Étienne de La Boétie – ThisIsCommonSense.org

The dictator does not consider his power firmly established until he has reached the point where there is no man under him who is of any worth.
Étienne de La Boétie, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548).

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Today in Freedom

On May 18, 1652, Rhode Island passed the first law in English-speaking North America making slavery illegal.

On May 18, 1593, playwright Thomas Kyd’s accusations of heresy led to an arrest warrant for fellow playwright Christopher (“Kit”) Marlowe.

Kyd was the famed author of The Spanish Tragedy, and Kit Marlowe [pictured] was known for a number of plays, including The Jew of Malta and The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus.

Marlowe died a few weeks later, on May 30, without having been arrested. The circumstances of his death were bizarre, suspicious — as if written by a playwright.

Thought of the Day

Why is self-control, autonomy, such a threat to authority? Because the person who controls himself, who is his own master, has no need for an authority to be his master. This, then, renders authority unemployed. What is he to do if he cannot control others? To be sure, he could mind his own business. But this is a fatuous answer, for those who are satisfied to mind their own business do not aspire to become authorities.
Thomas Szasz, Ceremonial Chemistry (1974; Revised edition, 1985) p. 175.

— Thomas Szasz

Thomas Szasz

Slavery and Heresy

Bills of Suppression

So Low

Library Against Liberty

A Done Decision

Pander, Please

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