Single Idea 23868

[catalogued under 25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 1. Slavery]

Full Idea

The sight of the unfinished task attracts the free man as powerfully as the over-seer's whip stimulates the slave.

Gist of Idea

The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery

Source

Simone Weil (Reflections on Liberty and Social Oppression [1934], p.94)

Book Reference

Weil,Simone: 'Oppression and Liberty' [Routledge 1955], p.94


A Reaction

This is Weil's key social idea - that freely performed productive work can be, and should be, a joy, as long as it is accompanied by respect and friendship, rather than oppression. Did this idea ever occur to a slave owner?