I think the word “evil” implies a lot of cartoon and comic book bizarre identifiers and personality, even up to the Nazis and Hitler who were also bombastic and absurd in their embrace of murder and destruction.
That soldier trying to normalize his brutality and aid in cruel occupation is evil. Evil is a person like Eichmann, who fled to Argentina, to lead a mediocre existence there. Evil is a bureaucrat for the Nazis just shuffling papers making sure munitions, food, materiel, and paychecks were being sent to the Wehrmacht.
Arendt’s Banality of Evil’s thesis - that Evil can not flourish without these mundane, career-driven, simple-minded “go with the flow” moral cowards and cretins - has really come to light once more in the past month.
I think the word “evil” implies a lot of cartoon and comic book bizarre identifiers and personality, even up to the Nazis and Hitler who were also bombastic and absurd in their embrace of murder and destruction.
That soldier trying to normalize his brutality and aid in cruel occupation is evil. Evil is a person like Eichmann, who fled to Argentina, to lead a mediocre existence there. Evil is a bureaucrat for the Nazis just shuffling papers making sure munitions, food, materiel, and paychecks were being sent to the Wehrmacht.
Arendt’s Banality of Evil’s thesis - that Evil can not flourish without these mundane, career-driven, simple-minded “go with the flow” moral cowards and cretins - has really come to light once more in the past month.