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Everyone who even vaguely cares about psychology should read Eichmann in Jerusaelm from her.

hiatus 2y ago
Could you elaborate on your recommendation?
lukeasrodgers 2y ago
I believe the consensus now is that her analysis of Eichmann was wrong, he had fooled her (and others). Personally I still think the concept of the “banality of evil” overall still has merit.
- nonrandomstring 2y ago
  The non-appearance of "monstrous psychopaths" is only part of it. I don't know much about Eichmann but there's a rather good treatment of the Nuremberg trials in the Adam Curtis documentary The Living Dead [0], in which Hermann Göring is shown as setting a tone that later resurfaces with Eichmann and in the Truth and Reconciliation hearings of post-apartheid South Africa and many other trials of atrocities and war crimes - namely an intransigent adherence to the defence that "everything was done legally". I don't think any culture has fully digested the implications or had the courage to approach the questions Nuremberg and subsequent trials posed 80 years ago; where does the law run out? When does it become not just okay but morally necessary to defect/rebel/rise-up against your own side, and its so-called "laws" when it's become degenerate and run by criminals ? In this way I don't think the difficult issue is that evil is banal (as in C. R. Browning's "Ordinary Men" [2]) but that it's "everyday, procedural and institutionally backed". It's defended by social organisations held dear, right up until a point of collapse and pivot of history when those institutions themselves become seen as evil. Eichmann and Göring went beyond "Kadavergehorsam" [1] and were indignant that anyone dare judge them. Göring tried to school the judges in moral philosophy. I don't think anyone is comfortable revisiting this topic, especially as it's still relevant and playing out today in at least two theatres of war. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Dead_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Dead_(TV_series) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpse-like_obedience https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpse-like_obedience [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_R._Browning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_R._Browning
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

Could you elaborate on your recommendation?

I believe the consensus now is that her analysis of Eichmann was wrong, he had fooled her (and others). Personally I still think the concept of the “banality of evil” overall still has merit.

nonrandomstring 2y ago
The non-appearance of "monstrous psychopaths" is only part of it. I don't know much about Eichmann but there's a rather good treatment of the Nuremberg trials in the Adam Curtis documentary The Living Dead [0], in which Hermann Göring is shown as setting a tone that later resurfaces with Eichmann and in the Truth and Reconciliation hearings of post-apartheid South Africa and many other trials of atrocities and war crimes - namely an intransigent adherence to the defence that "everything was done legally". I don't think any culture has fully digested the implications or had the courage to approach the questions Nuremberg and subsequent trials posed 80 years ago; where does the law run out? When does it become not just okay but morally necessary to defect/rebel/rise-up against your own side, and its so-called "laws" when it's become degenerate and run by criminals ? In this way I don't think the difficult issue is that evil is banal (as in C. R. Browning's "Ordinary Men" [2]) but that it's "everyday, procedural and institutionally backed". It's defended by social organisations held dear, right up until a point of collapse and pivot of history when those institutions themselves become seen as evil. Eichmann and Göring went beyond "Kadavergehorsam" [1] and were indignant that anyone dare judge them. Göring tried to school the judges in moral philosophy. I don't think anyone is comfortable revisiting this topic, especially as it's still relevant and playing out today in at least two theatres of war. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Dead_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Dead_(TV_series) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpse-like_obedience https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpse-like_obedience [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_R._Browning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_R._Browning

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]