“the greatest evil perpetrated is the evil committed by nobodies, that is, by human beings who refuse to be persons” Evil Author:Hannah Arendt
“Good can be radical; evil can never be radical, it can only be extreme, for it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension yet--and this is its horror--it can spread like a fungus over the surface of the earth and lay waste the entire world. Evil comes from a failure to think.” EvilGoodRadicalism Book:Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil Source: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
“Evil in the Third Reich had lost the quality by which most people recognize it—the quality of temptation.” EvilMoralityHolocaust Book:Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil Source: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
“You are quite right, I changed my mind and do no longer speak of “radical evil.” … It is indeed my opinion now that evil is never “radical,” that it is only extreme, and that it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension. It can overgrow and lay waste the whole world precisely because it spreads like a fungus on the surface. It is “thought-defying,” as I said, because thought tries to reach some depth, to go to the roots, and the moment it concerns itself with evil, it is frustrated because there is nothing. That is its “banality.” Only the good has depth that can be radical. (letter to Scholem from December 1964)” EvilDepthBanalShallow Good Author:Hannah Arendt
“For goodness that is beyond virtue, and hence beyond temptation, ignorant of the argumentative reasoning by which man fends off temptations and, by this very process, comes to know the ways, of wickedness, is also incapable of learning the arts of persuading and arguing.” EvilVirtueIgnoranceGoodnessArgumentTemptationPersuasionWickednessNaivete Book:On Revolution Source: On Revolution
“The greater the bureaucratization of public life, the greater will be the attraction of violence. In a fully developed bureaucracy there is nobody left with whom one could argue, to whom one could present grievances, on whom the pressures of power could be exerted. Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless we have a tyranny without a tyrant.” GovernmentEvilFreedomLibertyLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyBureaucracyTaxationTheftStateStatismVoluntaryismTotalitarianMinarchy Author:Hannah Arendt