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    On the Abolition of All Political Parties
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    On the Abolition of All Political Parties
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    On the Abolition of All Political Parties
    Ebook62 pages53 minutes

    On the Abolition of All Political Parties

    By Simone Weil and Simon Leys

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    ‘Political parties are a marvellous mechanism ... If one were to entrust the organisation of public life to the devil, he could not invent a more clever device.’

    Here Simon Leys translates for the first time into English an essay by the remarkable Simone Weil – philosopher, activist, mystic – which makes a case for the corrupting effect of political parties on political life, and calls for their abolition. This is a dazzling account of the perils of political conformity, written with brilliant clarity and wit.

    It is combined with an essay by the Nobel Prize-winner Czeslaw Milosz ‘on the importance of Simone Weil’ and an essay by Leys on the influence of Weil, especially on Albert Camus. The result is a jewel-like volume which showcases some of the finest minds of the last century.

    ‘What makes her thought so special, so bracing and so strange, is its combination of philosophical rigour and spiritual compass.’ - The Australian

    ‘An extraordinary little book.’ - Spectator

    Simone Weil (1909–43), a brilliant student of philosophy and classics, in her short life was a factory worker, farm labourer and teacher, as well as volunteering for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and assisting the Free French in London. Her books include Gravity and Grace, The Need for Roots and Waiting for God. Albert Camus described her as ‘the only great spirit of our time’; the New York Times as ‘one of the most brilliant and original minds of twentieth-century France’; and Susan Sontag wrote in the New York Review of Books that ‘anything from Simone Weil’s pen is worth reading.’

    Simon Leys is a writer, sinologist, essayist, literary critic and author of The Hall of Uselessness, Other People’s Thoughts, The Death of Napoleon and The Wreck of the Batavia & Prosper.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlack Inc. Books
    Release dateJan 2, 2013
    ISBN9781921870903
    Unavailable
    On the Abolition of All Political Parties
    Author

    Simone Weil

    Simone Adolphine Weil (1909-1943) was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist. After her graduation from formal education, Weil became a teacher and taught intermittently throughout the 1930s, taking several breaks because of poor health and in order to devote herself to political activism. Such work saw her assisting in the trade union movement, taking the side of the anarchists known as the Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War, and spending more than a year working as a labourer, mostly in car factories, so that she could better understand the working class. Weil became increasingly religious and inclined towards mysticism as her life progressed. She wrote throughout her life, although most of her writings did not attract much attention until after her death. In the 1950s and 1960s, her work became famous in continental Europe and throughout the English-speaking world. Her thought has continued to be the subject of extensive scholarship across a wide range of fields.

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    Reviews for On the Abolition of All Political Parties

    3.5/5

    30 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      As one can surmise from the title alone, Weil was not a fan of political parties. She considered them totalitarian in nature, and felt they reduced their members to mindlessness. Her vision of democracy involved individuals standing alone, making clear their beliefs issue by issue. Clear and thoughtful with a supplemental essay suggesting her place in western thought.
    • 4/5
      The only thing I needed to know about this was that Ensor's 'Christ's Entry into Brussels' was on the cover. It helped that I'm curious about Weil, and that NYRB put it out, and that sometimes I just want a book I can finish in an hour or two. And the title helped a lot. But really I just needed the cover.

      Weil's argument is quite clear, and seems pretty accurate: partisanship distorts thought, whereas disinterested thought helps politics. The relevance to our present political rhetoric is pretty clear. Consider, "Nearly everywhere - often even when dealing with purely technical problems - instead of thinking, one merely takes sides: for or against. Such a choice replaces the activity of the mind." Now consider the political 'debates' about [insert any contentious political issue here.]

      The essay is padded out with another essay by Milosz, which I found very puzzling at times and insightful at others; and one by Simon Leys, which was unnecessary.

      A beautiful little artifact, anyway, and a stimulating after-lunch read.