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Full Idea
I conceive human relations solely on the plane of equality; therefore, so soon as someone begins to treat me as an inferior, human relations between us become impossible in my eyes.
Gist of Idea
Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them
Source
Simone Weil (Letters [1940], 1936-03)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'Seventy Letters' [Wipf & Stock 2015], p.34
A Reaction
Love that. This is precisely where equality starts. I fear that the problem is that people who don't treat others as equals don't want relationships with them, which particularly occurs in a competitive or hierarchical culture.
Related Idea
Idea 2808 Master and slave can have friendship through common interests [Aristotle]
| 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] |