What characterizes tyranny is, first of all, that by confiscating the “common”, it deprives the subjects of all their own good, to the point that they “cannot say of themselves that they are to themselves”.
Tristan Dagron (1954-)
discussing Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563), Discourse on Voluntary Servitude.
In other words, in a tyranny, what belongs to the subjects is considered by the tyrant as his own property, and this goes so far that “his” subjects think that what belongs to them belongs to the tyrant, including their own identities.
No comments:
Post a Comment