... regarding this earlier post: Judgment call ...The comments have centered on Hannah Arendt's notion of "the banality of evil." Norm Geras had an interesting post on this a while back: Hannah Arendt: The Banality of Evil.
I did not read your earlier discussion on Arendt's thesis, but I've read the Arendt itself and also a friend has written extensively about H.A.'s relationship with Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger.
When you factor in H.A.'s Jewishness and her love for an outspoken anti-Semite, I think you can make more sense of her 'banality of evil' idea. On the other hand, history has shown that evils that go on a long time (Holocaust, Rwanda, you name it) also have this quality of (banal) entropy -- they continue their downward spiral, no one trying very hard to stop the destruction because for those who live in the midst of it, it has indeed become 'banal.' Quotidian.....
I did not read your earlier discussion on Arendt's thesis, but I've read the Arendt itself and also a friend has written extensively about H.A.'s relationship with Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger.
ReplyDeleteWhen you factor in H.A.'s Jewishness and her love for an outspoken anti-Semite, I think you can make more sense of her 'banality of evil' idea. On the other hand, history has shown that evils that go on a long time (Holocaust, Rwanda, you name it) also have this quality of (banal) entropy -- they continue their downward spiral, no one trying very hard to stop the destruction because for those who live in the midst of it, it has indeed become 'banal.' Quotidian.....