Voluntary Servitude

 

I have long argued that humans grow into mature, bright, informed, fearless, critically thinking, wise adults, whose love of truth personally formed from many impartial, competing sources. These truth-loving, astute citizens cannot be fooled for more than a few days.

 

This is why I advise the average American citizen to grow into an anarchist-individuator supercitizen. Supercitizens cannot be effectively manipulated, lied to, frightened into compliance, or threatened by federal force, should they resist being tyrannized. Only a free market, constitutional republic, populated by supercitizens, has the best chance of remaining, free, lawful, at peace and prosperous. All nations decline towards tyranny and bad anarchy or death, sooner or later, and only a citizenry constituted by supercitizens could best and unnaturally build a culture and political framework to withstand decline for centuries upon centuries. It would not be heaven on earth, but it would work rather well.

 

 

I came across this sagacious quote in Facebook today (8/20/23): “The general population doesn’t know what’s happening., and it doesn’t even know it doesn’t know.” Noam Chomsky.

 

If the public is ignorant, if it does not know what is happening, and if it does not even know that it doesn’t know, and that seems to be the case fairly often—as ruling elites always lie to, brainwash and groupthink the masses to keep them down and ruled, it is mostly the fault of each citizens that he lives in a social, political and economic state of ignorance, poverty, exploitation, oppression and bondage.

 

The Good Spirits try to talk to all of us as young people, inviting us to self-realize and become supercitizens, a society of leaders whose elected or unelected rulers, are meant to be instructed and ordered about by us, ruled from the exceptional smart, wise, powerful, united, organized and ethical supercitizens, from the bottom-up reforming society and keeping it reformed.

 

I would like to introduce a few comments about the Discourse on Voluntary Servitude by Etienne de La Boetie who authored this essay in 1577.

 

 

Here is a short paragraph that I copied from Wikepedia on La Boetie:

 

The essay argues that any tyrant remains in power while his subjects grant him that, therefore delegitimizing every form of power. The original freedom of men would be indeed abandoned by society which, once corrupted by the habit, would have preferred the servitude of the courtier to the freedom of the free man, who refuses to be submissive and to obey.

 

My response: I wholeheartedly agree with La Boetie that no tyrant can long remain in power unless his excess, concentrated power is a gift granted him by his subjects, who agree to live a life of lies, escape from freedom and voluntary servitude.

 

All concentrated power is likely delegitimate, and people are meant to enjoy maximum liberty from rule by elites, kings, dictatorships, institutions, even mob rule. People have to agree to be enslaved, so it is their fault and sin that they are willing to be subjugated by any tyrant.

 

It would seem that people are naturally of low self-esteem, collectivist and self-loathing. They like being told what to do, what to think, how to live and when to do what. They like being dependent and cared for. They like not thinking or knowing what is going on. In exchange for allowing elites of intellectuals and other tyrants to think for them and direct them, they voluntarily, even gleefully accept bondage.

 

Only when people are morally trained from their youth to be enlightened egoists that think, really think, and courageously self-realize, then it would be possible to bring up a generation of anarchist-individuator supercitizens of bottomless courage, that will never, never accept servitude, as long as they live. They seek, demand and can get liberty—give them liberty or give them death. Imagine how Mitch McConnell would have to react if 70% of Kentucky voters were supercitizens.

 

La Boetie seems to assume that people are naturally born into freedom and that they abandon that when society is formed; once they are corrupted by the habit of being dominated, then they prefer the life of the courtier to the freedom of the free man, who refuses to be submissive and obey. Most of this characterization is accurate.

 

We are born depraved, owned by the Dark Couple, raw newborns existing in slavery, corruption, and mendacity. Our parents, our civilized values and the Good Spirits can guide us to become civilized, self-controlling, ethical adults no longer accepting as assigned status of slavery, corruption, and mendacity, opting instead for ordered liberty as a supercitizen, a life of freedom, virtue and truth-speaking.

 

Work to become a supercitizen: allow none to steal and deprive you of any more income, property, liberty, and personal power than is just and legal to make a constitutional republic operate as a limited federal structure.

 

You are now a supercitizen: you tolerate being enslaved by none, and you enslave none. You and your neighbors work together to resolve conflicts and disagreements calmly, peacefully, and equitably to the satisfaction of most people most of the time.