S2E11 – Max Stirner, ‘The Ego and Its Own’, Étienne de La Boétie, ‘Discourse on Voluntary Servitude’
Sep 02, 2022•32 min•Ep. 29
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Summary
The podcast delves into two seminal anarchist texts: Étienne de La Boétie's "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude" and Max Stirner's "The Ego and Its Own." It examines La Boétie's 16th-century analysis of why masses accept tyrannical rule, attributing it to habit, propaganda, and economic complicity, and his call for withdrawing consent. The episode then explores Stirner's 19th-century philosophy, which advocates for liberating oneself from "spooks" (fixed ideas and identities) to embrace the "unique one's" power of self-definition, forming "unions of egoists" based on mutual interest. Both thinkers highlight a pre-political struggle for individual freedom.Episode description
Image credit: Max Stirner in a cartoon by Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
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