Hegemony

Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you
--Tears for Fears

Rothbard reinforces observations made on these pages regarding slavery.

"The interpersonal relationship under slavery is known as hegemonic. The relationship is one of command and obedience, the commands being enforced with threats of violence. The master uses the slaves as instruments, as factors of production, for gratifying his wants. Thus slavery, or hegemony, is defined as a system in which one must labor under the orders of another under the threat of violence."

Rothbard further observes that the slave who does the obeying chooses between 1) subjecting himself to the master, or 2) revolting against the regime of violence by using his own violence or by refusing to obey.

These pages have separated alternative 2) into three subsets--trying to escape the system, shirking, or pushing back.

Rothbard also addresses the argument that the slave might support the system because of some of the benefits (food, shelter, other resources) provided by the master. If that were the case, however, threat of violence would not be necessary. The individual would simply voluntarily place him/herself in the other individual's service. In hegemony, the slave is worse than he would be without threat of violence by the master. The master gains at the expense of the slave.