Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Hannah Arrendt & the Banality of Evil

So - in my effort to make sense of what is going on in the world today (and perhaps always), I have been re-reading the works of Hannah Arrendt. Today I found this hour long interview with her, which totally engaged me. Arrendt also spoke strongly to Merton, though he never directly corresponded with her.

Last week there was an article in the NYT ("A Voice of Hate in America's Heartland") about a very "normal" young man who identified with white supremacy. The article and the outcry following it reminded me of the backlash Arrendt's article, "Eichmann in Jerusalem", got when it appeared in the New Yorker in 1963.

I may have to drag this out some to understand it better.

"Writing is an essential part of understanding." - Hannah Arrendt


[Have decided to use louie as a place to keep track of things, rather than as a "blog" per se. Hence my "dragging things out". It is a sort of public journal where I can easily find things later that I thought I had lost. Follow at your own risk.]

2 comments:

  1. Hi Beth, John Ennis here. Just in case you are not aware, Bard College (where Arendt and her husband are buried) houses the Hannah Arendt Center and offers members the opportunity to participate in monthly (sometimes weekly) readings and online group discussions of Arendt's work. http://hac.bard.edu

    j

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    1. Thanks, John. I'll take a look. I like watching Hannah Arrendt. There is something in her person that resonates with what she is writing. As if she personifies the truth that she writes about. It is more than just words, it is lived.

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