On Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963).

Are we still morally culpable if our entire society is corrupt? Arendt definitely thinks so, but has a number of criticisms of the handling of the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Israel used the spectacle to remind people of the horrors of the Holocaust, but missed the opportunity to explore what would make a really rather ordinary man a party to such heinous acts. They were committed to the view that he was a monster, when the reality, says Arendt, is more frightening. He was really more of a clown: a status-obsessed, cliche-spouting, self-pitying bureaucrat who, far from having no moral compass, was extremely dedicated to obeying a warped version of the Categorical Imperative: "Act in such a way that the Führer, if he knew your action, would approve it."

She also had problems with the jurisdictional claim of Israel: Eichmann was tried by Israelis for crimes against the Jewish people. She thought that the Holocaust was not just the worst of a history of pogroms, but that genocide constituted a fundamentally new type of crime that needed clear philosophical analysis: The effort to snuff out a whole civilization is a crime against humanity as a whole beyond the individual murders involved. Arendt advocated for a permanent, international criminal court (which didn't materialize until 2002).

This constitutes a test case for our previous discussion of psychological situationism: In a situation where the whole society is oriented toward evil, then the pull of duty runs counter to one's conscience, which is reined in just like in ordinary circumstances one's disruptive impulses are reined in, because conscience is disruptive in that milieu. Eichmann could have chosen not to participate in the way that he did, but considered this unthinkable; abandoning one's duty in that way "just wasn't done." All dissenting voices had been silenced. “It was not his fanaticism but his very conscience that prompted Eichmann to adopt his uncompromising attitude during the last year of the war" (from Ch. 8).

Arendt still thought that he deserved execution, that we are responsible for engaging in concrete moral thinking—grasping other people as real others and not just as labels or roles—no matter what the environment. But she thought it important that we not gloss over factual details for the sake of making a political point: Eichmann was not in a position to have "masterminded" the Holocaust as was alleged, never pulled a trigger himself or directly ordered an execution, though he did order many deportations, even after his immediate superior had ordered that they cease, knowing full well that most of those deported would be killed. She also wants to be realistic about the guilt of those who helped the Nazis either through active cooperation (e.g., Jewish leaders who worked with the Nazis to provide them with information on the Jews in the area and their property, before the Final Solution was in evidence) or through inaction, and describes countries like Denmark where the "machine" didn't work because local officials would not cooperate in handing over their Jews, and troops on the ground didn't have the heart to press through such resistance.

The full foursome tries to figure out why we assigned ourselves such depressing holiday reading and whether we in the modern day might be subject to any kind of comparable moral blindness to what was going on in Nazi Germany. How slippery is the slope when you start considering your main social ill the "problem" of immigrants? Does loyalty to a leader commit one to denying obvious truths that the leader denies?

The Partially Examined Life

Go to blog

Hannah Arendt on the Banality of Evil (Part One)

VENUS PELLAGATTI XTRAVAGANZA
ROBERT BROOKS
SAM NORDQUIST
AARON BUSHNELL
ELIJAH MCCLAIN
ANTEO ZAMBONI 
SUMMER TAYLOR
AHMED EREKAT
DOMINIQUE REM'MIE FELLS
SARAH GROSSMAN
JAMES SCURLOCK
DAVID MCATEE
EYAD AL-HALAQ
HECTOR GARCIA MENDOZA
GEORGE FLOYD
BREONNA TAYLOR
VICENTE RAMON GUERRERO
MARCI WISE
JOSEPH ROSENBAUM
ANTHONY HUBER
RIAH MILTON
TONY MCDADE 
EUGUI ROY
AHMAUD ARBERY
ASHLYNN LISBY
OLUWATOYIN SALAU 
VICTORIA SIMS
JOHANNA METZGER
ZEZICO GUAJAJARA
ISABEL CABANILLAS
DAVID GLEN WARD
TONY MCDADE
TIFFANY M. MOFIELD
KENNY RICHIE MARTY "MYLEZ" MITCHELL
NÉHÉMIE JOSEPH
NICOLA SACCO
BARTOLOMEO VANZETTI
ANNA LOPIZZO
ATATIANA KOQUICE JEFFERSON
CARY BALL JR.
ROXANA HERNANDEZ
JAKELIN CAAL MAQUIN
FELIPE ALONZO-GOMEZ
DREASJON "SEAN" REED
MCHALE ROSE
JANA LANGE
WILLIE MCCOY
MARIEE JUAREZ
OSMAR EPIFANIO GONZALEZ-GADBA
JEANCARLO JIMENEZ-JOSEPH
HUY CHI TRAN
KALIEF BROWDER
MI'CHANCE DUNLAP-GITTENS
SERGIO ALONSO LOPEZ
KAMYAR SAMIMI
JOSHUA BROWN
GEMMEL MOORE
TIMOTHY DEAN
SAHAR KHODAYARI
DE'VON BAILEY
TONY TIMPA
MARIA DEL PILAR HURTADO
EMILSEN MANYOMA
MOISÉS MOSQUERA MORENO
TEMISTOCLES MACHADO 
ELEAZAR TEQUÍA VITUCAY
HECTOR WILLIAM MINA
ELIJAH AL-AMIN
NINA POP
JENNIFER LAUDE
LAYLEEN POLANCO
PAMELA TURNER
CHYNAL LINDSEY
JOYCE FIENBERG
RICHARD GOTTFRIED
ROSE MALLINGER 
JERRY RABINOWITZ 
CECIL ROSENTHAL 
DAVID ROSENTHAL 
BERNICE SIMON 
SYLVAN SIMON 
DANIEL STEIN 
MOHAMMED ABU KHUDAIR
MOHAMMAD RAMIZ BAKR
AHED ATEF BAKR
ZAKARIYA AHED BAKR
ISMAIL MAHMOUD BAKR
MELVIN WAX 
TIMOTHY CAUGHMAN
LARNELL BRUCE JR
OSCAR JOSE FIGUERA
EMANTIC “EJ” BRADFORD, JR.
TENIYA JONES 
THURMAN BLEVINS
ALEX NIETO
WALTER LUEBCKE
ARMANDO FRANK
RACHEL ALIENE CORRIE
ANTWON ROSE, JR.
LINUS PHILLIP
DIANTE BUTCHIE YARBER
SAHEED VASSEL
DANA MARTIN
ASHANTI CARMON
CLAIRE LEGATO
RACHEL CORRIE
MUHLAYSIA BOOKER
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN SR.
ADAMA TRAORE
MICHELLE "TAMIKA" WASHINGTON
JAQUARRIUS HOLLAND
DANNY RAY THOMAS
STEPHON CLARK
MARIELLE FRANCO
TOVEET RADCLIFFE
HEATHER HEYER
FRED HAMPTON
LAVENA LYNN JOHNSON
PHILANDO CASTILE
TAMIR RICE
DANROY HENRY
TRAYVON MARTIN
ERIC GARNER
MICHAEL BROWN
WALTER SCOTT
VIOLA LIUZZO
CLAUDIA PATRICIA GOMEZ GONZALEZ
RICKY JOHN BEST
TALIESIN MYRDDIN NAMKAI MECHE
FREDDIE GRAY 
ALTON STERLING
JORDAN EDWARDS
OSCAR RAMIREZ, JR.
LIGE DANIELS
JESSE WASHINGTON
JOSE ANTONIO ELENA RODRIGUEZ
SAM DUBOSE
HENRY SMITH
JOHN HARTFIELD
ELTON MITCHELL
T.A. ALLEN
THOMAS DEVERT
JOE SPINNER JOHNSON
LUTHER HOLBERT
JESSE THORNTON
WILLIAM LITTLE
JEFF BROWN
KEITH BOWEN
GENERAL LEE
THOMAS MILES
GEORGE DORSEY
DOROTHY DORSEY
TARIKA WILSON
DEAUNTA FARROW
SAM HOSE
PATRICK HARMON
SEAN BELL 
ANTHONY LAMAR SMITH
HENRY GLOVER
RONALD MADISON
TIMOTHY STANSBURY
ALBERTA SPRUILL
DEBORAH DANNER
OUSMANE ZONGO
ORLANDO BARLOW
PRINCE JONES
RONALD BEASLEY
EARL MURRAY
PATRICK DORISMOND
MALCOLM FERGUSON
JONATHAN FERRELL
DONTRE HAMILTON
JOHN CRAWFORD III
EZELL FORD
AIYANA JONES
OSCAR GRANT
DANTE PARKER
TANISHA ANDERSON
TYREE WOODSON
VICTOR WHITE III
YVETTE SMITH
MCKENZIE COCHRAN
JORDAN BAKER
ANDY LOPEZ
MIRIAM CAREY
DEION FLUDD
KIMANI GRAY
REYNALDO QUEVAS
SHANTEL DAVIS
TAMON ROBINSON 
SHEREECE FRANCIS
REKIA BOYD 
TROY DAVIS 
AMADOU DIALLO
RAMARLEY GRAHAM
LAQUAN MCDONALD
KENDRICK JOHNSON
LAVENA JOHNSON
MEDGER EVERS
ANDREW GOODMAN 
MICHAEL SCHWERNER 
JAMES CHANEY 
JOHN EARL REESE 
WILLIE EDWARDS JR 
MACK CHARLES PARKER 
MARSH COOK
JOHN BROWN
HERBERT LEE 
ROMAN DUCKSWORTH JR 
WILLIAM LEWIS MOORE 
ADDIE MAE COLLINS 
DENISE MCNAIR 
CAROLE ROBERTSON 
CYNTHIA WESLEY 
VIRGIL WARE 
HENRY HEZEKIAH DEE 
CHARLES MOORE 
LEMUEL PENN 
JIMMIE LEE JACKSON 
JAMES REEB 
ONEAL MOORE 
WILLIE BREWSTER
JONATHAN DANIELS 
VERNON DAHMER 
BEN CHESTER WHITE 
WHARLEST JACKSON
BENJAMIN BROWN 
SAMUEL HAMMOND JR 
DELANO MIDDLETON 
HENRY EZEKIAL SMITH 
NAT TURNER 
ANDY BURKE 
JOHNSON WHITTAKER 
ROBERT ROBINSON 
FRED ALEXANDER 
ROBERT TRUETT
L.B. REED 
CLINTON BRIGGS 
FRANK LIVINGSTON 
BUD JOHNSON 
LUCIUS MCCARTY 
POWELL GREEN 
EARNEST MCGOWAN 
LEE SNELL 
PRECIOUS GRANT 
HUGH JOHNSON
J.C. FARMER 
EUGENE BELLS 
TIMOTHY HOOD 
JAMES STEPHENSON 
ALONZA BROOKS 
DEJUAN GUILLORY 
ROCRAST MACK JR. 
JUSTIN THOMPSON 
DARRIUS STEWART

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion.