The Need for Roots

Labor and human rights activist, Simone Weil, working in London with the French Resistance to the Nazi occupation of France, training towards becoming a Special Operations Executive which would return her to Paris, whilst suffering a bout of tuberculosis which would prove her death, wrote a large book titled, The Need for Roots. It is a wide-spanning work, investigating the common needs of humanity, the universal morality of feeding the hungry, the uprootedness of modern urban and rural life, collectivism, nationalism, and ultimately suggesting a plan for France upon victory in the War.

An example from its pages; I find an interesting rationale for the rule of law, and the effects of justice served, as a question of social morality:
"Just as the only way of showing respect for somebody suffering from hunger is to give him something to eat, so the only way of showing respect for somebody who has placed himself outside the law is to reinstate him inside the law by subjecting him to the punishment ordained by law."

She also declared eight spiritual needs for the human soul:

Order
societal, to minimize individual encounters with conflicting obligations
Liberty
uninfringed
Obedience
with consent
Responsibility
usefulness
Equality
more power equates to higher standard of conduct

Hierarchism

looking up to symbols

Honour

a measure of conduct
Punishment
to prevent one's falling to vice, to allow for integration, post-
Freedom of Opinion
free expression
Security
freedom from fear and terror
Risk
to protect us from boredom
Private Property
a home, and one's tools
Collective Property
everyone shares

Truth

sacred