In Praise of Étienne de La Boétie (1530-1563)

Étienne de La Boétie

The king thinks he is the king because of his intrinsic properties: he acquired the divine right from God; he has ‘blue blood’ through his aristocratic lineage. Because of this his subjects bow and abase themselves before him.

The truth is exactly the reverse. The king is just an individual, not necessarily tremendously special, who happens to occupy the central prestige/authority role in the network of power relationships in that kingdom. 

However, if the mass of people, through some revolutionary process, come to repudiate those social relationships and choose, say, a republican form of governance, the king is revealed as no more than just another man (albeit with quirky traits).

There is a quote by Marx where he says something like: "It's not because he is king that his subjects bow before him; it is because they bow before him that he is king." 

This sentiment can be traced back to the wonderful: “The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude” by Etienne de la Boétie (1577).

Some monarchs discovered this the hard way: Charles 1st in the English civil war; Louis XVI in the French revolution; Tsar Nicholas in the Russian Revolution.

Intrinsic qualities are not irrelevant however. The king ought to have the talent, character and ability to occupy the role. Sadly, kingship is seldom subject to competitive tender; incompetent kings have historically presaged ruination.

People who previously occupied a lowly position in society's hierarchy - but who are elevated to success by dint of some narrow skill, or by luck or the flow of events - sometimes complain of imposter syndrome. They think their new, exalted role is really meant for someone else, someone with intrinsic merit way beyond their own.

They may be right: subjects need their king to look convincingly kingly, not like a janitor in ermine. 

Nigel Mansell was a champion racing driver but he never looked the part; no surprise that he ended up a volunteer Special Constable, working the beat. We much preferred the look of James Hunt whose family included a baronet, a real aristo: Hunt thankfully behaved like one.

Next time you look at a preening, narcissistic, entitled celebrity, patronising you from their media pulpit, remember that they only occupy their platform of outraged self-righteousness because their subjects have agreed, collectively, to bow and abase themselves before them. They truly reap what they have sown.