> .. the original advocacy of rights had served the expansion of commerce and a contract-based society in western Europe. But a free and rooted society ought to consist of a web of moral obligations. We have the right to ignore them, but we ought to be actually obliged not to let other people starve, or to let them lapse into destitution.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/need-roots-disconnection-past-community
#WeilOnRights #RightsVJustice
#WeilOnObligation #PankajMishra
The Need for Roots brought home the modern era's disconnection with the past and the loss of community

Pankaj Mishra: A book that changed me: Having recently moved to a Himalayan village, I felt Simone Weil's focus on uprootedness spoke directly to me

The Guardian

"Much obliged" "Muy obligado"

> ... it is always and everywhere good to fulfill an obligation .

--- #SimoneWeil in #HumanPersonality, part Anthology

> A man left alone in the universe would have no rights whatever, but he would have obligations.

#NeedForRoots #NeedOfTheSoul #WeilOnObligation