Étienne de La Boétie on the Power of Habit: Why Submission Becomes Natural

„Although people initially submit under coercion and force, those who come after them obey without regret and willingly do what their predecessors did because they had to. That is why men who are born under the yoke and then raised and brought up in slavery are content to live in their original circumstances without further effort, unaware of any other state or right, and considering the state into which they were born to be entirely natural. ... the powerful influence of custom is in no way more compelling than in this, namely, the habituation to submission.“

Étienne de La BoétieÉtienne de La Boétie shows how habit leads us to submission – and why freedom requires more than mere rebellion.
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Étienne de La Boétie was a French Renaissance philosopher and jurist, known for his criticism of tyranny and early theory of civil disobedience.

This quote reminds us how deeply habit and social conditioning influence our freedom and how important it is to critically question submission.


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Quote about submission and the power of custom by Étienne de La Boétie

Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563) was a prominent French Renaissance philosopher, jurist, and statesman. He is best known for his work "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude," which examines the power of tyranny through voluntary submission. La Boétie's ideas are considered an early foundation for the concept of civil disobedience.

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"With numbing regularity good people were seen to knuckle under the demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and severe. Men who are in everyday life responsible and decent were seduced by the trappings of authority, by the control of their perceptions, and by the uncritical acceptance of the experimenter’s definition of the situation, into performing harsh acts. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority." Stanley Milgram
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"Nothing appears more surprizing to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers." David Hume
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"Considering mankind's indifference to freedom, their easy gullibility and their facile response to conditioning, one might very plausibly argue that collectivism is the political mode best suited to their disposition and their capacities. Under its regime, the citizen, like the soldier, is relieved of the burden of initiative and is divested of all responsibility, save for doing as he is told." Albert Jay Nock
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"The nature of psychological compulsion is such that those who act under constraint remain under the impression that they are acting on their own initiative. The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly objective." Aldous Huxley
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