Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem
▌ If everyone gives a little evil
Arendt found that the murderous war criminals locked in glass cages were all ordinary people.
The Eichmann she documented was a cog in the Nazi system: a bureaucratic mentality, blind obedience, and numb execution.
Hannah. Arendt (1906-1975) German political theorist
It was this that made Arendt realize that the embodiment of evil is not necessarily a violent demon, and that under totalitarian rule, if there is a lack of thinking and judgment, every ordinary person may become the spokesman for evil.
The highly original idea of "banal evil" was thus first raised in Arendt's report on Eichmann's trial.
Hannah Arendt
To be so detached from reality and to stop thinking can be more calamous to a person than all the sinful motives that the person himself has combined. In fact, this is a lesson that people learn in Jerusalem. ”
Without thinking, Eichmann was doomed to become the most vicious criminal of his time.
Therefore, Arendt believed that only by always insisting on the ability to distinguish between good and evil and insisting on listening to the moral laws of the heart could the individual resist the "banal evil" under totalitarian rule.
(Forwarded from NetEase Changhe Drinking Horse)