The 16th-century French writer Etienne de La Boétie, hailed by some as the western world’s first libertarian philosopher, is worth reading today. In his Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
, La Boétie argued that the masses were often enslaved by their own compliance more than repression by their masters.
Bread, circuses and “other such opiates” were, for ancient peoples, “the bait towards slavery, the price of their liberty, the instruments of tyranny”, he wrote. “By these practices and enticements the ancient dictators so successfully lulled their subjects under the yoke, that the stupefied peoples, fascinated by the pastimes and vain pleasures flashed before their eyes, learnt subservience as naively, but not so creditably, as little children learn to read by looking at bright picture books.”