and pundits decry Western civilization as exploitative, destructive, and without value. But fear not: coming to its defense is this "P.I." guide to Western civilization.
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Holy Neo-Nazism Batman!
- By Douglas on 12-03-11
By: Anthony Esolen
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Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
- By: Charles MacKay
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic - first published in 1841 - shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds.
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People don't change
- By J. on 07-05-16
By: Charles MacKay
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The Art of Worldly Wisdom
- By: Balthasar Gracian
- Narrated by: Keira Grace
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Art of Worldly Wisdom was written in 1647. It is a collection of 300 maxims on various topics, each elaborated with a commentary. The sayings offer advice and guidance on how to live well, advance socially, and be a better person.
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Terrible Narration
- By John P. Owens on 08-31-22
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The Greek Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.
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...Not as Good as The Echo of Greece
- By The Masked Reviewer on 11-04-16
By: Edith Hamilton