I cannot help but reflect on the often callous and selfish motives of our current political leadership when I read this:
The possibility of indirect expression of respect for the human being is the basis of obligation. Obligation is concerned with the needs in this world of the souls and bodies of human beings, whoever they may be. For each need there is a corresponding obligation; for each obligation, a corresponding need. There is no other kind of obligation, so far as human affairs are concerned.
If there seem to be others, they are either false or else it is only be error that they have not been classed among the obligations mentioned.
And then:
If any power of any kind is in the hands of a man who has not given total power, sincere, and enlightened consent to this obligation such power is misplaced.
If a man has willfully refused to consent, then it is in itself a criminal activity for him to exercise any function, major or minor, public or private, which gives him control over people's lives. All those who, with knowledge of his mind, have acquiesced in his exercise of the function are accessories to the crime.
And finally:
It is the aim of public life to arrange that all forms of power are entrusted, so far as possible, to men who effectively consent to be bound by the obligation towards all human beings which lies upon everyone, and who understand the obligation ("Draft for a Statement of Human Obligations" in Springtstead E. (ed.) 1998). Simone Weil. New York, Orbis. pp. 131-141.)
For Weil this is not just an obligation to feed the physical body with the nourishment it needs to be happy. It is the obligation of all people to practice their obligations to their neighbors. Those obligations are as follows in her book The Need for Roots:
- Order
- Liberty – choice.
- Obedience – consent
- Responsibility – to understand one's use and relationship to the workings of the whole
- Equality – the same amount of respect and consideration is due every human being
- Hierarchism – a certain devotion to superiors (do not envy)
- Honour – respecting one’s social surroundings, tradition
- Punishment – as a supplementary form of education to re-assert order; not a value of fear
- Freedom of Opinion – a respect for human intelligence
- Security – the soul is not under weight of fear
- Risk – as a stimulant
- Private Property – as an extension of self
- Collective Property – civic cultural ownership
- Truth – mitigate propaganda
Will any of our current leaders both current and prospective see to these obligations? Where do they fall short? How shall we respond if they are not caring for the needs of the soul in this manner?
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