Hannah Arendts Theory The Banal Evil - 1492 Words

Good people can cause severe harm if their motives are influenced by the values shared in a public corporation or are a result of manipulation controlled by the law. Bob Henderson’s ability to satisfy his interests to obtain success by dismissing social responsibility and contributing to the rise in obesity is wrong. Hannah Arendt founded the theory â€Å"The banality evil’ through analyzing Adolf Eichmann’s case during the time of the Holocaust. Eichmann and Henderson share similarities of both being ordinary men who influenced large scale harm. The intent of this essay will be to compare and contrast the perception of evil and discuss at which point radical evil may be mistaken for banal evil. Hannah Arendt discovered a concept known as â€Å"The†¦show more content†¦Hitler cultivated his own army to destroy selective demographics, he wanted to create a world where his concept of ideal was the only one that existed. As a dictator he was able to constitute laws, anyone who chose to disobey these laws would be executed. The laws that are put into place can define success through evil acts. The Holocaust is a direct example; Hitler knew he would be able to brainwash human beings to obey his commands contributing to the success of his dehumanizing scheme. Hannah Arendt’s essay suggests she believes that the motives steered by Adolf Eichmann to commit monstrous acts, where â€Å"once banal to all human† ( Arendt, Cp). Eichmann was viewed as a demonic monster for his immoral and corrupted mind. Banal evil shares similarities with Radical evil, such that they can both result in extraordinary evil. Unlike radical evil, banal evil can be committed by ordinary people. Eichmann lacked the ability to reflect and he seemed to think in terms of clichà ©s as his goal was to follow Hitler’s orders to undo God’s creation and complete his job successfully and efficiently. Arendt argues that Eichmann was thoughtless and that possessing the trait of thoughtlessness contributes to evilShow MoreRelatedBanality of Evil and Adolf Eichmann Essay1028 Words   |  5 PagesIt was as though in those last minutes he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us--the lesson of the fearsome, the w ord-and-thought-defying banality of evil (252). The capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann, which evoked legal and moral controversy across all nations, ended in his hanging over four decades ago. The verdict dealing with Eichmanns involvement with the Final Solution has never been in question; this aspect was an open-and-shut case whichRead MoreThe Banality Of Evil By Arendt Staub And Hannah Arendt1036 Words   |  5 Pagespeople like Ervin Staub and Hannah Arendt have shared their different views on the idea of evil. Staub and Arendt both have very different ideas and concepts. Arendt’s concept, â€Å"the banality of evil† is a very controversial explanation, while Staub’s goes into more depth and his arguments on evil are more powerful. The causes of evil are accessible; not ultimately mysterious and we now can predict genocide. Both people share their explanations of National Socialist evil. According to Staub who wroteRead MoreThe Diary Of Anne Frank2206 Words   |  9 PagesAnne Frank and Hannah Arendt are two prominent female names that arise when one thinks of the Holocaust. Each of these Jewish woman had a very unique experience during this grim time, one a bright-eyed, young girl who was forced to go into hiding, the other a philosopher that managed to escape. However each pondered the workings of the brutality going on around her, and put it into words. Frank and Arendt each discuss their views on human nature in the face of the Holocaust in their works. In thisRead MoreThe Traditional and Modern Theories of Theodicy: An Analysis2725 Words   |  11 Pagesï » ¿The role of art, when delving into human suffering and matters of good and evil, ought to be that of a delivering agent, designed to extract a form of universal truth from the very consciousness of the observer, and act as mirror for humanitys dual reality. The present paper aims to analyze the tradition al and modern theories of theodicy in relation to literature, insofar as literary works such as Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita or Fyodor Dostoyevskys The Brothers Karamazov owe their widely acknowledgedRead MoreWhy Not Everyone Is A Torturer By Oliver Behrensdorff Essay1192 Words   |  5 Pagesoutcomes, which were subsequently endorsed by the two psychologists. Nearly everyone has the capacity to commit acts of evil, given the right conditions, but what keeps a minority of people in check even under extremely stressful circumstances is their learned sense of morality and ability to distinguish right from wrong. People dissociate themselves from perpetrators of evil acts due to the claim that those perpetrators are monsters with disturbed minds. One of the main statements in the article