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Full Idea
Suppose the devil were bargaining for the soul of some wretch, and some pitying person said to the devil 'Shame on you, that commodity is worth twice as much'. Such is the sinister farce played by the working class unions, parties and intellectuals.
Gist of Idea
It is not more money which the wretched members of society need
Source
Simone Weil (Human Personality [1943], p.80)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.80
A Reaction
A striking thought. It is paradoxical when the working classes despise the middle classes, and yet aspire to be like them. It's hard to know what a mystic like Weil has in mind. An obvious thought is that the aspiration should be freedom, not money.
Related Idea
Idea 23752 Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity [Weil]
| 22534 | People care less about what is communal, and more about what is their own [Aristotle] |
| 23053 | The great interest of the human race is cordial unity and unlimited mutual aid [Owen] |
| 23137 | Liberty without socialism is injustice; socialism without liberty is brutality [Bakunin] |
| 23160 | Being a slave of society is hardly better than being a slave of a despot [Russell] |
| 23162 | Managers are just as remote from workers under nationalisation as under capitalism [Russell] |
| 23165 | Socialists say economic justice needs some state control of industries, and of foreign trade [Russell] |
| 21525 | When the state is the only employer, there is no refuge from the prejudices of other people [Russell] |
| 23750 | It is not more money which the wretched members of society need [Weil] |
| 23847 | Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population [Weil] |
| 20575 | Socialist economics needs a very strong central power, virtually leading to slavery [Hayek, by Oksala] |
| 23427 | Socialism can be productive and centralised, or less productive and decentralised [Dobson] |
| 20097 | The welfare state aims at freedom from want, and equality of opportunity [Micklethwait/Wooldridge] |
| 20540 | Redistributing wealth treats some people as means, rather than as ends [Swift] |