State coercion works only because most citizens comply voluntarily
Evidence
What Hobbes did, La Boétie had tried to undo, and by the same means. After all, the master who oppresses you and “for whom you go bravely to war, for whose greatness you do not refuse to offer your own bodies unto death … where has he acquired enough eyes to spy upon you, if you do not provide them yourselves? How can he have so many arms to beat you with, if he does not borrow them from you?” Therein lay the fundamental material contradiction: if power is embodied solely by our bodies, we can always refuse to offer them. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 695 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Coercive government power depends on voluntary cooperation from many; State power depends materially on the bodies citizens lend it.; Hegemony works by winning consent backed by coercion, not by force alone. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 905 (+5 more)
Related
- State power depends materially on the bodies citizens lend it. (similarity 0.84)
- State power depends on borrowing the bodies of its subjects (similarity 0.82)
- State dependence on soldiers’ bodies secured social bargaining power (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Coercive government power depends on voluntary cooperation from many
#corroborates(1.00) - State power depends materially on the bodies citizens lend it.
#corroborates(0.85) - State power depends on borrowing the bodies of its subjects
#corroborates(0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 695 - Governments work when citizens do not actively distrust them.
#corroborates(0.80) - Hegemony works by winning consent backed by coercion, not by force alone.
#corroborates(0.78) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 905