Single Idea 23812

[catalogued under 24. Political Theory / C. Ruling a State / 1. Social Power]

Full Idea

To define 'force' - it is that x that turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing. Exercised to the limit, it turns man into a thing in the most literal sense: it makes a corpse out of him.

Gist of Idea

Force is what turns man into a thing, and ultimately into a corpse

Source

Simone Weil (The Iliad or the Poem of Force [1940], p.183)

Book Reference

Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.183


A Reaction

She celebrates The Iliad as the great examination of force in human affairs. I have felt that sense of reduction to a thing whenever anyone above me in the hierarchy has arbitrarily exerted their power over me.