Étienne de La Boétie

Publié en 1576, le Discours de la servitude volontaire est l'œuvre d'un jeune auteur de dix-huit ans. Ce texte (ô combien actuel) analyse les rapports maître-esclave qui régissent le monde et reposent sur la peur, la complaisance, la flagornerie et l'humiliation de soi-même. Leçon politique mais aussi leçon éthique et morale, La Boétie nous invite à la révolte contre toute oppression, toute exploitation, toute corruption, bref contre l'armature même du pouvoir. Traduction en français moderne par Séverine Auffret

Discours de la servitude volontaire

مقالة في العبودية المختارة

Pierre Clastres

Manuel João Gomes

Júlio Henriques

Brueghel

La Boétie atinge os segredos políticos dos séculos vindouros (Spinoza, Locke, Rousseau), fazendo-o porém com uma maior lucidez, que o leva a recusar qualquer visão ideal das relações entre o Estado e o cidadão. O Discurso extravasa dos moldes duma leitura política tradicional. O repetido fascínio que exerce provém de igualmente lançar os fundamentos dum estudo das relações entre o domínio e a servidão nas relações íntimas, interpessoais. Deste Discurso não extraímos uma simples lição política, extraímos igualmente uma lição ética, moral, como um apelo a rejeitar das nossas próprias entranhas a figura ameaçadora, e cruel, e adorada, do tirano.

Discurso sobre a servidão voluntária

L'autore sostiene che qualunque tiranno detiene il potere fintanto che i suoi sudditi glielo concedono. La libertà originaria concessa all'uomo per natura sarebbe stata abbandonata dalla società, che una volta corrotta dall'abitudine, avrebbe poi preferito la servitù del cortigiano alla condizione dell'uomo libero, che rifiuta di essere sottomesso e di obbedire. (from Wikipedia)

Discorso Sulla Servitù Volontaria

Discorso sulla servitù volontaria

Discourse on Voluntary Servitude - Discours sur la servitude volontaire Full English Translation By Étienne de La Boétie Rendered into English by Harry Kurz Published as Anti-Dictator La Boétie's essay against dictators makes stirring reading. 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 four hundred 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 eighteen 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.

Étienne de La Boétie

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