875

Rawls asks us to enter a "veil of ignorance", and design society from scratch, without knowing who we are in it. He thinks everyone will more or less settle on some kind of social democracy, or democratic socialism, with strong liberal principles for different beliefs within it.

People like Machiavelli, of course, recognize that actual politics is more of a power game, where the people in charge just try to increase their own power, without any real principles. Simone Weil takes it even further, and says the power game is playing itself, and the people really have very little agency. She gives examples of institutions like the Roman army have to keep growing to sustain themselves, and more resemble a locust swarm than anything designed by men, especially using moral principles. It has to keep growing and growing and feeding off the work of others until it becomes so large it collapses, regardless of what anyone really "wants".