The servitude of peoples is voluntary. They accept the yoke of the powerful, but in doing so, they go against their nature. To free themselves from the tyrant's grip, there is no need for violence: it is enough for people to become friends rather than accomplices. Written in 1548 when La Boétie was only eighteen years old, this text, also known as *Contr'un*, reflects the renewal of political sensibility in the 16th century and seeks the causes of tyranny in individual behavior. It is followed by *De la liberté chez les Anciens et chez les Modernes* (On Liberty Among the Ancients and the Moderns), written three centuries later by Benjamin Constant. In this foundational discourse of liberal thought, Constant shows that each form of liberty corresponds to a form of servitude—the absence of individual liberties among the Ancients, and the abandonment of the political sphere among the Moderns. Study Topic 1 - The Literature of Ideas from the 16th to the 18th Century.
