Attention and Contempt

Anti-Governmentality and Liberation of Simone Weil

Abstract

Simone Weil’s main concepts were often understood in the context of narrowly defined religious thought, in contrast to her youthful syndicalist thinking. But, in this paper, I reinterpret her concepts of “attention” and “contempt” as theological discourse and practice of anti-governmentality. I read Weil’s texts as a critique of materiality and totality of power, with particular emphasis on Ebenezer Howard’s garden city movement of urban planning and on the recent project of “fascism 5.0”, which is constituted by infrastructure/logistics expressing contempt for everything. Such a reading can shed light on the potentiality of Weil’s ideas about supernatural love for one’s neighbors and shows the new challenge of “liberation” emanating from it. We must not otherize the bearer of liberation. In order to be liberated from governmentality and contempt, we must pay “attention” to ourselves.