As Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil drew from the political lifeblood of his thinking, and strive for a Marxist anarchist libertarian footprint and a strong ethical inspiration.
The first phase of the thought of Weil, complex and often contradictory, is marked by the predominance of political and social issues in 1934 but resigned to practice any form of political activity aimed at a mystical-religious reflection with strong traits pessimistic. Of Jewish origin, converted to Catholicism ideally, "par excellence the religion of slaves, without ever being baptized.
thought and life of Simone Weil (1909-1943) are based on the greatest moral rigor and consistency in search of a difficult truth, least religious, "insisted that there was no inconsistency between the minimum their convictions and the life "[S. Pétrement, Life of Simone Weil , p. 65].
Yet Weil, pacifist, he participated briefly in the English Civil War in the summer of 1936. Pacifism heard, then?
If in the last years of his life will support the French Resistance militating in the organization De Gaulle, still a student Simone Weil was a pacifist "pure". He joined in 1927 to the small group Volonté de Paix and after the Ligue des droits de l'homme . At that time she had been for the crucial influence of the pacifist Alain (Emile Auguste Chartier), his professor of philosophy in the preparation classes at the Ecole Normale Supérieure.
Politically, Simone Weil was close to syndicalism. The Marxist concept of class struggle complicated his views on nonviolence. Reflections on the war in of 1933 writes: "Until the period following the last war, the revolutionary movement in its various forms, had nothing in common with the pacifism [...]. It is clear that the Marxist tradition has not, as regards the war, or device, or clarity. One point at least was common to all theories, namely the categorical refusal to condemn the war as such. Marxists, especially Lenin and Kautsky, paraphrased welcomes the affirmation of Clausewitz, that war would only continue the policy of peace time, but by other means. The conclusion was that a war must be judged not by the violence of the means employed, but by the objectives pursued by these means [ Reflections on the war in On War, p. 29].
But, as Gandhi also thought about the relationship means-ends, to try to "evaluate every war from the purposes and not by the nature of the means" is "the worst way possible," although "this does not mean that in general it is better to condemn the use of violence, like the pure pacifists, war is good in every age a particular species of violence which we must study the mechanism before making any judgment [ there , p. 31].
Here Simone Weil plays the card of Marxist materialism in an original way: "The materialist method is to first examine taking into account any fact much of the human consequences necessarily implied that the means put in the game of the purposes. You can not solve, nor pose a problem on the war without having firstly removed the mechanism of military struggle, ie without analyzing the social relations that it implies certain technical conditions, economic and social. [...] And the war proves to be ultimately a war waged by all the state apparatus and the larger states against all the able-bodied men "[ there , p. 32].
Thus the Weil pacifist first way, which is still a "pure pacifist."
Then comes the brief participation in the English Civil War. In his letter to Georges Bernanos Simone Weil writes: "In July 1936 I was in Paris. I do not like war, but in war, what has always made me more horror is the condition of those who are in the backline. When I realized that despite my efforts, I could not help morally participate in this war, that is to wish every day, every hour, the victory of some, the defeat of others, I said that Paris was to me the backline, and I took the train to Barcelona with the intention to enlist. It was the beginning of August 1936 [Letter to Georges Bernanos in On War, p. 50].
The reasoning that leads her to cross the border is so clear and brave and the behavior that follows is anything but adversarial.
moral participation from behind the scenes is not ethically acceptable, "Simon thought that when we can no longer prevent a war, we must bear their share in this calamity with the group to which he belongs" [S. Pétrement, Life of Simone Weil , p. 65].
Staying on the sidelines is not possible for his particular psychological tendency to compassion. Simone de Beauvoir reminds her: "A great famine had recently ravaged China and I was told that, in learning this news broke out into sobs [ there , p. 75]. And his friend and biographer Simon Pétrement this self-assessment report to Simon, "My imagination always runs in a very painful way for me. The thought of the suffering of the dangers which do not participate fills me with horror, pity, shame and remorse, a mix that I take away all freedom of spirit, only the perception of reality frees me from everything "[ therein].
to perceive the reality of the English Civil War, Simone Weil crossed the English border on August 8, 1936 in Port-Bou.
It integrates a small international group where some knowledge of French. They teach her to handle weapons. You will immediately notice its lack of ability: "Comrades, exercise, avoid going into the path of his gun" [ therein, p. 365].
On 17 August, after the Franco's air force dropped a small bomb on the ground, "Suddenly I understand that one goes in shipment [...] So, I very excited (I can not evaluate the usefulness of the thing and I know that if we take, we shoot). " Would later write: "The first and only time I was scared during his stay in Pina [ therein].
There is no doubt that wants to fight, despite the objections of the delegates who commanded the group: "Stubborn, states that came to Spain as a tourist or an observer, but to fight and promises to honor his place in the ranks of the group '[ therein, p. 366].
While fellow is coming to a house that must be made clear, she sort of waiting with a German cook named: "He obviously afraid. Not me. But like everything around me, there is intense! War with no prisoners. If you're caught it and shot. " And yet, with a peace of mind even more if possible, "aerial reconnaissance. Hide. [...] I do I lie back, look at the leaves, the blue sky. Beautiful day. If they catch me, kill me ... But it is fair. Our people paid enough blood. They are morally complicit. "
The next day, it burns badly by putting one foot in a pan filled with boiling oil placed at ground level and do not see the fire from above. Did not see it because of its strong myopia. The burn is severe and the doctor father, meanwhile arrived in Spain with his wife, after much persuasion fails to persuade her to return to France for treatment.
Simone Weil never return to Spain. In the letter to Bernanos explains why: "I left Spain in spite of myself and with the intent to return, later, I have not done voluntarily, nothing. I did not feel any inner need to participate in a war that was not, as seemed to me at first, a war of starving peasants against the landowners and clergy accomplice of the owners, but a war between Russia, Germany and Italy "[Letter to Georges Bernanos in On War, p. 50].
thus justifying French non-intervention on the side of the Republicans in the English Civil War: " Even when I was in Aragon and Catalonia, in the midst of the climate of struggle between militants who were unable to find sufficiently severe to qualify the policy of Blum [ the chairman of the French Socialist], I approve of this policy. The point is that I refuse, on my behalf, deliberately to sacrifice the peace, even if it comes to saving a revolutionary people threatened with extermination [ not general surgery, Reflections on the war in , cit., P . 45] .
come to a point consider the hegemony of Europe Hitler's Germany is a lesser evil of war.
But after the invasion of Czechoslovakia changed his mind and began to reproach the former pacifism, now called a "criminal mistake".
In Simone Weil pacifism and rejection of violence do not overlap. Indeed, it is just after the abandonment of its pacifist positions in the strict sense that Weil intensified reflection on nonviolence.
In Notebooks, written mostly between 1941 and 1942 and published posthumously, is a clear ethical program, "Strive to replace more and more in the world non-violence effective violence. Non-violence is good only if effective. Strive to become likely to be non-violent. "
Texts cited:
JM Muller, The need for nonviolence, EGA, Torino 1994;
S. Pétrement, Life of Simone Weil , Adelphi, Milano 1994;
S. Weil, On the war, publishing practices, Parma 1988.
(Taken from Without Violence. Ideas and stories of peace movements, by Edward Acotto, "Days of History" No 38, The Unit, 2004)
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