Whenever a few individuals do break free, adds La Boétie, it is often because their eyes have been opened by the study of history.11 Learning of similar past tyrannies, they recognise the pattern in their own society. Instead of accepting what they are born into, they acquire the art of slipping out of it and seeing everything from a different angle – a trick Montaigne, in the Essays, would make his characteristic mode of thinking and writing. Alas, there are usually too few of these free spirits to do any good. They do not work together, but live ‘alone in their imaginings’.
