Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that when people face oppressive forces they cannot overcome, they often choose to submit rather than rebel.
Simone Weil highlights the psychological impact of facing unstoppable oppression. When people confront situations that they perceive as invincible, the natural human response may shift from resistance or revolt to a sense of resignation and submission, as rebellion may seem futile against an overwhelming force.
In practice
In a speech about social justice, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of fighting against visible injustices.
The afflicted are not listened to. They are like someone whose tongue has been cut out and who occasionally forgets the fact. When they move their lips no ear perceives any sound. And they themselves soon sink into impotence in the use of language, because of the certainty of not being heard.
The appetite for power, even for universal power, is only insane when there is no possibility of indulging it; a man who sees the possibility opening before him and does not try to grasp it, even at the risk of destroying himself and his country, is either
As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles.
Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.
I am not a Catholic; but I consider the Christian idea, which has its roots in Greek thought and in the course of the centuries has nourished all of our European civilization, as something that one cannot renounce without becoming degraded.
How many people have been thus led, through lack of self-confidence, to stifle their most justified doubts?
No one knows what is going to happen in the next few minutes, and yet people still go forward, because they have trust, because they have faith.
If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation.
If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most.
The existence of nuclear weapons presents a clear and present danger to life on Earth. Nuclear arms cannot bolster the security of any nation because they represent a threat to the security of the human race. These incredibly destructive weapons are an affront to our common humanity, and the tens of billions of dollars that are dedicated to their development and maintenance should be used instead to alleviate human need and suffering
...the self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the delusion of the finality of existing modes of knowledge.
With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.
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