OT on Arendt/banality of evil

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 11652

> One started with Hannah Arendt and concerns "the banality of evil." 
> According to this view, those who committed the crimes were cogs in 
a 
> bureaucracy, and were too brainwashed or too dedicated to their jobs 
and 
> country fully to realize how evil the bureaucracy's ends were.
> 

This may indeed be a prominent view, but if it is said to have been 
held by Arendt herself (I'm not sure if that's what you are saying) I 
humbly differ.  Arendt did not describe Eichmann as unaware of the 
evil of the ends he made possible.  Quite the contrary--she showed 
that he did know it (he helped PLAN the "final solution," after 
all--he was very high up in Nazi leadership) and yet managed to sqaure 
it, in his own mind, with being a moral person.  Her book on Eichmann 
was extremely controversial because people thought she was excusing 
Eichmann and his ilk or somehow portraying them as less culpable.  
Nothing could be further from the truth IMO.  

I feel strongly about this because I think Arendt explored the realm 
we all need to look at most--what makes respectable, by all accounts 
pleasant and upstanding, people not only look the other way during 
slaughters such as Hitler's, but become enthusiastic participants?  
What makes us surrender our will and our morality when there is no 
Imperius Curse in our world?

Anyway, thanks for the thread!
Amy Z