"Hannah Arendt" should not be a popular movie with Chinese audiences. There were no beauties, no guns, no special effects, no humour, no visual stimulation, and nothing good-sounding and entertaining during the long screen time. . . . .
The first minute of the movie is a kidnapping case, which seems to be a bit interesting. However, it soon turned to the contemplation of the protagonist Hannah alone. Then there are two older women gossiping about men, and most of the episodes after that are also chatting conversations. After Hannah went to Israel to attend the trial of former high-ranking Nazi officials Eichmann, she wrote an article that offended many people, including a good friend with whom she had a pleasant chat, and finally responded to the accusations with a public speech. The movie is almost over here.
Without knowing Hannah's academic background, the film would have little to do with us. However, the domain of Hannah's academic research is political philosophy. In China, even talking about politics is strictly restricted by visible hands. How many people are interested in political philosophy?
The film mainly shows the process of Hannah coming up with the concept of "banal evil". In 1961, Hannah attended the trial of Eichmann, a former high-ranking Nazi official, as a reporter for The New Yorker. Among them, she carefully observed the devil in the mouth of the Jews, Eichmann. She found that he was just a very mediocre person, not the perverted and inhuman murderer in the legend.
How could a mediocre person commit such a heinous crime? That's what Hannah wants to study. She coined the term "the banality of evil". The so-called "banality of evil" refers to the evil committed by a person without evil motives who gave up his right to think and completely obeyed the dictatorship under totalitarian rule.
"The Evil of Banality" is the result of further research on totalitarian society after Hannah's famous book The Origin of Totalitarianism. The rise of fascism in Europe was not accidental, and Hitler was not alone. In the cause of the slaughter of Jews, he had a large number of fools like Eichmann to follow him.
A person who does not care about the society or others, and who is indifferent and ruthless, only cares about himself climbing up. In normal times, we can only say that he is a very mediocre person at best. But once such a person is put into a morally corrupt environment and let him participate in sin, he may not refuse. If he is given a high official and even a small favor, he is likely to be rejected. Be active. Why? Because people who don't care about society like this are mostly people who don't want to think about social issues. When he gives up thinking, he gives up judgment on the right and wrong of his actions. Although he himself is not a demon and has no evil brain, he still does evil things. Eichmann worked diligently in his office. He knew that he was sending Jews to the crematorium, but he thought that was what his superiors asked him to do. Right or wrong is the superior's business.
In a totalitarian autocratic society, including truth and morality, everything is distorted, and only one voice, one political party, one doctrine, and one leader are allowed to exist. All are asked to rally around XXX to win one XXX victory after another. Everyone is insignificant, without personal dignity, and can only be an inconspicuous screw in this system. Autocracy needs obedient and submissive slaves, and hates healthy people with their own brains. Personal thinking is a crime, and personal conscience can only be a luxury.
Hannah's "evil of banality" is of course not just a reference to Eichmann alone, nor to the Germans of the day. It also points to the moral depravity of the entire European society at the time, including the victims, the Jews. So the scope of "banal evil" is expanded outwards. Not only those who helped Hitler massacre the Jews were guilty of "banal evil", but the idea of tolerating, turning a blind eye to, and not resisting evil was also a "banal evil" in a broad sense. For example, CG beat the hawker with blood on the street. Of course, CG thinks that he is very at ease, because that is what the superior leaders want them to do. This is the "evil of mediocrity". The indifferent onlookers watching the fun and watching jokes and being indifferent, thinking that it has nothing to do with themselves, this is also a "banal evil".
Hannah believes that the best way to combat the "evil of banality" is to keep thinking. Thinking can keep one's strength and avoid man-made catastrophic consequences in society. In a democratic society, freedom of speech is allowed, independent thinking is allowed, and various ideological theories contend, forming an atmosphere of common thinking among the public. At the same time, the operating mechanism of democracy can harmonize all kinds of contradictions in society, and dissatisfaction can be effectively resolved. In this way, it is difficult for extremism to stir up storms, social morality is not easy to degenerate, and "banal evil" has no chance to do evil.
Hannah's point of view of "the banality of evil" is the real society, the purpose is to prevent the tragedy from repeating, it has a warning effect on the real politics, and it is studied as a political philosophy. But her view of Eichmann was different from that of the Jewish mainstream. At the same time, she truthfully reported the truth that Jewish leaders assisted in the fascist slaughter of Jews, offending many of her friends. A former close friend of hers asked her heartbrokenly when she was seriously ill, "Don't you love your people?", she (a Jew who was also persecuted by the Nazis) replied, "I only love the friends I know." Her best friend didn't forgive Hannah until she died, and Hannah didn't give up her thinking because of "loving Jews" in the end. Today, "the banality of evil" has become a treasure in the history of human thought.
Two words that have something to do with China are "universal values" and "public intellectuals". Adhering to conscience, caring for the society, and independent thinking, such intellectuals should be what our society needs most.
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