The Tears of Strangers are only water

On the limits of empathy

Two French intellectuals, Raymond Aron and Simone Weil, were in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris one day, taking a walk with Aron’s family. The weather was beautiful and everyone was full of joy - all except for Weil, who was in tears. When asked the cause of her sorrows, she explained: ‘There is a strike in Shanghai and the troops fired on the workers.’

As this interview for the publisher Verso put it, ‘Simone Weil was one of those people who never manage to abstract themselves from the torrent of suffering in which humanity finds itself engulfed in.’ Poor Simone.