The increased digitization of the world produces two paradoxical effects, both facilitating easier connections with others and engendering a form of gregarious solitude. Our digital dependence can be likened to a voluntary servitude, drawing parallels to observations made about political subjection nearly 500 years ago by Étienne de La Boétie. To escape this servitude, it is more crucial than ever to adopt a critical perspective, remain vigilant, and resist succumbing to habit, drawing inspiration from the teachings of humanist writers like Montaigne and La Boétie.
E. Krieger
The digital revolution is underway, that is a well-established fact. Even a Bedouin lost in the depths of the desert seems destined to wander in the Matrix in the near future.
Every day, we are presented with new applications that promise to transform our cluttered attics filled with ancient objects into bundles of cash. Social media gives us the illusion of being connected to millions of friends, yet we often ignore our neighbors on public transport, all of whom are compulsively glued to their smartphones… The gregarious solitude is thriving, adding to the many oxymorons that pave the path of progress.
Some apps remind us every day, “If it’s free, then you are the product,” pointing out the good they do for us by analyzing our every move and internet searches to anticipate our desires and offer things that align precisely with our profile. The virtues and thrills of big data, the new Eldorado of the 21st century… It’s not just a passing fad; it’s a revolution, a tidal wave that is presented to us as positive. The problem is that we often overlook the flip side of this progress induced by these mass personalization algorithms, so sophisticated that they make us doubt our free will, as our behavior becomes eminently predictable.
Mass personalization and gregarious solitude
Fortunately, the crowd is as elusive as quicksilver falling on a touch screen. Its acceptance of the best search tools and geolocalized services is not unconditional. A web service that oversteps its boundaries will quickly be shunned by a majority of users who would prefer a competitor that respects their rights.
However, complete digital detox remains in the realm of science fiction, even though, in a related context, more and more people no longer watch television, considering it a media of the last century, too linear and not personalized enough.
Étienne de La Boétie, the visionary
The “Discourse on Voluntary Servitude”, written by Étienne de La Boétie in 1549 at the age of 18, invites us to practice a skeptical relativism that keeps us at a safe distance from the absolutism of tyrants and their supporters. Thankfully, the political situation in our old Europe is not comparable to that of the 16th century with Henry VIII and Ivan the Terrible, but the parallels between La Boétie’s observations and the social control exercised on the web are quite fruitful.
If La Boétie were our contemporary, he would probably have met the computer scientist and whistleblower Edward Snowden. Together, they would have analyzed the mechanisms of submission to the numerous seemingly innocuous digital devices available to us. La Boétie does not explain why people give up their freedom for a tyrant, but he postulates that this renunciation persists due to the force of habit and a pyramidical social control exercised by a handful of courtiers. This control is complemented by numerous sources of entertainment: “Theaters, games, farces, shows, gladiators, curious beasts, medals, paintings, and other such drugs were for ancient peoples the bait of servitude, the compensation for their stolen freedom, the instruments of tyranny”.
Baits of servitude and the virtue of discernment
The mechanisms of voluntary subjection described by La Boétie apply disturbingly to the Web and find an echo in the postmodern world of the film Matrix.
The means to escape this digital servitude are once again provided by Étienne de La Boétie: “Be resolved to serve no more, and you are at once free”. Transposed into the digital world, particularly that of e-commerce, this injunction consists of not resigning oneself to being reduced to a biped with a geolocated IP number. It is essential to remain vigilant and not succumb to the force of habit.
There is no need to stage a revolution to fight against a golem adorned with supposedly brilliant algorithms. It is enough to exercise discernment and critical thinking to be able to do without overly intrusive services if necessary. Before being the birthplace of a startup that became one of the world leaders in ad retargeting, France is primarily the homeland of humanist writers like Montaigne and La Boétie, who timely remind us that moral defeat almost always precedes political defeat and that freedom is often the one we choose to grant ourselves.
Adapted from Krieger E. « Discours de la servitude numérique volontaire », La Revue du Cube #8, Mai 2015.
Also published on: www.ikigai-colors.com/index.php/2023/07/23/discours-de-la-servitude-numerique-volontaire-2/
