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Full Idea
The least evil society is that in which the general run of men are most often obliged to think while acting, have the most opportunities for exercising control over collective life as a whole, and enjoy the greatest amount of independence.
Gist of Idea
In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous
Source
Simone Weil (Reflections on Liberty and Social Oppression [1934], p.97)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'Oppression and Liberty' [Routledge 1955], p.97
A Reaction
So Simone Weil was a liberal. How do you stop the most dynamic thinkers, social controllers, and exercisers of their own independence from coming to dominate the others? Only liberal institutions, such as the law and education, can do this.
| 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] |