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and bolstered by the insidious throes <strong>of</strong> habit, which quickly<br />
accustom the people to enslavement.<br />
It is true that in the beginning men submit<br />
under constraint and by force; but those who<br />
come after them obey without regret and perform<br />
willingly what their predecessors had done<br />
because they had to. This is why men born under<br />
the yoke and then nourished and reared in slavery<br />
are content, without further effort, to live in their<br />
native circumstance, unaware <strong>of</strong> any other state<br />
or right, and considering as quite natural the<br />
condition into which they are born ... the<br />
powerful influence <strong>of</strong> custom is in no respect<br />
more compelling than in this, namely, habituation<br />
to subjection. 30<br />
Thus, humanity's natural drive for liberty is finally<br />
overpowered by the force <strong>of</strong> custom, for the reason that native<br />
endowment, no matter how good, is dissipated unless<br />
encouraged, whereas environment always shapes us in its own<br />
way, whatever that might be in spite <strong>of</strong> nature's gifts." 31<br />
Therefore, those who are born enslaved should be pitied and<br />
forgiven, "since they have not seen even the shadow <strong>of</strong> liberty,<br />
and being quite unaware <strong>of</strong> it, cannot perceive the evil endured<br />
through their own slavery...." While, in short, "it is truly the<br />
nature <strong>of</strong> man to be free and to wish to be so," yet a person's<br />
character "instinctively follows the tendencies that his training<br />
gives him... La Boétie concludes that "custom becomes the first<br />
reason for voluntary servitude." People will<br />
30 p. 60.<br />
31 p. 61.<br />
23
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