[4 February 2018]
I am considering afresh the life
decisions and reflections of Simone Weil, this time via Simone Weil: A Life
written by her close/enduring friend Simone Petrement. This morning I reached
a 1934 letter Simone Weil wrote to some of her first lycee students at
Le Puy a few years after their academic experience in her classes. The
students referred appreciatively to their becoming ‘malcontents’ under her
tutelage and asked her for guidance as they wrestled with how to respond to the
convulsing political situation surrounding them. I want to share the
closing paragraph of Simone Weil’s letter to them. Her words and her tone
reflect exactly the spirit and intent of my communications since the dark
revelations about our society began to be disclosed during the 2016
campaign/election and now daily with the Trump administration. After
offering her students a series of very sobering assessments, predictions, and
warnings, Simone Weil closed her letter this way --
“ . . . . My heart breaks to have to tell you these sad things. But I owe you the truth. On the entire earth’s surface, oppression and nationalism are triumphing. This is no reason to renounce one’s ideals; it is already something not to let oneself be brainwashed. That is why, at bottom, I am quite happy that you are all ‘malcontents’. And yet I am rather frightened by the responsibilities that I have unconsciously assumed in your formation because the present society can only heap misfortunes and disappointments on those who refuse to adapt to oppression and lies. Realize this fully, from now on. We do not live in one of those periods when rebels are stimulated and supported by large currents of opinions. The rebel is morally and materially alone – I speak of true rebels. . . . Only those who are really strong, really pure, really courageous, really generous will be able to meet the challenge. Although one has the right to some illusions in youth, it is best that you should know the whole truth immediately. I do not have the time to support everything I have said with proofs, but you know very well that I would not lie either to you or to myself. Affectionately yours.”
As evident by scanning my bookshelves
and my list of books read, I have since the 1970s concentrated my studies in
the history of ideas on the generation in Europe that came of age in the years
immediately after World War One, focusing intently first on Bonhoeffer and
Camus and then focusing just as intently on numerous others (e.g., Simone Weil)
who had to establish their values and their way of being with their eyes open –
some forced, others by choice – to the confusions, hunger, prejudices,
ignorance, brutalities, tyrannies in every direction near and far. I
chose to study carefully this generation initially for my own grounding and
then as a rich resource for mentoring medical students, residents, young
physicians, nurses, and social workers in the medical education/practice
sphere. I must admit I did not anticipate the shocking relevance of this
generation a century ago for their peers in the present generation. The
present political/social turmoil is shaping my daughters’ future much more than
it is shaping mine (as I am by my calculation in late-October of my life
calendar, if I reach as many years as my parents). I am seeing myself as
I read of Dr. and Mme. Weil’s unwavering support and encouragement for Simone
as she searched for authenticity and integrity. They remained sacrificial
in their own actions for peace and for justice. But perhaps their most
important contribution in the maelstrom years after World War One was their
being truly present for their daughter and those of her generation she brought
into their lives.
