jarizleifr reviewed Need for Roots by Ros Schwartz
A transformative experience
5 stars
An exceptionally sharp critique of uprootedness, which Weil attributes to losing the connection between self, land and communities, through a trickle of nationalism, coercive religion and violence. The central theme of the book is that uprooted peoples uproot other peoples, something which we can see in the most tragic way in the myriad conflicts of today, in depressingly relevant way.
One of the more interesting takes here is how Weil attributes Catholic structures not as Christian, but instead as a descendant of Roman imperialism. That it is the Constantinian legacy that is at the crux of every fascist government, the will to power and to subjugate others under their empire. Probably not a coincidence how Rome seems to always crop up where the uprootedness takes hold, whether Holy Roman Empire, Third Reich, Muscovy as "third Rome" or the would-be decadent Roman "emperor" at Washington D.C.