The French philosopher, social activist, and mystic, Simone Weil, died on August 24, 1943 of malnutrition and tuberculosis, having exhausted herself writing The Need for Roots, a plan for the reconstruction of France in a way that preserved the dignity, maturity, and sanity of French industrial workers and farmers. She feared that the love of money, and the ethic of counting and comparing and amassing that goes with that love, would wreck the souls of working people and make them rootless, without attachment to workplace or land or cultural heritage. If ever there was a project worth using up one's life for, Weil's attempt to save her country qualifies.
I am inclined to say that she was afraid of a disease that has become so pervasive that hardly anyone sees it as a disease anymore. Rootlessness is the baseline of health -- a portable sanity, a portable psychology.
We should be talking about these ideas.
This is right on target.
I would not, however, confine Weil's concerns to factory workers or farmers: I have seen plenty of wealthy people destroyed by this same disease.
The only people I run into who have escaped its ravages are those who remain religious.
Joe Schrandt
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