The Banality Of Evil
(Arendt,Hannah)
An interesting piece by the German philosopher published in New York in 1963, is an account of the legal trial of the Fascist party official, Karl Aldof Euichmann held in Jerusalem, who was successively executed in 1962 for crimes against humanity. It is interesting to note the parallel paths the writer took with regards to the personal life of this man and the historical and cultural reconstruction of the diffusion of Hitler?s, Nazi Germany. Arendt ponders over the piles of cultural, philosophical, pseudo-scientific and irrational reasons that caused Anti-Semitism to take root and how the ideas of Hitler?s insane mind, resulted in mass deportation and a ?final solution?. Alongside this scrutiny of history, the author confronts this occurrence with Eichmann?s personality. In realty, you would expect to find hidden and mysterious qualities of Evil within this man. You would also expect to find oneself before a negative genius, a diabolic person, paradoxicallyfascinated by his scientific wickedness in carrying out his crimes. You will find none of this. Eichmann appears as a grey, worn out man with the aspect of a bureaucrat or a zealous accountant. In reconstructing his personality, Arendt underlines how even Eichmann considered himself to be a man with no character whatsoever, a hanger-on who was only able to realise himself by signing up with the national socialist party in 1932. He admitted that after the fall of the regime, he felt lost and disorientated because he no longer had a leader to look up to or orders to obey. He justified his crimes towards humanity with the ?moral principal? that he was obliged by a sense of duty to obey the orders of his superiors and that it would have been not only impossible to disobey them, but also immoral. In short, the Devil not always appears as we imagine him to be. It is not necessarily an exceptional or extra-ordinary person or the enticing Tempter of a thousand flattering words that can do evil, it might just be the unsuspected man next door.
Resumos Relacionados
- Biography Of Adolf Hitler (read It)
- La Banalità Del Male
- Hitler
- A Solução Final
- Beyond Good And Evil
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