La servitude volontaire

"Voluntary servitude" is a formula used in the academic field as well as in the intellectual or journalistic fields. Its applications, which sometimes refer to the Discourse of the voluntary servitude by La Boétie and are rarely based on a precise reading of this text, claim to locate the source of domination in the free consent of those subjected. Nevertheless, this oxymoronic, almost provocative formula obliterates the true causes of this apparent will to serve. Explaining the phenomenon in terms of desire, habits, consented submission, symbolic domination, obsequium or pleasure in serving may enlighten what seems otherwise monstrous and enigmatic. Studies about the working world show that analyses in terms of voluntary servitude are not the most appropriate. Finally, while such a formula may raise awareness, it doesn't provide the key to emancipation.