Obligation and Order
"Obligations are only binding on human beings. There are no obligations for collectives, as such." - Simone Weil ( from "The Need for Roots", translated by Arthur Wills).
"The object of any obligations, in the realm of human affairs, is always the human being as such. There exists an obligation toward every human being for the sole reason that he or she is a human being, without any other condition requiring to be fulfilled, and even without any recognition of such obligation on the part of the individual concerned."
As such, obligation is not an abstraction, but it is here considered to be a universal fact of human existence which to my mind is identical with the essence or nature of the human being. Weil continues, "This obligation is an eternal one. It is coextensive with the eternal destiny of human beings."
From my perspective, since the eternal is a timeless state, "destiny can refer to a narrative. Referring to human beings means that it is part of Weil's narrative with respect to Man. Human beings unfold themselves, become who they are, through their obligations to one another, regardless of time, place or circumstance. And this is true even if one disregards their obligations and thereby presumably forfeiting their human destiny. This "destiny" can be rendered as "narrative". In short, we write our humanity by attending to and meeting our obligations. But, what does Weil mean by "obligation"?
"The fact that a human being possesses an eternal destiny imposes one obligation: respect. The obligation is only performed if the respect is effectively expressed in a real, not a fictitious way; and this can be done through the medium Man's earthly needs." ...."The first of the soul's needs, the one which touches most nearly its eternal destiny, is order; that is to say, a texture of social relationships such that no one is compelled to violate imperative obligations in order to carry out other ones. It is only where this, in fact, occurs that external circumstances have any power to inflict spiritual violence on the soul."
"The great instigators of violence have encouraged themselves with the thought of how blind, mechanical force is sovereign throughout the whole universe....By looking at the world with keener senses than theirs, we shall find a more powerful encouragement in the thought of how these innumerable blind forces are limited, made to balance one against each other, brought to form a united whole by something which we do not understand, but which we call beauty."
I interpret Weil's, hopefully modestly and with some fruitful insight, "need for order" as a need for meaning and that she sees this meaning, not as one imposed on us or on the world from without, but rather as an intrinsic property of the world as such which ultimately gives us hope( "beauty") even in our darkest hours. All I wish to add to this is my understanding of "faith" as opposed to "belief" which is in direct accord to with this view of meaning.
A human being lives by faith. On the other hand, a man forces himself to live by his beliefs because he struggles with faith. His beliefs become his armor against the world and others and which too often results in compelling others by force to adhere to these beliefs. They are, however, merely conceptual in nature, whereas faith is felt, organic, and relational. The world does make sense, not by accident or by wishful machinations of timid minds or imaginations. But acting in the world as if it made sense does not put order or meaning into it as can be made readily apparent. Simply consider our relationship to everyday objects, for example, sitting in a chair that holds us up or walking upon the ground that does not shift arbitrarily with our footfalls. Every breath we take and our interactions with our fellow human beings in numerous circumstances confirms the presence of a faith that we neither self-consciously will or are even aware of. It is an organic property woven seamlessly into the fabric of the world and our lives. Again, we live by and through faith. And this faith is expressed most deeply by our obligations to one another, the most fundamental, according Simone Weil, is to respect, to have regard for the other. The concept of order as meaning is the unfolding of this faith as we live. Without meaning, there is no order and without order there is no meaning. Faith, is the living nexus that expresses this meaning or order and, for me, meaning is the bedrock of all existence and especially human existence,
