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Single Idea 23827
[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 1. War / a. Just wars
]
Full Idea
For our contemporaries the role of Helen in the Trojan War is is played by words with capital letters. …When empty words are given capital letters, then, on the slightest pretext, men will begin shedding blood for them and piling up ruin in their name.
Gist of Idea
Modern wars are fought in the name of empty words which are given capital letters
Source
Simone Weil (The Power of Words [1934], p.241)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.241
A Reaction
This seems particularly true of the 1930s, where specific dogmatic ideologies seemed to grip and divide people. Simple aggressive nationalism seems to be the cause of current wars, now the fear of Communism has diminished.
Related Idea
Idea 23830
A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity [Weil]
The
156 ideas
from Simone Weil
24207
|
Observing oneself in the present is impossible, and oneself in the past may be wrong
[Weil]
|
24208
|
Bodies classify things prior to thought (such as chicks knowing what hits of the egg to peck)
[Weil]
|
24209
|
Senses are unaware of each other, and give isolated information
[Weil]
|
24210
|
Abstraction is just the character of generalisation
[Weil]
|
24211
|
Associations are not lawlike, because we make arbitrary choice of which representation matters
[Weil]
|
24212
|
We don't infer the straight from the twisted, because judging the twisted needs the straight
[Weil]
|
24214
|
Pragmatists are right that science is action on nature - but it must be methodical
[Weil]
|
24213
|
Explanations always concern how one thing changes into another
[Weil]
|
24215
|
We call experience 'objective' when it seems necessary
[Weil]
|
24216
|
Everyone is devoted to morality, if they don't have to implement it
[Weil]
|
24217
|
History is scientific when it relies on accurate documents
[Weil]
|
24218
|
People can't be citizens in public life if they are oppressed in economic life
[Weil]
|
24219
|
My neighbour's pleasure can't be an end for me
[Weil]
|
24220
|
As the highest value, God cannot be proved
[Weil]
|
24221
|
Equality is the result of unlimited freedom
[Weil]
|
24222
|
If we ignore all our thoughts of the past and the future, there is nothing left of the present
[Weil]
|
23814
|
Every human yearns for an unattainable transcendent good
[Weil]
|
23815
|
We cannot equally respect what is unequal, so equal respect needs a shared ground
[Weil]
|
23816
|
Attention to a transcendent reality motivates a duty to foster the good of humanity
[Weil]
|
23818
|
We have liberty in the space between nature and accepted authority
[Weil]
|
23817
|
We need both equality (to attend to human needs) and hierarchy (as a scale of responsibilities)
[Weil]
|
23819
|
Deliberate public lying should be punished
[Weil]
|
23823
|
Life needs risks to avoid sickly boredom
[Weil]
|
23822
|
We all need to partipate in public tasks, and take some initiative
[Weil]
|
23820
|
People need personal and collective property, and a social class lacking property is shameful
[Weil]
|
23821
|
Crime should be punished, to bring the perpetrator freely back to morality
[Weil]
|
23824
|
Where human needs are satisfied we find happiness, friendship and beauty
[Weil]
|
23873
|
Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous
[Weil]
|
23834
|
Friendship is partly universal - the love of a person is like the ideal of loving everyone
[Weil]
|
23889
|
Among the Greeks Aristotle is the only philosopher in the modern style
[Weil]
|
23892
|
The only legitimate proof of God by order derives from beauty
[Weil]
|
24187
|
Without worldly affliction, we'd think this is paradise
[Weil]
|
24188
|
It is absurd to say that evil proves life is worthless. If it were, why would evil matter?
[Weil]
|
24192
|
My love makes me believe in God; the inconceivability of this God makes me disbelieve
[Weil]
|
23825
|
We seek truth only because it is good
[Weil]
|
23826
|
Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention
[Weil]
|
24193
|
If we focus on the good, our whole soul is drawn towards it
[Weil]
|
23808
|
There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil
[Weil]
|
23807
|
The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry
[Weil]
|
23810
|
Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation
[Weil]
|
23809
|
Our only social duty is to try to limit evil
[Weil]
|
24198
|
Perfect works of art seem to be essentially anonymous
[Weil]
|
24191
|
We want our values to be eternal
[Weil]
|
24189
|
The criterion of the real is contradictions
[Weil]
|
24190
|
Anarchists thought (hopelessly) that empowering the oppressed would end evil
[Weil]
|
24181
|
We need love to have a good death
[Weil]
|
24180
|
We just see immortality as prolongation of life, making death meaningless
[Weil]
|
24178
|
We must leave on one side the ordinary 'consolations' of religion
[Weil]
|
23833
|
The good is a nothingness, and yet real
[Weil]
|
24179
|
We should never desire the immortality of the people we love
[Weil]
|
24186
|
If the world lacked evil, then the evil would be in our desires, which would be worse
[Weil]
|
24201
|
Social order is equilibrium of forces, which must be corrected when imbalanced
[Weil]
|
24203
|
Atheistic materialism must be revolutionary, because its good is in the future
[Weil]
|
24202
|
Obedience to an illegitimate ruler is a nightmare
[Weil]
|
24204
|
The past is known to us but unreachable - a perfect image of eternal, supernatural reality
[Weil]
|
24199
|
There is no oppression, or oppressive class; there is only an oppressive society
[Weil]
|
24200
|
A citizen is defined by their subjection to the laws
[Weil]
|
24194
|
Wanting new discoveries blocks good thinking about what has been discovered
[Weil]
|
24195
|
Don't reject opinions; arrange them all in a hierarchy
[Weil]
|
24185
|
Friendship is a virtue, not a state we should dream of
[Weil]
|
23765
|
The soul is the intrinsic value of a human
[Weil]
|
24197
|
Power and money are supreme means, thus blinding people to ends
[Weil]
|
24183
|
We should only perform the good actions which we can't help doing
[Weil]
|
24184
|
What matters about an action is not its aim, but the origin of its compulsion
[Weil]
|
24182
|
We must be obedient, and love necessity
[Weil]
|
24196
|
Loving others as ourselves implies varied love, and varied suffering
[Weil]
|
24177
|
Higher emotions have less energy, and actions may need the lower emotions
[Weil]
|
24205
|
Monotony is beautiful as a reflection of eternity, or atrocious as unvarying perpetuity
[Weil]
|
23811
|
If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery
[Weil]
|
24206
|
Revolution (not religion) is the opium of the people
[Weil]
|
23747
|
What is sacred is not a person, but the whole physical human being
[Weil]
|
23748
|
The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil
[Weil]
|
23749
|
The problem of the collective is not suppression of persons, but persons erasing themselves
[Weil]
|
23750
|
It is not more money which the wretched members of society need
[Weil]
|
23751
|
Rights are asserted contentiously, and need the backing of force
[Weil]
|
23752
|
Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity
[Weil]
|
23753
|
People absurdly claim an equal share of things which are essentially privileged
[Weil]
|
23754
|
The only choice is between supernatural good, or evil
[Weil]
|
23755
|
Genius and love of truth are always accompanied by great humility
[Weil]
|
23756
|
The mind is imprisoned and limited by language, restricting our awareness of wider thoughts
[Weil]
|
23758
|
Beauty is an attractive mystery, leaving nothing to be desired
[Weil]
|
23757
|
The spirit of justice needs the full attention of truth, and that attention is love
[Weil]
|
23761
|
Justice (concerning harm) is distinct from rights (concerning inequality)
[Weil]
|
23760
|
All we need are the unity of justice, truth and beauty
[Weil]
|
23759
|
Everything which originates in love is beautiful
[Weil]
|
23762
|
Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people
[Weil]
|
23763
|
Punishment aims at the good for men who don't desire it
[Weil]
|
23764
|
The only thing in society worse than crime is repressive justice
[Weil]
|
23812
|
Force is what turns man into a thing, and ultimately into a corpse
[Weil]
|
23813
|
Only people who understand force, and don't respect it, are capable of justice
[Weil]
|
23901
|
Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them
[Weil]
|
23902
|
I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us
[Weil]
|
23903
|
When we admire a work, we see ourselves as its creator
[Weil]
|
23904
|
The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity
[Weil]
|
23871
|
No central authority can initiate decentralisation
[Weil]
|
23870
|
Decentralisation is only possible by co-operation between strong and weak - which is absurd
[Weil]
|
23861
|
Marx showed that capitalist oppression, because of competition, is unstoppable
[Weil]
|
23863
|
Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress
[Weil]
|
23864
|
Inequality could easily be mitigated, if it were not for the struggle for power
[Weil]
|
23865
|
Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests
[Weil]
|
23866
|
In oppressive societies the scope of actual control is extended by a religion of power
[Weil]
|
23867
|
After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore
[Weil]
|
23868
|
The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery
[Weil]
|
23869
|
In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous
[Weil]
|
23898
|
Those who say immorality is not an aesthetic criterion must show that all criteria are aesthetic
[Weil]
|
23877
|
Most people won't question an idea's truth if they depend on it
[Weil]
|
23878
|
Weakness of will is the inadequacy of the original impetus to carry through the action
[Weil]
|
23879
|
In a violent moral disagreement, it can't be that both sides are just following social morality
[Weil]
|
23880
|
When war was a profession, customary morality justified any act of war
[Weil]
|
23843
|
Even the poorest should feel collective ownership, and participation in grand display
[Weil]
|
23841
|
By making money the sole human measure, inequality has become universal
[Weil]
|
23836
|
Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives
[Weil]
|
23837
|
Respect is our only obligation, which can only be expressed through deeds, not words
[Weil]
|
23835
|
People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them
[Weil]
|
23839
|
A lifelong head of society should only be a symbol, not a ruler
[Weil]
|
23842
|
Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party
[Weil]
|
23838
|
The need for order stands above all others, and is understood via the other needs
[Weil]
|
23840
|
A citizen should be able to understand the whole of society
[Weil]
|
23848
|
The aesthete's treatment of beauty as amusement is sacreligious; beauty should nourish
[Weil]
|
23850
|
The soldier-civilian distinction should be abolished; every citizen is committed to a war
[Weil]
|
23849
|
Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light
[Weil]
|
23845
|
The capitalists neglect the people and the nation, and even their own interests
[Weil]
|
23846
|
Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers
[Weil]
|
23847
|
Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population
[Weil]
|
23844
|
The most important human need is to have multiple roots
[Weil]
|
23851
|
Education is essentially motivation
[Weil]
|
23852
|
To punish people we must ourselves be innocent - but that undermines the desire to punish
[Weil]
|
23853
|
Truth is not a object we love - it is the radiant manifestation of reality
[Weil]
|
23854
|
Beauty is the proof of what is good
[Weil]
|
23855
|
Creation produced a network or web of determinations
[Weil]
|
23896
|
We see our character as a restricting limit, but also as an unshakable support
[Weil]
|
23893
|
We don't see character in a single moment, but only over a period of time
[Weil]
|
23894
|
The concept of character is at the centre of morality
[Weil]
|
23895
|
We modify our character by placing ourselves in situations, or by attending to what seems trivial
[Weil]
|
23881
|
All thought about values is philosophical, and thought about anything else is not philosophy
[Weil]
|
23883
|
Minds essentially and always strive towards value
[Weil]
|
23882
|
Ends, unlike means, cannot be defined, which is why people tend to pursue means
[Weil]
|
23884
|
Truth is a value of thought
[Weil]
|
23885
|
Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge
[Weil]
|
23886
|
Systems are not unique to each philosopher. The platonist tradition is old and continuous
[Weil]
|
23887
|
Art (like philosophy) establishes a relation between world and self, and between oneself and others
[Weil]
|
23888
|
Knowledge is beyond question, as an unavoidable component of thinking
[Weil]
|
23832
|
We both desire what is beautiful, and want it to remain as it is
[Weil]
|
23857
|
People in power always try to increase their power
[Weil]
|
23858
|
War is perpetuated by its continual preparations
[Weil]
|
23859
|
True democracy is the subordination of society to the individual
[Weil]
|
23856
|
Spontaneous movements are powerless against organised repression
[Weil]
|
23860
|
Even if a drowning man is doomed, he should keep swimming to the last
[Weil]
|
23827
|
Modern wars are fought in the name of empty words which are given capital letters
[Weil]
|
23828
|
National prestige consists of behaving as if you could beat the others in a war
[Weil]
|
23829
|
National leaders want to preserve necessary order - but always the existing order
[Weil]
|
23830
|
A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity
[Weil]
|
23831
|
The essence of power is illusory prestige
[Weil]
|
23899
|
The secret of art is that beauty is a just blend of unity and its opposite
[Weil]
|
23900
|
Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together
[Weil]
|
23897
|
Once money is the main aim, society needs everyone to think wealth is possible
[Weil]
|