thesis:book-journals:the-need-for-roots []

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====== The Need for Roots / Simone Weil ======

I am not sure how much this would be relevant for my thesis, but decided to keep a journal anyway.

  * ** Up to page 17 **  - Already bombarded with logical truths and that are hard to rebuke. The distinction between //obligation// and //right//, an obligation is a conscious necessity to action, a subjective eternal truth that is outside of the material world. A right is the objective earthly fact that stems from the obligations of others. We should not confuse to think obligations are material facts. The greatest obligation that is tied to the destiny of man is that of //Respect//. Basically respecting other humans' existence. This reminds me of Kant's morality about freedom, but more encompassing. We feel obligated to respect other's both physical needs such as food and the needs of the soul such us liberty, order, responsibility (meaning) etc. 
  * ORDER is the ability to realize obligations without having to violate others. There are some really great remarks about how order manifests in nature, works of art etc. It's this organic, emerging, self-organizing order in which multiple agents with different inclinations exist, but they somehow find the balance so that they are all maintained. We see it as beautiful. Contrary to oppressors, that see the natural world incorrectly as a world of violence and 'strong survives':

//The great instigators of violence have encouraged
themselves with the thought of how blind, mechanical
force is sovereign throughout the whole universe.
By looking at the world with keener senses than theirs,
we shall find a more powerful encouragement in the
thought of how these innumerable blind forces are limited,
made to balance one against the other, brought to form a
united whole by something which we do not understand,
but which we call beauty.//

  * She carries on to describe the different between obedience and rules that feel voluntary, that we understand deeply, and where there is accountability of rulers, to oppression and enforcement of power.
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