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silly goose
@lovejoy
Hannah Arendt's "The Banality of Evil: Eichmann in Jerusalem" examines the trial of Adolf Eichmann, an SS official who orchestrated the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." Arendt's central thesis, the concept of the "banality of evil", suggests that Eichmann was not the monstrous figure which is expected of someone who organized mass extermination. Rather, she portrays him as exceedingly normal — «merely» performing his duties, motivated by career rather than by criminal intent / mental illness / anti-Semitism. The book faced criticism for various reasons, yet, regardless of the historical accuracy — it definitely urges one to think of the reasons behind their actions and the consequences of “I just have to work to meet my KPIs”. Would recommended for those interested in delving deeper into the Holocaust narrative. It describes the bureaucratic mechanisms of the Jewish genocide and its reception in different countries, explores the characteristics of the post-war judicial system.
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Urania
@urania
I haven’t read the book, but have spent my life studying human nature and why people do what they do. Esoteric wisdom has taught me to recognize the duality and contrasts of life. For a long time I believed that the opposite quality to love was indifference because it was so strikingly cut off from any emotion. But that wasn’t the case. Love and hate are actually opposite. They are opposite expressions of the same source. That source is the heart. Indifference does not live in the heart. And evil stems from the state of indifference. You cannot appeal to someone who believes it’s perfectly reasonable to destroy a life and has all the data to prove why. They might believe the lives they are destroying are somehow less human or that the action serves a “greater good”. They might even tell you the decision burdens them, but that they’re “specially qualified” to make this choice. Indifference is intelligent and logical and lives inside the head and is some form of mental imbalance. 1/2
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