Follow-up to previous notes: https://kevinhabits.com/podcast-notes-philosopher-simone-weil-on-attention-human-dignity-and-factory-work/
Moral sage
Died at 34
If keep life at safe distance, prevents you from seeing world in truly clear way
Marx – if his predictions were wrong, it may be because he never truly lived a worker’s life
After working in factories, feeling affliction firsthand, ideas grow more radical
People hide behind the abstract
While many out there are truly suffering and starving
We’re also starving in “needs of the soul”
14 of these needs
1. Order – need some order to function, just like food
2. Liberty
3. etc
Many of these are in tension with each other – and need balance
Each contributes to peoples’ psychological needs
Biggest need that is sabotaged by modern society – “the need for roots”, like a plant
Any human being that is truly independent?
No, inseparable from society
People get roots from active participation in life of community
Colonialism destroys this culture and solidarity
In her time, France subjugated foreign cultures, tried to replace with French culture
This transplanting is like uprooting a plant, destroying the roots
Codified human rights won’t matter to a person like Hitler
Forced prostitution is wrong and we all agree on it – but it’s far deeper than legal rights
Preferred discussing human NEEDS rather than rights
Separating people from their own culture, roots is de-humanizing
Revolution was the new opiate of the masses – but very little comes out of it
After her factory experience, she discovered a new way to think about ethics
What makes someone sacred?
Is it their body? Their unique personality?
The way forward is a spiritual revolution
Cultivation of a new kind of attention
Renounce the ego
Receive the world in a more universal, impersonal way
De-creating biases, assumptions, that we bring to bear
This is a spiritual transformation
Connect to human beings on a universal shared level, instead of at level of personality or physicality
Similar to Catholic sacrament of Eucharist
This new form of attention is a new lens to see the world
Become an antenna for God to communicate with
An experience to feel closer connection to the universe
“Waiting for God” – her most famous book