The banality of evil

[nocturnus33]

It's time to re read Hanah Arendt:

“Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.”

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
 
"Apparently nobody wants to know that contemporary history has created a new class of human beings: the class of those who are confined in concentration camps by their enemies and in internment camps by their friends."

Edited so we can raise our spirits:

“We humanize what is going on in the world and in ourselves only by speaking of it, and in the course of speaking of it we learn to be human.”

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[dreamingjewel64]

A sad truth.

[nocturnus33]

Yes, it is very sad. Arendt's thoughts haven't lost its capacity to explain the present. In times like this philosophy can be a good course of action.

[too-dle-oo.livejournal.com]

Yes. I have felt sick to my stomach for most of the last nine months since the election, but this weekend was a new low. Arendt's words are more important now than ever.