La Boetie, writing in the 16th century, talks about governance of individuals. His main premise in the article explains that governance of any individual depends on the reaction of the individual. He says that we enslave ourselves by obeying the authority figure, and that all one has to do to achieve liberty is to disobey and will thus become free from enslavement.
La Boetie was certainly not an impoverished individuel, which suggests to me that he was never enslaved and could probably not fully understand the implications of being enslaved. While his point is valid, it does not draw attention to the potential danger that a person under authority could face should he/she disobey. In some cases, servants or enslaved individuels may have no other options, and may be unable to disobey for fear of punishment. It is not always possible to simply liberate oneself from a situation when sometimes the alternative is even more bleak (if that is indeed possible). La Boetie is absolutely right in that a person's subjugation to another human is completely dependent on that person's cooperation; however, he does not realize that in many cases non-cooperation is impossible.
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