A Conversation With Simone Weil

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Philosophy Now
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A Conversation With Simone Weil

Post by Philosophy Now »

Elisabetta Rombi talks social justice and love with the revolutionary philosopher.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/118/A_ ... imone_Weil
Nick_A
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

Post by Nick_A »

"Pity them my children, they are far from home and no one knows them. Let those in quest of God be careful lest appearances deceive them in these people who are peculiar and hard to place; no one rightly knows them but those in whom the same light shines" Meister Eckhart
There are a lot of worthwhile obsevations within this article. Of course I would have hoped for something about grace after she wrote about the sin of submitting to gravity. But the author raises questions which is what Simone did as well. She opens us to the value of consciously experiencing contradictions. Even though most cannot understand these rare people, a minority profit in ways that have become closed to secularism.
Simone Weil and Thomas Merton were born in France 6 years apart - 1909 and 1915 respectively. Weil died shortly after Merton entered the Abbey of Gethsemani. It is unclear whether Weil knew of Merton, but Merton records being asked to review a biography of Weil (Simone Weil: A Fellowship in Love, Jacques Chabaud, 1964) and was challenged and inspired by her writing. “Her non-conformism and mysticism are essential elements in our time and without her contribution we remain not human.”
This is one reason why Simone Weil is so hard to discuss. Seculrism argues bottom up reflecting inductive reason. Those like Simone have experienced the reality of the human condition Plato described as if in a cave. They ponder by deductive top down reason. They begin with the absurdity of the human condition. For these people becoming human is the process of consciously leaving the security and confines of imagination and turning towards the light. As I’ve witnessed, this premise is poison for the atheist and those caught up in societal idolatry. They are caught up in what we should DO in relation to the world situation while oblivious to the real problem which is what we ARE: asleep in Plato’s cave.

Appreciating Simone’s ideas requires experiencing this inner conscious vertical direction which connects opinions to the degree of knowledge from which they devolved. This is considered an insult to the human ego basking is self importance. Yet if we remain “not human” as Thomas Merton suggested, humanity if it survives, will owe a great debt to these rare individuals providing an impulse to open to what it means to be human

For what it is worth, I forwarded the article to The American Weil Society for their records. Consider the topic for the upcoming AWS colloquy:

AWS 2017 Colloquy
April 21-22, 2017
“Simone Weil: Grace, Truth, and Justice.”

The article left out the necessity of grace. Without it we are incapable of realistically responding to either impartial truth or justice as awakened human beings. Plato wrote that “Man is a being in search of meaning.” In reality all we do is turn in circles. Those like Simone are willing to witness it at the expense of their own imagined self importance. They will be hated by representatives of the Great Beast demanding the youth of Athens be protected in safe spaces. but at the same time they will be loved by seekers of truth with the goal of becoming human. What a mess! 1 800 anything won't help
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

Post by Harbal »

I think a conversation with Simone Weil would be best conducted via telephone, as a face to face encounter could be rather off putting for many people. Maybe texting would be even better, just in case she sounds as bad as she looks.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

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Come, come Harbal old boy; you're much better than that.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

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uwot wrote:Come, come Harbal old boy; you're much better than that.
Oh no I'm not.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

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Harbal wrote:Oh no I'm not.
Oh yes you are.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

Post by Nick_A »

uwot wrote:
Harbal wrote:Oh no I'm not.
Oh yes you are.
This is one time Harbal is right. He cannot perceive beyond external appearance regardless of either male or female. It is the height of superficiality and the essence of bigotry. For those like Harbal, women should have a certain image and if they are not caught up in image they cannot be considered a woman. The sincere search for truth opposes the need for image so must be condemned. He has no incentive to experience beyond the value of superficial appearance for judging worth. He has no desire to experience the following from Brian Thomas' site on Simone Weil. It is his right. Just be thankful that there are not more with this attitude
Before concluding these excerpts, and my Simone Weil site, with the poem with which The Red Virgin: A Poem of Simone Weil itself concludes I will quote a couple of paragraphs from Stephanie Strickland's evocative prose introduction to Simone Weil.

"Weil came to her philosophical and religious ideas by a path that included elite university training, factory work, potato digging, harvest in the vineyards, teaching philosophy to adolescent women, partisanship in trade unions, anarchistic Socialism, pacifism, rejection of pacifism, a conversion experience that did not lead her to joining ... a religion, exile in New York City, and employment by De Gaulle's government-in-exile in London.

Weil used her body as a tool as well as a weapon. She threw herself under the wheels of the same issues women are starving for answers to today: issues of hunger, violence, exclusion, betrayl of the the body, inability to be heard, and self-hate. ...

"Weil, our shrewdest political observer since Machiavelli, was never deceived by the glamor of power, and she committed herself to resisting force in whatever guise. More 'prophet' than 'saint,' more 'wise woman' than either, she bore a particular kind of bodily knowledge that the Western tradition cannot absorb. Simone Weil belongs to a world culture, still to be formed, where the voices of multiple classes, castes, races, genders, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions, can be respected. To achieve this culture is an impossible task, but, as Weil would remind us, not on that account to be forsaken.

Today we look to Weil for hope, for meditation, for the bridge a body makes. She knew that the truth had been 'taken captive,' and that we must 'seek at greater depth our own source,' because power destroys the past, the past with its treasures of alternative ideals that stand in judgment on the present."
Harbal condemns her behind and I admire her humanity. Two different perspectives. It is the way of the world.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

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Nick_A wrote: Harbal condemns her behind
No I don't, it's the front of her that is offensive. I can't find any pictures of her arse so cannot comment on it, other than to say, it's got to be more attractive than her face.
and I admire her humanity.
Okay, okay! I'll concede that you don't have to look human in order to have humanity. Happy now?
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

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Harbal wrote:
Nick_A wrote: Harbal condemns her behind
No I don't, it's the front of her that is offensive. I can't find any pictures of her arse so cannot comment on it, other than to say, it's got to be more attractive than her face.
and I admire her humanity.
Okay, okay! I'll concede that you don't have to look human in order to have humanity. Happy now?
To you, a woman's face and her behind are the same in that they serve the same purpose which is to look good. For you, anything else is irrelevant.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

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Nick_A wrote:
To you, a woman's face and her behind are the same in that they serve the same purpose
That's not strictly true, I do tend to make a distinction when it comes to conversation.
For you, anything else is irrelevant.
That's not true either, I'm quite capable of valuing a woman for the tits alone.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

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Socrates said:
“To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?”
Harbal, You praise a woman’s vanity as her most noble attribute. You worship tits because they were the first object of your attention. God forbid if a hair is out of place or she doesn’t dress to compliment current fashion. The “worthy” woman should never let thoughts of reality including death interfere with her vanity. Socrates and his search for wisdom must be ignored for the sake of her pride and vanity. Simone Weil was willing to endure the good death as opposed to clinging to vanity.

Gustave Thibon wrote:
“She was not ugly, as has been said, but prematurely hunched and aged by asceticism and illness, and only her admirable eyes survived the shipwreck of her beauty.
Was it worth it? You would say no and ridicule those like her for even thinking of becoming seekers of truth and willing to consciously experience the good death. For you Harbal, the search for truth is the greatest affront to a woman’s pride and vanity which by definition depends upon self deception. The fact that a woman of all people should actually be willing to live a life as a seeker of truth rather than of glorified vanity can only be a sign of a faulty education.


"Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good." Simone Weil

She never stops. Not once did she mention her behind and now has the audacity to assert that truth because it is good is better than the glories of self deception. Scandal! Think of what this would do to the youth of Athens if this ever got out. There would be a run on safe spaces like never seen before.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

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Nick_A wrote:
Harbal, You praise a woman’s vanity as her most noble attribute.
Not really, I don't care what she thinks of herself, it's what I think that matters.
You worship tits because they were the first object of your attention.
I was bottle fed and I don't have a thing about bottles.
God forbid if a hair is out of place
Well I have to confess I do have a liking for a well executed Brazilian.
or she doesn’t dress to compliment current fashion.
Not at all, in fact my only interest in the clothes is the quickest way to get rid of them.
Socrates and his search for wisdom must be ignored
It's not that I ignore Socrates, it's just that when the possibility of getting one's leg over presents itself, Socrates tends not to be uppermost in one's mind.
Simone Weil was willing to endure the good death as opposed to clinging to vanity.
If you're saying she was too ugly to live then I think that's a bit harsh, Nick.
Gustave Thibon wrote:
“She was not ugly,
All I can say is, Gustave's eyesight must have been worse than Simone's
Think of what this would do to the youth of Athens if this ever got out.
I think the youth of Athens have more important things to think about.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

Harbal wrote:I think a conversation with Simone Weil would be best conducted via telephone, as a face to face encounter could be rather off putting for many people. Maybe texting would be even better, just in case she sounds as bad as she looks.
I think the effect was probably deliberate, to cultivate an 'intellectual' image. Sort of reverse vanity, with the dreadful haircut, no makeup, and goofy glasses. Transport her to the present day, give her a good hairdo and makeup, and she would probably scrub up quite nicely (or not).
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

Post by Nick_A »

Notice how easily the clique descends into misogyny. The clique lacks the intellect and emotional intelligence to discuss rationally. it must descend into mindless misogyny in the case of a woman.

Now let's see if they have the nerve to call Rick Lewis ugly. He is a man so they will lack the nerve.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rick+le ... SRCI6hWCWM:

The clique gets its courage from the mutual support of their ignorance. In this case their ignorance reveals itself in their misogyny. If they deny it, let's see them call Rick Lewis ugly.
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Re: A Conversation With Simone Weil

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

Nick_A wrote:Notice how easily the clique descends into misogyny. The clique lacks the intellect and emotional intelligence to discuss rationally. it must descend into mindless misogyny in the case of a woman.

Now let's see if they have the nerve to call Rick Lewis ugly. He is a man so they will lack the nerve.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rick+le ... SRCI6hWCWM:

The clique gets its courage from the mutual support of their ignorance. In this case their ignorance reveals itself in their misogyny. If they deny it, let's see them call Rick Lewis ugly.
Funny you should say that. I was just a minute ago discussing the fact that you are completely devoid of even a hint of a sense of humour. I don't suppose you are American are you? They take everything literally. It's quite bizarre.
Oh, and I see you were defending the 'right' of some thugs to torture a turtle. I don't suppose you were being ironic? Is that too much to hope for?
It fits though. The sadistic psychopath shedding crocodile tears over the tyranny of misogyny. :roll:
Hmm, I remember you now. The pompous, self-important, pseudo-intellectual twat who is obsessed with Simone Weill.
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