The Banality of Evil

Abstract

The book "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" was written by Hannah Arendt and published in 1963 [1,2]. Arendt, a political philosopher who was persecuted by the Nazi regime, had followed the Eichmann trial for war crimes and highlighted how this brutal criminal was an absolutely "normal" person in everyday and family life, in contrast and asymmetry to the ruthlessness that he practiced in his "work". Is it possible, asked Arendt, that apparently normal individuals, judged as such by expert psychiatrists, can in particular circumstances become heinous criminals without the slightest sense of guilt? How widespread could this anomaly of the human soul potentially be? Arendt argued that such circumstances might occur when there are no roots, no memory of past mistakes, no reverting to one’s own thoughts and actions, in short, a lack of inner dialogue. "Gnotzi seauton" (know thyself) was the highest exhortation engraved on the front of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. You need to know your own mind to understand the world and the people around you, claimed Plato [3,4]. However, it seems that this propensity has been lost in our time, leading to everyone being less independent in making choices in life, devoid of critical thinking skills and imagination but influenced by an invasive and ratifying cultural model that turns the masses into a sort of "plankton" at the mercy of the waves and the wind, unable to look within.